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Google Play Books was originally conceived as Google eBooks in December 2010. In addition to being an eBook stor, Play Store allows users to upload documents in a variety of formats and have them synced between devices. Like Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iBook store, authors can self-publish and sell their works.

There is an official app for Android and iOS, as well as a rudimentary web interface. The apps have a number of features like highlighting, notes, and a night mode that adjusts to the time of day.

Google adds ‘Smart Resume,’ Bookmarks, and more to audiobooks in Play Books

Google Play Books

In January, Google added audiobook support to Play Books, while the Play Store gained a new section for the long-form audio format. After integrating with Assistant Routines earlier this month, Google is updating Play Books with “Smart Resume,” Bookmarks, and greater speed controls, as well as expanding Family Library to more countries.


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Machine Learning-powered Bubble Zoom will enlarge text in digital comics from Play Books

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The Play Books app has a special affinity for comic books with a number of features meant to improve the reading experience on mobile devices. Announced as part of Comic-Con, Bubble Zoom uses machine learning to magnify text bubbles in digital comics. Users can test this out now on select Marvel and DC volumes.


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Google Play Books comes to Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and 5 more new countries

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This one’s a quick one. Google has today launched Google Play Books in 9 new countries, bringing the total number of locales that have access to the service to 75. Those residing in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates will find that they can use Play Books effective immediately.

On a related note, Google updated Play Books this time last month with a new Night Light mode that lets you read in the dark without killing your eyes. Hopefully they’ll bring this feature to the OS as a whole soon, just like Apple is planning to do with the launch of iOS 9.3. Most of us have been using this on our desktops with F.lux.

Facebook Messenger becomes the 10th app to pass 1 billion installs on the Play Store

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Following Google Play Books passing 1 billion installs earlier today (the 9th app on that list), Facebook Messenger has now officially passed the same landmark, making it the 10th app on the Play Store to do so. I think it’s fair to attribute this to Messenger’s growing adoption since Facebook required that it be installed on iOS devices. It’s still not required for messaging on Android, however.

While several other apps have also passed this mark, only two other apps not created by Google have done so. Facebook’s own official Facebook client is one, while the other is the Facebook-owned WhatsApp client (which notably passed the 1 billion install mark long before Messenger). It’s clear that Zuckerberg and co. have a foothold on the Play Store that no other company does.