Google Play Books
Choose from millions of titles on Google Play including new releases, New York Times best sellers, up-and-coming authors, and free books. Easily personalize your reading experience, pick up where you left off on your phone, tablet, or computer, and get reading today
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Here are the latest news about Google Play Books:
01.06.25. Google, Kobo and Kindle now allow to easily buy books on iOS
Google Play Books, Kobo Books and Amazon Kindle app have received updates to allow users get “Get Book” option, where they are automatically redirected to their website to complete the transaction and then brought back to the app, where the book will be available for reading right away. Before this, buying books on iOS was less than ideal. You had to open Safari browser manually, find the book you wanted to purchase and buy it, manually open the ebook app again and sync. Apple has allowed the update due to a recent court battle, in which they lost. In the US and Europe, they must enable apps to use third-party payments and can be redirected to the company’s website to complete the final transaction. This has been a boon for the e-book space, as well as audiobooks.
2025. Google Play Books purchases on iOS now can be done without App Store’s commission
Google has managed to wrangle permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly through its Google Play Books app on iOS. This is, of course, a bit like being given permission to breathe, but only after filing the appropriate paperwork in triplicate. Historically, iOS apps have been allowed to display content you purchased elsewhere—like a book you heroically hunted down on the vast and treacherous plains of the internet—but actually directing users to a website to make a purchase has required a special dispensation from Apple, presumably written on parchment and delivered by a messenger on horseback. Now, thanks to an announcement that was likely drafted with a certain amount of quiet glee, Google has revealed that users will be able to click a handy little “Get book” button, which will whisk them away to the Google Play website, where they can finalize their purchase using their Google Account and saved payment details, all while carefully sidestepping Apple’s infamous 30% toll. This, naturally, is a development that Apple will watch with the enthusiasm of a cat observing a rival feline encroach upon its sunbeam.
2024. Google Play Books offers hundreds of free eBooks for children
Google Play Books has expanded its children's collection, giving away over 300 nonfiction children's books for free on the platform. The most exciting part of this new addition is that all titles will feature the "Read and Listen" feature. This allows children to read and listen simultaneously, a proven method for helping them develop and improve reading comprehension and decoding skills. Google has also implemented several other updates to make reading engaging and enjoyable for children. For example, children can now earn digital Reading Rewards stickers for reading children's books in Google Kids Space or the Play Books app for Android. Rewards are awarded when a child reaches a certain reading level.
01.06.25. Google, Kobo and Kindle now allow to easily buy books on iOS
Google Play Books, Kobo Books and Amazon Kindle app have received updates to allow users get “Get Book” option, where they are automatically redirected to their website to complete the transaction and then brought back to the app, where the book will be available for reading right away. Before this, buying books on iOS was less than ideal. You had to open Safari browser manually, find the book you wanted to purchase and buy it, manually open the ebook app again and sync. Apple has allowed the update due to a recent court battle, in which they lost. In the US and Europe, they must enable apps to use third-party payments and can be redirected to the company’s website to complete the final transaction. This has been a boon for the e-book space, as well as audiobooks.
2025. Google Play Books purchases on iOS now can be done without App Store’s commission
Google has managed to wrangle permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly through its Google Play Books app on iOS. This is, of course, a bit like being given permission to breathe, but only after filing the appropriate paperwork in triplicate. Historically, iOS apps have been allowed to display content you purchased elsewhere—like a book you heroically hunted down on the vast and treacherous plains of the internet—but actually directing users to a website to make a purchase has required a special dispensation from Apple, presumably written on parchment and delivered by a messenger on horseback. Now, thanks to an announcement that was likely drafted with a certain amount of quiet glee, Google has revealed that users will be able to click a handy little “Get book” button, which will whisk them away to the Google Play website, where they can finalize their purchase using their Google Account and saved payment details, all while carefully sidestepping Apple’s infamous 30% toll. This, naturally, is a development that Apple will watch with the enthusiasm of a cat observing a rival feline encroach upon its sunbeam.
2024. Google Play Books offers hundreds of free eBooks for children
Google Play Books has expanded its children's collection, giving away over 300 nonfiction children's books for free on the platform. The most exciting part of this new addition is that all titles will feature the "Read and Listen" feature. This allows children to read and listen simultaneously, a proven method for helping them develop and improve reading comprehension and decoding skills. Google has also implemented several other updates to make reading engaging and enjoyable for children. For example, children can now earn digital Reading Rewards stickers for reading children's books in Google Kids Space or the Play Books app for Android. Rewards are awarded when a child reaches a certain reading level.
Missing one star because
1) I would really like to see annotation capabilities for scanned pages.
2) Takes a very long time when you click on a hyperlink to go to that hyperlink and back to the text
3) needs an in-app way to dim the light