Google Gemini’s FREE Upgrades Are CRAZY: 5 New Google Labs Tools That Change How You Work

Google just dropped a wave of powerful, free upgrades inside Google Labs that rewrite how you interact with search, documents, email, and creative workflows. These changes are built around Google Gemini and include experimental tools that turn chaotic tab piles into a single generative workspace, create personalized morning briefings, let you build sharable AI apps, and supercharge research and content production.

This guide walks through each upgrade, explains when to use which Gemini model, and gives practical workflows you can start using right away. If you want to get more done with less friction, these features are worth experimenting with today.

Table of Contents

• Quick overview: the five major Google Labs upgrades
• 1. Disco: turn your tab mess into a generative workspace
• 2. CC: your AI morning briefing that knows your inbox and calendar
• 3. Gems: build AI apps and automated workflows inside Gemini
• 4. NotebookLM: stronger research, slide decks, and infographics
• 5. Gemini 3 Flash: pick the right model for the job
• Practical workflows that combine these tools
• Tips and best practices
• Suggested images and media
• Frequently asked questions
• Closing thoughts and next steps

Quick overview: the five major Google Labs upgrades

• Disco — a generative “new tab” that combines open browser tabs and Google content into an interactive, custom web page.
• CC — a personal productivity agent that connects Gmail, Calendar, and Drive to send a daily briefing tailored to what matters to you.
• Gems as AI apps — a redesigned gems system to build, remix, and share AI apps and automated workflows inside Gemini.
• NotebookLM improvements — expanded source uploads, deeper research modes, slideshow and infographic generation, and better chat configuration.
• Gemini 3 Flash models — new model selector with Fast, Thinking, and Pro tiers to choose the right capability for the task.

1. Disco: turn your tab mess into a generative workspace

Disco is a brand new way to think about browsing. Instead of switching between tabs, Disco can read the content you have open and synthesize a single generative tab that combines dates, maps, activities, restaurant recommendations, photos, and interactive tools relevant to your task.

How it works in practice: open a handful of tabs related to a project — booking hotels, researching attractions, reading blog posts — then open a Disco generative tab. Disco analyzes the context and builds a custom web-style output: an itinerary with dates, a map, suggested stops, and editable recommendations. It feels like an assistant rebuilt the best parts of your open tabs into one polished plan.

Why Disco matters

• Reduces context switching by consolidating fragmented research into a single, interactive page.
• Creates outputs you can quickly edit — add restaurants, change dates, or plug in extra constraints.
• Useful for planning trips, lesson plans, product comparisons, or any multi-tab workflow that needs synthesis.

Use cases

• Travel planning: combine hotel search, restaurant pages, and activity lists into one itinerary.
• Product research: gather specs, reviews, and price comparisons into a side-by-side summary.
• Lesson creation: assemble articles, videos, and diagrams into a single interactive learning page.

Note that Disco is rolling out via a waitlist. Sign up, try it on real tasks, and refine how you organize tabs so Disco has meaningful context to synthesize.

2. CC: your AI morning briefing that knows your inbox and calendar

CC is a productivity agent that connects to Gmail, Calendar, and Drive to send a personalized “day ahead” briefing. It highlights what’s top of mind, what’s on your calendar, relevant FYIs, and anything you should prep for.

This kind of briefing is a huge productivity multiplier if you let it filter the noise. You can customize it to only surface emails or projects you care about, and to present information in a concise format you’ll actually read before starting the day.

Practical examples

• For executives: a single daily digest with top priorities, urgent emails, and prep notes for meetings.
• For salespeople: highlight inbound lead activity, scheduled calls, and follow-up reminders.
• For makers: summarize code review requests, product feedback, and scheduled deployments.

Privacy and configuration tips

• Review permissions: CC needs access to Gmail, Calendar, and Drive to work. Limit scopes when possible.
• Fine-tune filters: prioritize senders, labels, or project folders so the briefing surfaces only relevant items.
• Use it as a habit: make the morning briefing the one source for daily priorities to reduce inbox anxiety.

3. Gems: build AI apps and automated workflows inside Gemini

Gems used to be prompt shortcuts. Now they can be full AI apps you can remix, share, and run. You can pick from templates Google provides, import gems from Opal, or build new ones from scratch by describing the workflow you want to automate.

Two ways to get started: pick a prebuilt gem like a marketing video generator or calendar assistant, or click new gem and describe a workflow such as “analyze a meeting transcript and draft an email with key takeaways.” Gemini then scaffolds the app with step-by-step prompts and makes it runnable inside the chat UI.

Example: remixing a marketing gem

• Start with a “create AI video ads” gem.
• Click Remix and modify the target audience and product details for your brand.
• Enter product name and audience (for example, “Ice Cream Shorts” for kids who play baseball).
• Gemini researches the product, generates ad text, creates a video description, and outputs a short video ad.

In the demo, a complete eight-second ad was generated from a few inputs. That level of automation can rapidly prototype creative assets for campaigns.

Why gems-as-apps are powerful

• They turn repeatable processes into one-click automations.
• Remixing allows teams to adapt templates quickly without coding.
• Sharing makes it simple to distribute best-practice automations across an organization.

Tips for building gems

• Break workflows into discrete steps and validate each step before chaining them.
• Include guardrails or output formats (for example, HTML email or CSV) so downstream systems can consume results reliably.
• Use test inputs to simulate edge cases such as missing data or ambiguous prompts.

