Play Books updated to improve comic reading experience

Google is updating Play Books to provide a better experience for reading comic books. Citing how the smaller screen of a phone makes it harder to follow along in detail heavy pages, there’s a new landscape mode to vertically swipe through panes. Just turn your phone sideways to access the new view.

According to Greg Hartrell, the product manager in charge of the revamp, comic book readers “flip through pages at twice the rate as regular Play Books readers.” The Play Store is also getting a new comics section that better curates and surfaces top comic book series. Historically, comic books have been hard to digitize due to the sheer quantity of them and popular comic publishers are aiding Google in the organization. Additionally, a new personalized recommendation feature will help readers find more comics similar to the ones they’re already reading.

The new features will be rolling out to Android users over the next few days in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, India, Singapore, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa. iOS users will receive the updates soon.