16 New Notion Updates (in just 16 minutes)

Notion is releasing a lot of updates all the time and unless it's your job like mine to keep track of them 24/7, it's quite easy to miss them. So, in this video, we're going through 16 new

updates over the last weeks that you probably missed. And we're diving right

probably missed. And we're diving right in with the first one, a cool new systemwide people database.

We have been asking for something like this for a while because basically whenever you use notion as a team, you want to have a people or employee directory and having to build this

manually every single time when you could just pull from the member of the workspaces seems a bit of a waste of time. So I'm very excited that we have

time. So I'm very excited that we have some first steps in the direction. Now

you can find the people database uh first by checking whether it's enabled by going to settings and then general.

And if you scroll here down to people, you see people directory enabled. Now

you can then either go through members to find it or you can simply search on your workspace by pressing command P and then looking for people and then you will find this generic people uh entry

here. And this is where you find all the

here. And this is where you find all the members of your workspace. Now this is basically a notion database but generated from the system based on who actually is in your workspace. Here we

see a filtered down version of my company workspace where I'm currently showing my two accounts my main one and then our consulting one and we can see we see get the email we get the name and we get also the membership type. Now we

can't change the membership type from here right we need to go into our workspace settings but we can make any other kind of changes. So we can just like with any other database add any

type of property. We can relate it to other properties and we can uh you know set different filters and views. This is

also linkable elsewhere, right? So you

can create a linked database view anywhere else in your system and pull from people in there. For example,

right, if you link this to an ORC chart database, right? One where you might

database, right? One where you might have your teams, you could relate that to the teams and then on your different team databases show who all works for that team. One of the main ways that we

that team. One of the main ways that we use these people databases with our clients besides the obvious HR part is to store additional automation information here. So for example, if we

information here. So for example, if we use Slack as well with that team, right?

And we usually store the Slack ID to make sure that if something happens in notion, we can ping that person in Slack or if someone wants to create a ticket from Slack in notion, we can auto assign

it to the right person. Lots of really cool advanced use cases. So having this database available anyway is a big step forward. Update number two is a new

forward. Update number two is a new layout option for any cardbased view. So

for board views and galleries here we can now go to our system settings uh database settings then layout and then you see here we have now the option at the bottom to switch our card layout

from the traditional list to a compact layout and the main difference here is that this allows us to wrap properties differently. Let me just show you this,

differently. Let me just show you this, right? Let's uh say we want to show the

right? Let's uh say we want to show the um status. We want to show the I mean

um status. We want to show the I mean status we don't need to show on the board, but we want to show the priority u maybe want to show the uh the area, right? And the owner and currently,

right? And the owner and currently, right, this means they all stack below each other on new lines which can take up quite a lot of space. With the new layout option, we can now say actually

we want this compact. And you see if I click here uh in 1 second it starts to now uh stack horizontally rather than uh vertically which just opens up a lot of

room. Even cooler you can choose which

room. Even cooler you can choose which of these should be displayed that way right. So we might say actually yes for

right. So we might say actually yes for area and priority we want them next to each other but the people that is quite important. Well we can go into the

important. Well we can go into the settings and then uh for every single property uh we can turn on or off how they are displayed right. So we can go here to style properties and then say

actually um I would like you know a certain uh part to be uh in line right?

So for example the owner property I would like that to be in line that should always have a separate place and that should always be uh at the top um of the list uh in these cards giving us

kind of the best of both worlds. Again

this is available both on a board view and also if you switch from board to gallery views meaning you can design these now a lot nicer. Another

visibility update comes in the form of conditional color. As you know, we've

conditional color. As you know, we've had the option now for a while to apply conditional coloring. For example,

conditional coloring. For example, saying, well, everything with a priority high, right? Or based on the priority, I

high, right? Or based on the priority, I would like to apply a certain color to this uh or say and only to, you know, the um ones that have high priority.

Previously, this only worked based on individual um like standard properties.

But now it also works in combination with formulas which is really big because you can sort of create your own preconditions for coloring. For example,

let's say we don't want to highlight every single thing that has high priority. We only want to highlight high

priority. We only want to highlight high priority elements in the next week.

Might be particularly useful if you look at a convent board, right? And want to see the one or two things that really need to happen next week. Well, now we can go in and we can create a formula

for this, right? So let's go here say um formula um you know call this highlight and then say okay we want here in this formula to highlight everything where

two things are true right where the priority uh equals high and where sort of the um the the due date um dot um

week equals the current week right so now do week and with this we get a checkbox and only if both things are true uh will you know the checkbox be

ticked? So let's say we take this due

ticked? So let's say we take this due date now to the current week, right?

