Can your phone now record a meeting and turn it into notes you can ask questions about — how does Gemini Notebook's new audio recorder work?

Google's Gemini Notebook app, formerly NotebookLM, is widely rolling out a built-in audio recorder on Android and iOS. Tap the microphone icon to record a meeting or lecture, and the audio becomes a transcript inside a notebook you can chat with, question, and cite — up to one hour per recording.

You sit through a long lecture or team meeting, take two lines of notes, and by lunch you cannot remember who promised what. Short answer: yes. Google's Gemini Notebook app — the app formerly called NotebookLM — is widely rolling out a built-in audio recorder on Android and iOS, reported October 27 to 29, 2026.

Tap the new microphone icon, record, and the app turns the audio into a transcript inside a notebook that you can chat with and ask questions about, just like any other source.Why it matters: a recording by itself is hard to use — you have to scrub back and forth to find one sentence. Once the audio becomes a searchable source, you can ask what was decided, pull out the key points, and cite the exact part you need, which is why Google is pitching it especially at students capturing lectures and workers capturing meetings or voice notes.Here is how it works, step by step:1. Know which mic tap does what.

On the home screen, the microphone icon sits between the camera icon and the Create New button, and tapping it starts recording and creates a brand-new notebook from it. Inside an existing notebook, tapping the mic in the Sources tab saves the recording into that notebook instead.2. Watch the recording screen.

It shows a waveform and a live timer, with a pause button if you need a break and a checkmark that finishes the recording and uploads it.3. Keep using your phone. Recording keeps going if you switch apps or lock your screen, and each recording can run up to one hour.4.

Wait for processing, then ask questions. When it finishes, chat with the transcript, ask for key points, and cite it like any other source in the notebook.5. No mic icon yet?

Force-stop the app and reopen it — that can nudge the new feature to appear.Pro tip: always get permission before you record a meeting or lecture. Recording rules vary by place and school, and secretly recording people can get you in real trouble, no matter how handy the notes would be.Ad's take: This is the first recorder I would actually use twice, because it does the boring part — turning talk into notes you can search. Just ask first, every single time.