Can NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) take meeting notes?

Not on its own: NotebookLM, renamed Gemini Notebook in July 2026, cannot join or record a Teams, Zoom or Google Meet call, but it can turn a recording or transcript you upload into meeting notes. Uploaded audio is transcribed into text, and since September 2026 the mobile app also has an audio recorder, which Google presents for lectures and quick thoughts rather than meetings. It leaves the meeting side of the job to you: capturing every call, keeping what was shown on screen, and moving action items into your team's tools. The workflow that works is to capture each meeting with a meeting assistant such as Digiotouch AI, then add the notes to a notebook to research across meetings and documents.

Claire runs operations at a 25-person engineering consultancy. Every project's proposal, specs and contracts already live in a NotebookLM notebook, and she asks it questions all day. Client meetings are a different story: they happen on Teams, Zoom and Google Meet, plus site visits, and getting them into the notebook means remembering to record, download and upload each one. The slides clients walk through never make it into the notes, and every action item still has to be retyped into Asana.

Why are teams trying NotebookLM for meeting notes?

Because their research already lives there. NotebookLM is a free Google research assistant that answers questions from the sources you give it, with citations. It accepts PDFs, Word files, Google Docs, web pages, YouTube links and audio files, with up to 50 sources per notebook on the free tier and up to 500,000 words or 200 MB per source, according to Google's help page on sources. Adding meetings to the same notebook looks like the obvious next step.

Two things cause confusion. The first is the name: Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on 16 July 2026, and the product, notebooks and shared links stayed the same. The second is the difference between analysing a meeting and capturing one. A notebook works on what you add to it, while a meeting assistant's job starts before there is anything to add.

Can NotebookLM record or transcribe a meeting?

It can transcribe a recording you upload, but it cannot capture an online meeting. Google's help page lists audio formats including MP3, M4A, WAV and MP4; the audio is transcribed when you import it and saved as a text source, in more than 60 languages.

Since September 2026, the Android and iOS app also has an audio recorder, which Google describes as a way to capture lectures and record your thoughts on the go. The announcement does not mention meetings, speaker labels or recording length, and the feature is rolling out gradually. In Google Meet, notes from Gemini's Take notes for me are saved as Google Docs you can add to a notebook; our guide to whether Gemini does meeting notes covers that route.

How Digiotouch AI handles this: Digiotouch AI starts at capture. The desktop app for Windows and Mac records online meetings from your own device, the iOS and Android apps record in-person meetings, and the web app records a browser tab. Recordings are transcribed in more than 130 languages with speaker identification; the full transcript starts on the Essential plan.

How do you create meeting notes in NotebookLM?

You need a recording or transcript first. After that, it takes a few minutes:

1. Get the source: export the recording or transcript from your meeting tool, or record on your phone.
2. Add it to a notebook: select Add sources and upload the file, or pick the Google Doc from Drive.
3. Ask for notes: for example, "Write meeting notes with decisions, action items with owners and deadlines, and open questions."
4. Save the answer: select Save to note, and use Export to Docs if you need to share it.
5. Repeat for each meeting: add new meetings to the same notebook so you can ask questions across them.

Check the notes against the source before sharing them, because the result depends on the transcript and your prompt. Google's notes help page also points out that edits made in an exported Google Doc do not sync back to the notebook.

How Digiotouch AI handles this: Digiotouch AI writes the structured notes after every meeting without a prompt: a summary, action items with owners, key topics, and on Professional and Enterprise, Outcomes & Open Items. Every section is editable, and you can export the page as PDF or DOCX, both formats a notebook accepts as a source.

Where does NotebookLM fall short for meeting notes?

The analysis is strong; the gaps are everything around it:

• Capture: it cannot record an online call, so every meeting depends on someone remembering to record, download and upload.
• Who said what: Google's help pages do not mention speaker labels for audio sources, so test with your own recording before relying on attribution.
• What was on screen: an upload becomes a text transcript, so slides and shared documents are not part of the source.
• Follow-through: its help pages do not describe sending action items to a task manager or CRM, so they are copied across by hand.
• Data on personal accounts: content is not used to directly train Google's foundation models unless you give feedback, which human reviewers may read; qualifying work and school accounts are excluded from both (Google's privacy page).

How Digiotouch AI handles this: Speaker identification attributes each turn, screen content contributes to the summary on paid plans (a recording without video has none), and action items go straight to Asana, Jira, Trello, ClickUp or monday.com as tasks. It does not train AI models on your meetings, and EU and EEA users' data is stored in the EU by default.

Should you use NotebookLM and a meeting assistant together?

Yes, if you want to research across meetings. A meeting assistant captures, structures and routes each meeting; a notebook answers questions across many sources at once. NotebookLM is the stronger tool for that second job: asking what three client workshops and a proposal say about scope, or turning a project's notes into an Audio Overview for someone who missed the kickoff.

A simple routine: capture and edit the meeting in your meeting assistant, export the notes, and add them to the project notebook next to the proposal, specs and contracts. If you would rather keep meeting notes in Confluence, Notion or SharePoint, our guide to turning meetings into a searchable knowledge base shows the automated version.

How Digiotouch AI handles this: Digiotouch AI's meeting chatbot answers questions about a recorded meeting, with a message allowance that depends on your plan. For questions across many meetings and documents, export the meeting pages as PDF or DOCX and add them to a notebook, or send them to Notion, Confluence or SharePoint.

NotebookLM or a meeting assistant: which does what?

The two tools overlap less than they seem. The last two rows are where NotebookLM is the better choice.

Sources: Gemini Notebook Help, sources; Gemini Notebook Help, notes; Google, September 2026 announcement. Gemini Notebook details checked on 7 October 2026. Digiotouch AI is the vendor of one of the tools compared. Corrections: notes@digiotouch.ai.

Key takeaways

• Analysis, not capture: NotebookLM turns uploaded recordings into notes but cannot join or record calls.
• Same tool, new name: NotebookLM became Gemini Notebook in July 2026; notebooks and links still work.
• Mind the gaps: speaker labels undocumented, screen content lost, action items copied by hand.
• Capture, then analyse: a meeting assistant records and structures each meeting; a notebook researches across them.
• Use a work account for client meetings: Google excludes qualifying work accounts from human review and training.

Next step

Run both halves of the workflow on one meeting this week: record it with Digiotouch AI, check the notes, then export them into the project notebook you already use.

Related reading

• Can ChatGPT take meeting notes?: the same question for ChatGPT, with Record mode and transcript summaries explained.
• Does Gemini do meeting notes?: how Take notes for me works inside Google Meet.
• Turn meetings into a searchable knowledge base automatically: routing every meeting's summary and action items into Confluence, Notion or SharePoint.

Citation index

• Google Workspace Updates (16 July 2026). NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook: workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/07/notebooklm-now-gemini-notebook.html
• Gemini Notebook Help. Add or discover new sources for your notebook: support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/16215270?hl=en
• Gemini Notebook Help. Create & add notes in Gemini Notebook: support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/16262519?hl=en
• Gemini Notebook Help. Privacy and Terms of Use in Gemini Notebook: support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/17004255?hl=en
• Google, The Keyword (15 September 2026). Sharpen your study routine with new Gemini Notebook tools: blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/new-study-tools-september-2026
• Google Workspace Updates (September 2026). New back-to-school features and learning tools available in Gemini Notebook: workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/09/new-back-to-school-features-and-learning-tools-available-in-Gemini-Notebook.html

External sources checked on 7 October 2026. Send corrections to notes@digiotouch.ai.