Refreshed Google Play Newsstand brings web version, improved personalization, rich media

Google has today announced a refreshed version of Google Play Newsstand, hot on the heels of the Google Play Music redesign that the Mountain View company launched earlier this week. Today, Newsstand is getting machine learning personalization, rich images and videos, and a web version…

Google wants to make it very clear that its machine learning ambitions aren’t just talk. The company highlighted that it’s using machine learning to bring personalized & contextual recommendations to Play Music, and today’s update to Newsstand brings much the same to the news reading app.

We are applying the power of Google machine learning to Newsstand’s rich catalog in order to find and recommend the most timely, relevant stories for you based on your individual interests.

Second, Google says that improved support for multimedia content is also part of this update. In your feed you’ll now see higher resolution images, autoplay videos, and more:

We have improved our support for multimedia content building on the AMP support we launched earlier this year. Scroll through your feed, and you will see autoplay videos, easy podcast controls, and high-resolution, full-bleed images. Every story and topic in Newsstand now comes to life in a more engaging, beautiful presentation. And our Data Saver mode allows you to enjoy it in a way that is aware of data and bandwidth preferences.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Google is today launching a web version of Google Play Newsstand to show off these new features beyond the typical mobile apps on Android and iOS. Head over to Google Play to check it out. For those using the Android and iOS apps, you should notice these changes rolling out over the next couple days.