4. NotebookLM: stronger research, slide decks, and infographics

NotebookLM just got a serious upgrade for creators and researchers. You can now upload files, websites, YouTube videos, and Drive content, then choose between fast research or deep research. Deep research returns broader and more detailed results while fast research is concise.

New features include:

• Upload multiple source types: text, PDFs, YouTube videos, and Drive files.
• Convert notes into sources: save curated notes and then promote those notes into primary sources for later compilations.
• Generate slide decks, infographics, audio overviews, or video overviews from selected sources.
• Configure chat persona and response length to match audience level from beginner to PhD.

Slide decks from a single video

One of the most impressive workflows: upload one YouTube video and ask NotebookLM to create a presentation. You can choose length, language, and the presentation style (detailed vs short). The result is a ready-made slide deck complete with images, summarized text, and a structured flow. For knowledge workers and trainers this removes a huge chunk of prep time.

Infographics and source hygiene

When creating infographics, audio summaries, or video overviews, fewer high-quality sources produce better, consistent outputs. If you need to combine many sources, convert cleaned-up notes into a single source inside NotebookLM so the system treats it as the authoritative reference.

Chat configuration and history

You can set the chat assistant’s expertise level, response length, and whether the chat history is saved. That gives you control over tone and repeatability while protecting privacy or enabling collaborative workflows.

5. Gemini 3 Flash: pick the right model for the job

Gemini’s model selector now includes three clear tiers: Fast, Thinking, and Pro. Each is tuned for different use cases.

• Fast — Use this for everyday questions, quick summarization, and fast responses. It is the default go-to for most users.
• Thinking — Use this for complex analysis, deep document review, and tasks that require more reasoning or higher-fidelity outputs.
• Pro — Use this for advanced code generation, mathematics, and high-precision technical tasks.

Model choice also affects image and video generation. For example, enabling Thinking lets you access higher-tier image models like NanoBanana Pro and higher-quality video models. If you leave Fast on, image or video creation may default to faster but lower-fidelity models such as VO 3.1 fast.

When to switch models

• Start with Fast for casual research and day-to-day queries.
• Switch to Thinking for document analysis, business strategy questions, or when you need better reasoning.
• Switch to Pro for code-heavy prompts, complex math, or when you require precise algorithmic outputs.

Practical workflows that combine these tools

Below are real-world workflows that combine multiple Google Labs features for faster, higher-quality results.

Workflow 1: Complete trip planner

1. Open tabs for flights, hotels, attractions, and restaurant ideas.
2. Open Disco to synthesize all tabs into a single itinerary page. Edit dates and recommendations inline.
3. Save the itinerary to NotebookLM as a source for later edits or to generate a printable itinerary as a PDF or slide deck.
4. Use CC to send a morning briefing with the day’s travel details and reminders to check in 24 hours before departure.

Workflow 2: Marketing campaign from idea to ad

1. Create a gem from a “video ad generator” template and remix it for your product and audience.
2. Let the gem draft ad copy, generate short video content, and output campaign assets.
3. Upload competitor research and creative briefs to NotebookLM for deeper analysis and to create an infographic of messaging pillars.
4. Use CC to notify the team with the campaign launch checklist on the scheduled date.

Workflow 3: Meeting to action items

1. Record or upload a meeting transcript to a gem that analyzes transcripts and drafts a summary email.
2. Run the gem to extract decisions, owners, and deadlines, and output an HTML email for quick distribution.
3. Save the summary to NotebookLM and use deep research mode to surface related documents or past decisions.

Tips and best practices

• Limit your sources when generating infographics or slides to keep outputs consistent. Convert curated notes into a single source when needed.
• Iterate your gems by testing small inputs first, then expand to more complex or bulk workflows.
• Choose the right model for the task: Fast for casual, Thinking for analysis, Pro for code and math.
• Guard data access by reviewing the permissions you grant to CC and any tool that connects to Gmail, Calendar, or Drive.
• Document outputs by saving versions of generated assets so you can audit and revert changes if the automation produces unexpected results.
• Use structured output formats like JSON, CSV, or HTML when you expect to feed generated content into other systems.

Suggested images and media

• Screenshot of Disco-generated itinerary (alt text: “Disco generative tab combining open travel tabs into itinerary”).
• Example CC morning briefing email (alt text: “Personalized daily briefing from CC showing calendar and top priorities”).
• Before-and-after slide deck generated from a single video in NotebookLM (alt text: “Slide deck created automatically from a YouTube video by NotebookLM”).
• Gem remix workflow illustrating steps and outputs (alt text: “Remixing a gem to create a targeted ad workflow”).

Frequently asked questions

Closing thoughts and next steps

These Google Labs upgrades show a clear shift toward integrating generative AI into everyday workflows. Disco consolidates context across tabs, CC reduces morning scramble, gems become sharable AI apps, NotebookLM improves research-to-deliverable pipelines, and the new model selector lets you pick the right performance tier for each task.

If you manage knowledge, run campaigns, or spend time stitching together research and creative outputs, spending time testing these tools is worth the investment. Start small: convert one repeatable task into a gem, create a single Disco itinerary, or generate a slide deck from a key source. Then scale what works.

Meta description: Explore Google Gemini’s five free Google Labs upgrades — Disco, CC, Gems apps, NotebookLM improvements, and Gemini 3 Flash models — and learn workflows, tips, and model selection advice to boost productivity.

Tags: Google Gemini, Google Labs, Disco, NotebookLM, Gems, Gemini 3 Flash, NanoBanana Pro, productivity, AI tools