Google has been taking its app makeovers seriously lately. Ahead of Google I/O 2026, the company rolled out a sweeping redesign of its Workspace icons, giving Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and the rest of the suite a new gradient-based look.
The company framed the refresh as fitting for what it calls the Gemini Era. Now, a major tool is getting more than a new coat of paint and changing its name.
Yet another Google product has been Gemini-fied
Google has announced that NotebookLM is changing its name to Gemini Notebook. NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking tool. It allows you to upload documents, PDFs, articles, links, notes, even YouTube videos, and get quick responses to help you understand things based on specific materials.
The company emphasized that the app remains its own dedicated tool, which is a fear that's justified, given the company's track record of killing or absorbing products.
Today, we’re renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. It remains a standalone product focused on being your premier research tool, but it will now do more across the Google ecosystem, including inside the Gemini app and Google Search.
Google
They also shared that each notebook now gets a secure cloud computer that lets Gemini Notebook write and execute code natively. You may think you're getting an upcoming Googlebook PC. But it just means Gemini Notebook can write and run code in the background to analyze your sources.
NotebookLM has only been able to read your sources and answer in words. If your question involved numbers or data, it would guess based on text, which language models usually get wrong. Now, when a question needs calculation, Gemini Notebook gives you the computed answer instead of an estimate.
The capability is live now for Google AI Ultra users and Workspace business customers with AI Ultra/Expanded Access. AI Ultra Access is the top-tier AI add-on for Workspace and offers the most powerful Gemini AI capabilities. Meanwhile, AI Expanded Access is a step below Ultra but still an elevated tier.
Eventually, the feature will reach all Pro users on the web too. But there's no word on when free users will get it.
NotebookLM will school you in search
Notebooks are coming to Google Search's AI Mode. AI Mode is the conversational search experience where you'll ask a question in natural language and get a direct, AI-generated answer. It appears alongside the All, Images, Videos, and News tabs.
With notebooks integrated into it, a single search could show you what the web says and what your own gathered sources say on a topic in one view.
For example, you've been planning a trip and your notebook already holds the hotel bookings and itineraries you've gathered over weeks, while also searching for travel tips.
Google may show you fresh web results, and in the same answer, fold in what you already saved, so your own plans and the new suggestions appear together. AI Mode itself can now connect to third-party apps and complete real-world actions for you.
The initial lineup is YouTube Music, Canva, and Instacart, and the rollout will start in the US first. It adds to existing features like the Gemini sidebar in Chrome, which already enhances search by letting you pull answers from a page or across your open tabs.
