- Gemini ‘Audio Overview’ will read an AI-generated PDF summary to you
- Audio clips, between 2-10 minutes long, are saved in Drive
- Google regularly adds more PDF power via Gemini
Google is making it even easier for you to digest the content of that PDF you’ve been putting off reading with new AI-powered audio summaries.
Rather than simply reading the entire contents of the PDF to you, Gemini will provide conversational, podcast-like audio summaries of long, text-heavy documents, such as contracts.
For now, it’s being rolled out across web versions of the PDF viewer in Google Drive – it’s unclear if this will also make it to the app version.
Google adds new PDF audio overviews
A new ‘Audio Overview’ button appears in the top bar for eligible accounts, prompting the Gemini sidebar to open. The twins must then generate the overview before it can be read via the ‘Play’ button.
As this may take a few minutes, users may receive an email notification when the file is ready. Audio files, generally between two and 10 minutes long, are also stored in a new ‘Audio History’ folder in Google Drive – which can then be accessed on any device, including the app.
“This feature is powered by the same underlying technology as NotebookLM’s popular Audio Overview feature,” Google added.
So far, the feature is not only limited to English summaries, but it can also only digest English-language PDFs.
Google Workspace Business Standard/Plus and Enterprise Standard/Plus get the function on the commercial front. The Google One AI Pro/Ultra plan, AI Ultra for Business, and AI Pro for Education packages will also be audio overviews for PDF files.
More generally, PDFs have clearly been a big area of focus for Google. In August, Gemini gained access to a 1M token context window to decipher even larger PDF files. Just before that in June, Google added overview cards to the Gemini sidebar to display relevant information and suggest next steps.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
