Google Play Books - Ebooks, Audiobooks, and Comics

As a reader app it does the job solidly! I can easily read any book I have purchased through Google however the browsing abilities of the app are severely lacking. I don't want to peruse articles as much as I want to look for more books I might find an interest in. When opening the app there is a decent "recommended for you" list but with no way to change or extend the list, search a new list or simply refresh the list without going through a "build your interests" type form. Obviously, I can browse on a desktop or laptop but that isn't as convenient as being able to do it from the same device I just finished reading from. It could also benefit from manipulating the screen timer. It's quite frustrating to constantly have to unlock the phone because the screen times itself out on every page.

used to be just perfect for reading! with the recent update there is no "dictionary definition" option, only language 1 to language 2 translation :( really upsetting as I used it a lot and now it seems like i have to look for another app that can define English words in English. :(

All my purchased books have no images. Anytime there is supposed to be an image, it just says “image not available”, including on all the covers and photo inserts. When I download a sample, it does display the image! Does not make sense to me, and this just started only two days ago. I will wait to purchase any more books on my list for google play books until this is fixed. Other than this, it is (was) the highest quality of all the ebook apps. UPDATE: I thought it was fixed as I was getting images there for awhile, tried downloading some more books and “image not available” is occurring again! Please fix so I can always see the images when I open the book, I wii wait until this is finally fixed before making amy more purchases. Other than this glitch, all is good.

(TLDR: no page forward from left side of screen) Pros compared to native iBooks: - text size, font, spacing far more customizable - text fills to the edge of the screen (finally!) - navigation to the "bookstore" is hidden in the left toolbar (no more tapping 4 different bottom-row icons by accident when I just want to read books from my library) - interface just "feels" more updated/streamlined Cons: - NO OPTION TO PAGE FORWARD WHEN TAPPING THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SCREEN. This is my biggest issue with the app. If you don't mind, then you'll probably really like the app. It might make it almost unusable for me - no ability to sort books into folders (while convenient in iBooks, the fact that they force an "all books" main screen instead of just uncategorized books makes it worthless to me, so in that regards it's not a big issue that play books doesn't have it) I only use it to read uploaded epubs so I don't know how everything looks for purchased books. However, I would like the opportunity to customize the blank cover that shows up with uploaded books, with my own image or text. That alone would entice me to use this app even without the ability to page forward from the left of the screen.

solid app though would like for a sorting method that sorts by continuity for comics and book series to where the book something like infinite crisis takes place before Batman: Year One but after Superman: Man of Steel vol 1 something like that.

I’m giving this four stars because in some cases it seems to work well. My biggest complaint is getting samples of books. I like the ability to view a sample... but once a sample, always a sample... in the app anyway. I purchased the full book and can read the entire book on the browser but as soon as I go back to the app it’s a sample again. I’ve tried deleting the download and even removing the title and then going back to the full book on the web browser and clicking “view in app”. Even if I’m in chapter one on the browser when I click to view in app, it goes back to the introduction and says none of the chapters are able to be viewed. Like it’s still a sample. So I’m annoyed with that but otherwise the app seems okay.

difficult to get text to fit to screen, then app doesn't remember page zoom settings. Need to constantly move page around to get right fit on screen.

Really good site to by books! It has a variety of all genres. Whatever you are interested in reading, its here. My only downfall is that occassionally I do want the old-school way of reading books: physical bookmarkers, highlighters, the feeling of holding the book etc. Other than that, no complaints this way.

There seems to be a problem with the copy-text functionality. It seems to be an On/Off function. With no guarantee of it working at any given time. Further, for certain books, this function is totally absent. If it helps: the Kindle reader does not have problems with copying text. Thanks.

There is no other app for reading old, obscure works (for free in most cases) but Google Play. With it, I've read Joseph Priestley's "Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit" and I'm partway through his "Corruptions of Christianity." Also, George Berkeley's "Alciphron." Now I've moved on to Sir Humphrey Davy's "Elements of Chemical Philosophy," books that no one in their right mind would spend time on, but still so much fun. This is only augmented by the ability to highlight in five colors and to make your own footnotes. You can define most words in the text or else search for them on the web. I highly recommend this for any fan of dead authors.

I really like the new material design, also previous updates like the ability to upload pdf files are great. Updates keep improving the app as usual. I've bought a few comics and books on the strength of the updates alone. Read on my tablet mainly phone is a little too small strains the eyes of you read to long.