This is a bit of an old database. Let's

say it's here. And we see now we have the highlight. We can now go back to our

the highlight. We can now go back to our conditional color and replace this, right? Delete this and say, okay, I only

right? Delete this and say, okay, I only want this to show when highlight um is checked. And if it is checked, I want to

checked. And if it is checked, I want to highlight this as blue, right? Knowing

that this is what I have to work on.

again works with the conditional color across all database views and makes it really easy to create now these custom highlight functions in your setup.

Update number four is a nice one for everyone who loves keyboard shortcuts.

We get a bit of an easier navigation in databases. If you have now a property

databases. If you have now a property highlighted, you can simply press command and one of the arrow keys to jump either to the bottom of something, right? So to the last entry, to the one

right? So to the last entry, to the one on the rightmost, and so on and so forth. And you can also uh hit the

forth. And you can also uh hit the command shift enter to mark all the properties in the row, right? Which just

makes it a bit easier to highlight large parts of your database. Update number

five is amazing. If you use notion in the browser, you can now install a new Chrome extension that automatically redirects every new tab that you open to a specific notion page. And in there,

you can even choose which notion page should open. For example, you can have

should open. For example, you can have it default to Notion AI. Now,

personally, I prefer the desktop version because it's faster and more performant.

But again, if you like using Notion in your browser, then this will be quite useful to make sure you always have the right page at your fingertips. Formula

fans also get two new operators. We now

have in our formulas the option to use format number, right? So, let's say we have 100 and then we call that format, oops, format number. And your option to output it pretty much any way you want

it, right? This makes it much easier to

it, right? This makes it much easier to give it specific codes, right? So you

see if we hover our overall formal number. This is the basic explanation.

number. This is the basic explanation.

So we can say, okay, we want this in USD, we want it with a certain number of uh values after the comma. Makes it just a bit easier to have full control over how um number outputs are rendered.

That's number one. And the second option is splice. Right? So, this is a really

is splice. Right? So, this is a really useful one to call on lists to remove certain elements from um your array and manipulate a little bit easier. And if

you don't quite know how to get started with notion formulas, well, there are two great helps. First, Notion AI can now write formulas for you, which usually picks a little bit of a

complicated way to achieve it, but it's a great starting point. Plus, I have an in-depth tutorial linked down below where you learn everything about notion formulas and notion automations.

Update number seven is so big it deserves its own video and I have that linked down below. Notion has upgraded its API and we can now finally copy over

the page content from one page to another much easier. This is mainly used to apply templates that you set up on your database but you can actually input every individual page in your system.

So, for example, you might have some demo tasks somewhere, right? That

outline, hey, here's how to do this. And

then you can use the API to copy over that exact page content to another entry. Also, a great way, by the way, to

entry. Also, a great way, by the way, to update um page layouts, right, in your database in bulk because, as you know, if you have a template and you update a template, that doesn't reapply

automatically to old entries. But with

this API change, you can now do that programmatically. Update number eight

programmatically. Update number eight brings us into the world of Notion AI.

And a lot of things have happened here.

First up, you can now choose as one of your models the brand new Gemini 3 Pro, which performs extraordinary across the board. As you know, my general

board. As you know, my general recommendation is to set Notion AI always to cla 5.1, but Gemini Pro in my early tests is also getting close to it. It's

particularly much faster than the other ones. So if speed is a concern then

ones. So if speed is a concern then would opt for this one. Uh right now my tests with long complex workflows still favor claude a little bit but uh I will do some more tests and then report back.

Still very cool that we have this option here already. Update number two for

here already. Update number two for notion AI and update number eight overall is that sometimes you now see this edits checkbox. This is a new experiment from notion to see how we can

better scaffold what notion does. If you

uncheck that box, right, Notion AI cannot make any changes in your workspaces. This is currently a feature

workspaces. This is currently a feature though in AB testing, so you see it in some workspaces, in some don't. Um,

personally, I prefer just adding it to the prompt, right? Telling notion AI explicitly whether I wanted to make changes or not, but it's interesting to see that they're playing around with this. Speaking of extended capabilities,

this. Speaking of extended capabilities, Notion AI can now read page history on your pages, which is really useful. it

particularly good if you want to figure out hey what changes happened here on a certain page. You can of course always

certain page. You can of course always dig through them yourself but particular if it's a page right with a lot of changes it might be quite hard to find a specific relevant one. Being able to

