Google Renames NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook and Adds Code-Running Features
The AI note-taking app gets a new name and new powers, including the ability to write and run code in a secure cloud environment.
Key points
- Google announced on 17 July 2026 that NotebookLM is being renamed Gemini Notebook.
- The app will remain standalone but will connect more deeply with Google Search's AI Mode.
- A new feature lets the app write and run code inside a secure cloud computer.
- Code execution is available now for Google AI Ultra and Workspace business subscribers, with Pro users on the web to follow in coming weeks.
Google's AI note-taking app has a new name. The company announced this week that NotebookLM, its tool for summarising and organising documents and notes using artificial intelligence, is now called Gemini Notebook. It will stay a separate app, but Google is weaving it more tightly into its wider Gemini ecosystem and into Google Search.
The app has been around in various forms since Google teased it as "Project Tailwind" in May 2023. Since then it has grown well beyond basic note-taking. Users can already turn their notes into AI-generated podcast episodes, narrated slideshows, and short vertical videos in a style similar to TikTok clips. More recently, Google added a link between the notebooks and the Gemini app, its general-purpose AI assistant.
Next up: notebooks inside AI Mode, Google's conversational, chatbot-style layer built into Search. That integration is coming but Google has not given a firm date.
What does the new code feature actually do?
The most practically interesting change is not the name. Google is now letting Gemini Notebook connect to a secure cloud computer, a remote machine Google controls, so the app can write small programs and run them on the spot. Think of it as giving the notebook a calculator that can handle complex maths, data sorting, or file conversions automatically, rather than just describing how those things work.
The Verge AI first reported the feature, which Google had previewed last month. It is live now for Google AI Ultra subscribers, the company's top-tier paid plan, and for businesses using Google Workspace. Users on the mid-tier Pro plan will get access through the web interface over the coming weeks.
For most people, the practical effect is straightforward. If you paste a spreadsheet of sales figures into your notebook, the app can now analyse the numbers and produce a result, not just a summary of what the numbers look like.
The rebrand itself signals something bigger. Google built Gemini as the name customers will see across all its AI products, from its chatbot to its phone features to, now, its notebook. Keeping Gemini Notebook as a standalone app while connecting it to Search and the Gemini assistant suggests Google wants a single AI layer underneath everything, without forcing users into one single interface.
If you use NotebookLM today, nothing changes yet on your end. Your notes stay where they are. Watch for a name change in the app header and, if you are a Pro subscriber, a prompt in the coming weeks offering the new code feature.
