Google Play Books is a store and reader in one for ebooks, audiobooks and comics. You buy titles singly rather than subscribe, and what it leaves out matters as much as what it includes.
3.7 / 5
Google Play Books & Audiobooks is Google's storefront and reading app for ebooks, audiobooks, comics and manga. You browse, buy and read or listen inside the same app, and your purchases follow your Google account to a phone, tablet, computer, or a car running Android Auto.
The model is the thing to understand first. The developer stresses that no subscription is needed: you pay for the titles you want and keep them in your library. That suits people who read a few books a year. It is a worse fit for anyone who wants an all-you-can-read catalogue for a flat monthly fee, because the listing describes nothing of that kind.
Samples are the most useful part of a store like this. You can read a preview of a book before spending money, which cuts down on regret purchases. Downloads for offline reading cover the plane-and-commute case.
For organising, you can build your own shelves by genre, author or any theme you like. Notes you write are said to sync with Google Drive and can be shared, which helps with study groups or book clubs, though the listing gives no detail on how deep the annotation tools go.
Comics and manga get a dedicated mode called Bubble Zoom, which the developer presents as a better way to read panel-heavy pages on a small screen. There are also tools for children, with word definitions and read-aloud, but the listing says these practice features work in English only.
The app itself is free, but the library is not. Every title is bought individually, and a heavy reader will feel that. Play Points are offered as a rebate on purchases, yet the listing admits that award levels and availability differ by country, so it is not a reliable discount.
It also assumes you live inside Google's account system. The listing says nothing about importing books from other stores or about how freely purchased titles can be moved elsewhere. If you want to leave later, that silence is worth a thought.
Verdict: a sensible, no-pressure choice if you already use Google services and buy books one at a time. Skip it if you read heavily and want a subscription, or if you want to keep your library out of one company's account.
By Irfan Rosli
News editor ·
Google Play Books & Audiobooks
com.google.android.apps.books
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