Four Missing Features That Would Make NotebookLM Even Better
NotebookLM has quietly become one of Google's most impressive AI-powered note-taking apps, now running on Gemini 2.0 under the hood. What started as a modest research experiment exploded in popularity when Google rolled out AI-generated podcasts—called Audio Overviews—that summarize your uploaded documents. Then came Interactive Mode, letting you ask the podcast hosts questions about the material. Most recently, Mind Maps arrived to help visualize connections between ideas. The momentum is real, and Google's clearly pushing hard to make this the next go-to productivity tool. But for those of us using it every day since the early days, there are still some glaring gaps.
The NotebookLM team deserves credit for moving fast. Yet there are four features that would genuinely transform how we use this tool—and honestly, should've shipped already.
4. Better Organization and Folder Support
Here's the thing: every single task in NotebookLM requires a notebook. Whether you're generating an Audio Overview or summarizing a 200-page textbook, everything lives in a notebook. Notebooks function as your primary organizational layer—think of them like folders, except each one exists completely independently. The problem is obvious. Use NotebookLM regularly, and your notebook count spirals into chaos within weeks.
The current organizational system is frankly a mess. There's no way to group notebooks into folders, let alone nested folders. What we really need is the ability to sort notes by creating collections—all notebooks for a specific course bundled together, then course folders grouped by semester. It's basic file management, yet it's completely missing.
3. View Original Documents Inside Your Notebook
Once you create a notebook, the next step is uploading reference materials—PDFs, URLs (including public YouTube videos), Google Slides, Google Docs, or plain pasted text. Most people stick to PDFs and lecture slides (converted from PowerPoint to PDF format since NotebookLM doesn't support .pptx files—another feature people desperately want). The platform accepts these sources, analyzes them, and generates summaries or Audio Overviews.
Here's where it falls apart: lecture slides are packed with diagrams and code snippets that are just as important as the text. But after uploading, you can't view them in their original form inside NotebookLM. Clicking a PDF source only shows extracted text, which is useless when visual elements matter. The real concern is that this forces you to juggle two windows—NotebookLM in one, a separate PDF viewer or iPad in another—just to properly follow along. It's inefficient and breaks your workflow.
2. A Dedicated NotebookLM Application
NotebookLM launched in July 2023—nearly three years ago now. Google ditched the "experimental" label last October and even introduced NotebookLM for Business for professionals and teams. Despite this maturity, it's still web-only. There's no native mobile app, no desktop application—nothing. You're stuck accessing it through your browser, period.
If you rely on an iPad for all your academic work—note-taking, studying, everything—having to open a new browser tab every single time you need NotebookLM is infuriating. And honestly, it's every time. No web app can match the experience of a dedicated application, and Safari on iPad is clunky at the best of times. Making matters worse: browser-only access means NotebookLM is completely dependent on your internet connection. A standalone app would solve all of this, plus deliver the smooth, responsive experience users deserve.
1. Transcripts for Audio Overviews
Plenty of people can't watch anything without captions, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that users want transcripts for NotebookLM's Audio Overviews. What's interesting here is that Google already added the ability to jump into podcasts and ask the hosts questions—but somehow skipped transcripts entirely. That seems backward.
This would be a simple, incredibly useful addition. Transcripts would let you skim content quickly, read along while Audio Overviews play, and hunt down specific details without replaying entire sections. No more scrubbing through hours-long podcasts hunting for that one key point. It's a feature that should've shipped months ago.
Google has genuinely nailed NotebookLM. It's practical, reliable, doesn't hallucinate information, and ranks among the best AI tools available for students and researchers. But it's still clearly in active development. That's actually encouraging—it means these features will probably arrive eventually. The question is: how soon? Hopefully sooner rather than later.
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