The book reader does fine, however the display often messes up. I do a lot of highlighting, in various colors. When reading a chapter I previously used some highlighting on, sometimes I’ll turn the page and the entire page is highlighted one color, turn the page the entire page is highlighted another color, turn the page and things are back to normal. If I click anywhere on the page that’s completely highlighted, and hit delete the entire page’s highlighting disappears, but I don’t know if what I wanted to be highlighted also disappears. I hope they fix this bug.

I'm so thankful that Google decided to digitize and preserve the writings that may have been lost in this digital era. Their work has been a treasure trove for people like me who feel that the only true way to have a complete picture of our past is to continue to read the writings of those who have preceded us. And if we don't know our history we are sure to repeat the worst parts of it. Thanks, Google. Now I can take thousands of interesting and thoughtful people with me in my relatively tiny purse.

I am a college student and I just love how easy it is to upload PDF versions of textbooks to google play on my computer and then view the on my phone. Google play automatically compresses the textbooks and lets me download them for offline viewing on my phone. I can then access the textbook from any device with either the google play app or any computer through their website. The yellow (blue light removal) feature is also great for late night study sessions.

Update: Still very happy with this App, glad that it has been kept simple and easy to use. Maybe a filing system would be useful for some. All told very good and recommended. Previous comment Apart from lacking a good filing system I am very satisfied with this App. Does most things Kindle, Kobo & iBooks do, you just need to look for them, every reading App is different. Pricing of books is very competitive and should also be considered, PlayBooks is way out in front in this respect.

There is no option to adjust the night light settings once the app gives you the popup when you first open a book. It looks like it takes you into the device settings but searching settings for "night light" yields nothing. The only way I was able to go and change those settings was to clear data on the app to get the popup again. The night light setting does the same thing as the blue light filter but is a completely separate setting. I couldn't find anything in the in app settings about the night light either.

The only book App worth bothering with. No monthly bills, just pay for each book, download it and read or listen. Remove from device when finished and download again to reread. My only issue is that many books are abridged. Why abridge Conn Iggulden? One of the best writers ever and his books are lest than half there! I guess unabridged would cost more, but I'd pay. Google, could we at least have the choice?

I love Google Play Books! Good if not great prices for ebooks and audiobooks. Simple pricing options, don't need a degree to understand what you're buying. The Audiobook software could be better. Not very many options, lose my place easily. Would be nice to have a better audiobook software, one that has a equalizer and bookmarks.

I love this app, but after the last update a couple days so, I can't read any book. It try's to load and just spins and spins and spins. I have deleted play books and re downloaded twice. Still won't work. Help! UPDATE: Called support, they told me to do everything I already did. Even though there all numerous complaints on here since PlayBooks last update...they say it is an Apple problem. Looks like they don't care to resolve the problem with Apple users. Anyone have a suggestion of a replacement app for apple users?

I've loved google books for many years Until recently. Ebook prices are reasonable, easy to use & up to date with new books. However, recently i started having a problem with the read aloud option. I have everything enabled that is necessary to use read aloud, & it begins to read a few lines & stops. I uninstalled & reinstalled it, deleted my cache & app data, & purchased a new phone as i thought it was a storage issue. However, this did not fix the issue. Read aloud IS ENABLED

Very Good but not Great Yet. Give the option to override publisher default font sizing so that all books open up in a standardized size, add verticle scrolling option, more background colors (charcoal, cyan), and I will give 5/5 stars. Overall, a very pleasant home screen and user inrerface. I absolutely love the highlighting and dictionary interface bubbles!

Downloaded books get deleted after switching to another account. I have been using play books for years and personally it’s my favorite book reading aap . On previous versions of this aap the user could download books on different accounts and the books won’t get deleted after switching the accounts but this update deletes books after switching account . I will give 5 stars once this issue is fixed.

Nice app. The newest update fixed my unreadable books. Old review: The app doesn't make it clear how to purchase books on Apple devices. You have to buy the books on the website, then read the books in the app. I like the night reading function. I can't view any of my purchased books in the app. It freezes whenever I attempt to open them. I have an iPhone 6. Ripoff.

Small detail but it makes a big difference. The old page flip animation in landscape mimicked turning a page in a real book. The new animation is like you have a xerox copy of a book (2 scanned pages per piece of paper). It is really distracting while reading because the page animation is too long. Please return to the old page flip animation style. If you are going through the effort to mimic a real page turn make it look like turning a page in a real book!