simply ask notion you know hey um when was the last time that XY Z was changed or what's the last change that person Y did on this page helps quite a bit and you can then even ask it to summarize

these changes or show a previous version. So, notion AI has now access to

version. So, notion AI has now access to page history. And the next update also

page history. And the next update also has something to do with additional elements here. If we now uh comment on

elements here. If we now uh comment on pages, right? Uh this is so cool. Uh it

pages, right? Uh this is so cool. Uh it

can also be read by notion. So, if you ask it uh are there any comments on this page, it will be able to read them. And

more importantly, if you have a lot of comments, you can ask it to also, you know, summarize that. uh much more useful of course rather than just asking it to return. This is so cool. Update

number 12, still sticking with notion AI is about meeting notes. You can now also use meeting notes in the browser. As you

can see, I am currently in the browser and while it still prompts me to open it in the notion app, I can click on the dropown and start it in browser. Now,

very importantly, this only accesses your microphone audio. So, it's good if you have in-person conversations or just want to speak into it, right? Kind of

journaling with it, but it won't record your audio from a meeting. So, little

bit careful here, right? To be honest, not entirely sure when I would have an in-person conversation and open my browser with notion. Usually, I would just do that via app, but good to know that it's there and that that is a very

big limitation at the moment. A lot more useful is the new home for meeting notes. Uh so you might have seen this

notes. Uh so you might have seen this right in your sidebar you now have below home meetings and this shows you all the AI meeting notes that you have in your workspace across the space no matter in

what subpage you have it. It also shows you if you connect your notion calendar your upcoming meetings and you can start meeting notes from there. Makes it a bit easier to keep track of all of them. Of

course I would highly recommend that if you want a scalable notion system you create a meetings database and in that meetings database you have your AI meeting notes block as a template. That

way you anyway always find where you have your meeting notes. But in case you have a bit of a more scattered and less organized workspace, this helps sort of as an intermediary step. So would highly

recommend right that you create a proper infrastructure, particularly with AI getting better and better and requiring the right data architecture as a foundation. This is one of the main

foundation. This is one of the main things that we do whenever we first work with a new client. We make sure you have the perfect scalable notion architecture in place. And we now put a very large

in place. And we now put a very large emphasis on AI activation for your team so that you can make the most out of these new features which in my opinion are like the biggest leverage to

productivity that we've had in a long time. Update number 14 is another one

time. Update number 14 is another one for AI meeting notes and that is that it now sites where it found something in your transcript. So if you have a long

your transcript. So if you have a long conversation and you look at the summary afterwards, you can with just a little hover similar to the way that AI also sites its sources when you ask it in the sidebar uh jump to the specific part

where that was mentioned. Really useful

if you want to read exactly what you know was discussed at that point. Update

number 15 is also for AI meeting notes, but this one happens in notion calendar.

If you have different notional workspaces connected, you now have the option to jump in and actually define per workspace where AI meeting nodes should live, right? So if you have

different default meeting databases, as you should, right? One per workspace, you can now easily set that here and then whenever you create a new meeting through notion calendar and add meeting

notes to that, it will automatically add that entry to your database. You can

even toggle on, right, that whenever you create a new meeting, it should automatically create a page for it. And

to wrap up our notion roundup for today, the notion Slack AI connector is getting better as well. Previously, you were only able to have Notion AI search

through public conversations. But now,

if you reauthorize it and give it the proper permissions, it can also access your private DMs and closed channels, making it again a much more useful source for information. Keep in mind, of

course, this is always done on a per user basis. So if you activate this, it

user basis. So if you activate this, it doesn't mean that you can read the DMs of other people. This all stays scoped to your individual user permissions. So

your notion AI can now access your DMs. Now I know there are always a lot of changes to notion, which is why we have this running log on my website link down below, right? Just

below, right? Just matiasfrank.te/notionminus

matiasfrank.te/notionminus updates where you can find all of these changes. We make sure we update them as

changes. We make sure we update them as soon as new changes are confirmed. So

you have a one-stop shop where you see all these changes, right? Basically over

the last year, there's so many things on here. So yeah, if you have ever any

here. So yeah, if you have ever any questions around notion or wonder, well, is this of already an official update or maybe a small test that I'm seeing, this is the best place to go to. Now, if you

are excited by all these AI updates, but don't quite know how to best use them, well, I've got you covered. We have a full blog article and a dedicated video on my six principles for structured

prompting when it comes to NAI to help you improve the outputs a lot particular if you have long and complex tasks.

Right? Using claude 4.5 is just the first one. So just click here or on the

first one. So just click here or on the other side for this next video and I will see you in just a few