Notion Updates

Notion desktop now has virtual tabs. Previously, every tab in the desktop app took up its own process and its own chunk of memory. With virtual tabs, memory use stays roughly flat no matter how many tabs you open, and the sidebar is more stable too.

The official demo video compares the old and new versions side by side, with the system's list of Notion processes underneath. With only a few tabs open, the old version (left) already runs 5 renderer processes, while the new one (right) runs just 2.

After opening more tabs, the old version climbs to 9 processes using about 3.4 GB of memory in total, while the new version stays at 2 processes and about 0.95 GB.

To use it: virtual tabs are currently a desktop beta feature. Update the Notion desktop app to the latest version, open Settings → Preferences, and turn on the Desktop beta toggle in the Desktop app section.

The toggle description says you will try new desktop features early, starting with new tabs, and that Notion restarts whenever you join or leave the beta. If the toggle has not appeared in your settings yet, a Notion engineer suggests refreshing with Cmd+Shift+R and checking again.

Notion button automations now include a Send message to agent action. Write a prompt into a button, and when anyone on your team clicks it, the prompt goes to the agent you chose and the reply appears right on the page.

To use it, open the automation settings for a button (or a button property in a database), add a new action under Do, and choose Send message to agent.

The action sits in the same list as sending notifications, sending webhooks, and opening pages.

Next, pick the receiving agent under Send message to (Notion AI in the example), then write your prompt in the Message box. You can insert This page into the prompt, so the agent reads whichever row the button was clicked on.

After saving, every row in the example feature request database gets a TLDR button. Open the request Add H5 headers to Notion and click it: a Notion AI chat opens on the right, sends Give me a TLDR on Add H5 headers to Notion automatically, and returns a summary of the request.

Notion has rebuilt synced databases from the ground up. Live data from GitHub, Jira, and Salesforce now syncs directly into Notion databases, so your team and your agents work from the same data. Once synced, you can add properties and views, relate items to project databases, trigger automations, or hand the work to an agent.

To use it, open Settings, go to Connections, choose the new Database sync type, connect GitHub, Jira, or Salesforce, and pick the repositories, spaces, or records to sync.

Database sync sits alongside link previews, AI connectors, and MCP servers in the connection types, and currently supports three sources: GitHub, Jira, and Salesforce.

On the same page, the Your syncs tab lists every sync with its last sync time and health status. Click Edit to change what a sync covers.

A synced table shows a Synced badge in the top right. The original Jira fields (Key, Summary, Work Type, Space, and more) stay in sync in real time, and you can add your own properties next to them, such as the Urgency column added in this example.

This is different from the earlier Notion AI Salesforce connector: the AI connector lets Notion AI search Salesforce data that stays in Salesforce, while database sync brings records into Notion databases in real time, where you can add properties, build views, and run automations.

Notion has upgraded Version History: every edit to pages and databases is now recorded in real time, with changes highlighted and labeled by the person or agent who made them. You can restore an earlier version in one click.

To use it, open Version History from the top right of a page and browse changes by time in the sidebar. Click an edit to see the highlighted diff, and restore it if needed.

The sidebar lists the author of each edit, including people and agents (for example, via Claude). In the page on the right, added text is highlighted in color and removed text is shown with a strikethrough.

This is a complete, real-time log of every edit, covering pages and row-level database changes. It is different from the earlier snapshot diffs in Version History and Agent change diffs: those compare two snapshots or show what an agent changed in one run, while this records every edit by people and agents continuously.

Notion is rebuilding its iPad app natively instead of wrapping the web app. The sidebar, inbox, Notion AI and search are already native and open faster. The native editor is still on the way: Notion plans to finish the native editor on phones first and then test it on iPad, with Apple Pencil support coming later.

The sidebar and inbox on iPad are now native, so the page tree is no longer rendered by a web container.

Search and Ask AI sit at the bottom of the sidebar and are native as well, so you can find pages in your workspace directly.

Notion AI is native too: tap Ask AI and the sidebar switches to the AI panel.

In addition, on iOS 27 you can use Siri to find or create pages, start an AI chat, or record meeting notes.

Notion Settings now supports search. Open Settings and use the search box to jump straight to an option instead of paging through every section.

Below is Notion’s demo: type a keyword into the search box at the top left of Settings and the matching options are listed right away.

Click a result and Notion jumps to that settings page and highlights the item. For example, searching "high contrast" takes you to the contrast option in Preferences.

Notion has launched sidebar presets for workspace admins. Admins can set a default sidebar for new members, and everyone can add a preset from the "+" menu and then adjust it to their own habits.

Admins edit presets in Settings → Sidebar and set one as the default sidebar for new members. Below is the settings page from Notion’s demo.

Regular members can click the "+" menu at the top of the sidebar, add a preset under "Workspace presets", then adjust it themselves.

Notion has built a native editor for iOS and is opening it for testing through TestFlight. Notion says the new editor is faster and more stable when you type and edit.

How to join: install TestFlight on your iPhone, open Notion’s test invitation link to join the beta, then open any page to use the new editor.

Tap anywhere on a page to start typing. To-dos, lists and page links can all be edited in place.

If you run into problems during testing, take a screenshot in the beta, then attach it in the TestFlight feedback window and submit it to Notion.

The native editor for Android is still in development, and Notion says it will open testing when it is ready.

Notion recently added Claude Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5 / 5.1 and GPT-6.1 Sol. You can pick any of them in the model picker.

• Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Sept 29): available the same day Anthropic released it.
• GPT-6.1 Sol (Sept 29, Beta): in the Notion Agent model picker, under the "Using ChatGPT plan" group.
• Claude Haiku 5.5 (Oct 8): available on the day Anthropic released it, under the Claude group.
• Claude Fable 5 / 5.1 (June 9 / Sept 1): turn it on in Settings → Notion AI → Restricted Access Models. Fable 5 is for Business / Enterprise, and 5.1 works with Custom Agents and Notion Agent.

Notion has added a Notion MCP management page to Settings. It shows the MCP clients connected to your workspace and lets you discover, enable or add more from a directory.

How to use it: open Settings → Notion MCP. Under "Manage workspace clients" you can see the clients that are enabled (for example ChatGPT, Claude and Muse). Under "Discover" you can browse the directory (for example Composio, Cursor, Devin and Figma), then click Enable or Add an MCP client.

On plans: according to Notion’s developer docs, Notion MCP can be connected on every plan, but some tools (such as advanced search and AI search) require Business or Enterprise. Notion has not said separately which plans can see this settings page.

The page lists the clients that are currently enabled, plus the directory entries you can connect next.