I love this app. I’ve tried the Books app that came on my iPhone and Google’s is much better. I especially appreciate that I can set the screen to black with white letters, which at night go to amber. It’s so much easier on the eyes. I also used to have a Kindle app on a tablet and I still preferred the Google Play Books over that, too.

I started using this app 4 years ago, and I switched to Apple 2 years ago. I kept using Google Play because 1) I already purchased books 2) They have ebooks great for school and 3) it's a good app. I give it a 4 because the books are sometimes wacko or the free books don't have all the content so you have download another free version of the book. But the app never crashes, and it's easy to use.

I'm giving it a three because this is a really great e-book app. It's much easier to use and I prefer it a lot better than the iPhone's iBook app for sure. But lately it keeps crashing on me, I tap on it and it goes to open but then crashes. I've uninstalled it a couple times, install it again and it's the same problem. And I'm getting extremely frustrated. It was working well until two weeks ago when it started doing this.

Google has digitized books that you will never see unless you pay hundreds of dollars to buy a print copy or live close to a major library and are allowed to look at a print copy briefly. Many of these volumes you would never see otherwise. I'm not sure if there is a better use of the technology.

This is an okay app but it takes a while for one of my books to download. I mean the only reason I have this app is so I wouldn't have to buy all the books I have again in the Apple bookstore. I was hoping there was a way to transfer them but there isn't. I am hoping they fix the time delay soon.

Most of my reading is on my tablet which has a larger screen than my phone. I think the tablet is just mix of size and weight. The google books app is well set up for that usage. I recommend it. I use it for textbooks, novels, and the occasional graphic novel. I've had no problems with any of those formats.

I have read more than forty books on playbooks. If I change from my i-phone to my laptop, it tells me what page I was on on the other device, and takes me to that page. I can change the size of the type -- something you can't do with a print book. Great program!

Better than iBooks or Kindle in the fact it's cross platform. Has there standard features you'd expect from a modern e book reader. Can be a bit buggy regarding downloads for offline reading but overall works great all things considered. I just wish it was compatible with an actual e-ink reader.

I had purchases on two different accounts, not realizing the account I had it linked to during purchasing. It's awesome to be able to switch between the two google accounts to access these different books.

Thank you. Now if you want you can make it even better by being able to tap on any word and have the definitions pop up right under the text. No pop up screens nothing intrusive, just a quick definition or translation under the selected word.

I love that I can read my google books on my iPhone. It does take a while to download the books which is quite annoying. I thank God I don't have to have two devices to read on different platforms. I wish apple would catch up and allow iBooks on others devices.

In today's world we now have the feature make books with the help of the internet. Years ago you couldn't have this feature which meant that you had to write on paper and all that other stuff! I expect Google to do good on this app!

Since iBooks started shifting parts of my library to the cloud by some means I can’t control, I’m never confident of my access when traveling. Play Books is the answer. Easy to use and fast. Best of all, I control which books are available on my device

I love to read when I have time and this app has proven in my opinion to be great. I have purchased various books and novels without having trouble with the download, I even can download them anytime on my cellphone without any issues. Keep up with the excellent job!!!

I love this app. I love the selection of books that's offered. I also love that I can read books on my phone or tablet. Whatever page I left off on my phone I can pick up on my tablet. It's awesome. I haven't used my nook since I've been using this app. Great job Google! 🤗😊😍❤️❤️❤️❤️👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾✨⭐️✨⭐️✨⭐️✨

See I love this app, it’s great, the only issue I have with it, is that it apparently got rid of the option to create shelves for your books. I used to put my books in shelves by series, now if I want to read a series and I didn’t download it in order I have to scroll through all of my books to find them. Other then that I don’t have an issue with this app.

I just wanted to read books on my phone. The entire process of this app is easy to use: searching for a book, purchasing a book, accessing a book offline no problem!

Getting books onto the app and reading books on it is very easy. I especially like that any book I upload on the app using one device automatically is uploaded on every other device in which I've installed the app.

Although, I've seen a few bugs where some books won't load on my computer, the app seems to work perfectly. I enjoy having all my books at my fingertips when I'm waiting in line for something. Thanks for the great app!

I have a large collection of ebooks in Calibre. Google Play Book allows me to access all of them on the go while synchronizing across all my devices. I would love creating shelves or collections to organize my titles so I'm looking forward to that capability.

