The new camera support is available within the NotebookLM app on Android and iOS.
The “Add a Source” button now shows images as an option
NotebookLM has added an in-built camera to its mobile app on Android and iOS. Google's artificial intelligence (AI)-powered learning and research platform has recently been getting several new upgrades, and it appears the company is not done yet. The latest update adds support for the camera within the mobile app, and lets users select images as a source. This means app users can now add handwritten notes, a picture of the teacher's explanation on the whiteboard, and printed documents to the platform and ask the chatbot to summarise them and ask questions about them.
The new feature was first spotted by 9to5Google. So far, the tech giant has not officially announced the feature. Gadgets 360 staff members have also been able to use the new camera button, which indicates that the feature is rolling out globally. Essentially, what users will get is a new floating action button (FAB) when they open the NotebookLM app, which activates the device's camera interface. Users can then upload an image to the app and add it as a source.
Additionally, both the Android and iOS app now also allow users to directly upload images as a source. This was not possible in the previous version of the app. After going to the homepage, users will have to tap on the “Create New” FAB, and select the “Images” option to be redirected to their gallery and select any images they'd like.
Until now, the app supported typed or uploaded text, PDFs, audio, video (if transcribed), websites and document files. With image input, users gain a more flexible way to digitise analogue content, a handwritten lecture note, a printed handout, or a textbook page, and feed it into NotebookLM's AI summarisation, analysis and study tools.
Recently, NotebookLM also added Nano Banana Pro to the platform, allowing users to generate images for the Video Overviews feature. These images are also used by the chatbot while summarising the sources. However, the feature is currently available to users on the Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscription tier.
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