Love the new features! Smart resume, bookmarks, etc. I think audiobooks should come with the book version, and vice versa, for when you want to read or when you forgot you earphones and you are at public place.

You can't see the full cover of books on your phone, and can't zoom. So I can't tell if I'm going to read book one or five of a series without opening and consequently downloading it. It would be great if I could search my own books for words. Why can't I do that with my uploads?

I have an iPhone and still have all of my google apps. The only thing I don’t like is not being able to purchase books directly in the app or search for books. I’d give it 5 stars if you could buy in the app. I hardly use a computer anymore and it’s a pain to drag out the laptop just to purchase a book. Other than that, love it

This software does the job, though I don’t like the interface as much as Apple Books. I use this one almost exclusively though because I can open my books on almost any tablet or phone, not just Apple ones.

I enjoy the Google Play Books selection, variety, and prices. More specifically, I enjoy being able to save my notes and highlights in my Google Drive for future referencing. The Google experience is simply the best.

First time using it and it's intuitive if you've used other reading apps. Had a little trouble with downloading on my desktop, but then again, this might be user error, or some settings on the computer. I'm not a newbie though, for what it's worth. Worked perfectly on the iPad.

What do you geniuses assume will happen by leaving negative reviews in the App Store instead of emailing the developers!?!? DELETED FROM THE APP STORE LIKE THE OTHER APPS!!!! Some of us used real money to buy our books. Please stop being lazy and contact Google instead about your issues! Smh

I love this app so much. It definitely has great books and it's easy to access rather the carrying around a book all day. It's more convenient as well because most people carry a cellphone and to be able read on it is super great. It's a great app and fairly cheap.

I love that the app is lightweight and simple, and that I can upload epubs and access from all my devices with my place and notes synced. The only thing I really wish it had is a shelving or tagging system. Really don't understand why this is missing! Seems easy to do.

I love most of Google's products, especially this one. You can upload any books you want and read them on other devices as well. It is really convenient!!

I've used many different eBook readers. I'll be honest, each has its own pluses and minuses. This is a very user friendly interface. If you use more than one like I do, it's a good addition to the tool box.

I been using this app for years. It's very convenient and easy to use. I love when I stop reading on my table and resume in my phone from the same page a left on. This app is the best one to read books.

Personal ePub upload is hit or miss... presumably due to vulnerabilities in loading varying ePub file structures When it works, it's nice... I especially like the auto sync of highlights & notes to a google doc that I can then share with ease... synergies like that across an ecosystem of tools are a productivity force multiplier

one of the easiest way to access books. Buy them read them carry them with you and access them with any device

The listing of books recommended to me for future reads is uncanny. Always rich with things that click with me. Often even things I have from local library or from other sources. Could be a five if not for a few bobbled technical issues.

Th concept of being able to the read the book is great but when it comes to highlighting and clicking on words the system is very slow. I’m using on an iPad Pro that has all updates so not sure why the app is so slow and lags when you click it highlight words.

Lots of orientation bugs (e.g. switching to landscape sometimes gives you two columns, sometimes not) or text being formatting incorrectly after switching. Also: no keyboard shortcuts with the Smart Keyboard: arrows keys should control pages.

This is such an intuitive and useful app. It is worlds better than iBooks, but that is nothing new when comparing Google products to Apple products.

My only issue comes from the updates that make the app next to useless for anywhere from a day to a week until they are hot fixed but other than that I've never had an issue with the app

... that though I PURCHASE a book, I can’t even loan the dang thing to anyone. Would be 5 Stars if I could loan something I own. Quite ridiculous if you ask me, or anyone I’ve talked to about it. I get you can’t let people turn into book dispensaries, but come on.

This app has saved my college career. As an English major, I read a lot of books and these books can be super expensive, but not always here, and they're usually cheaper on the app. Plus, lots of free classics!

I travel frequently and having to carry actual books around was becoming quite difficult. This is by far my favorite app for novels. Definitely recommend.

Favorite in comparison to iBooks and kindle. No problem downloading, no problem picking up where I left off on a book from another device. Plus google play discounts are pretty nice 👌🏽

Have all my books in one place. Can read them on my phone, iPad, tablet, or computer. Don't have to worry about book cases or pages getting torn out, books getting old and coming apart. Love, love, love

I have had no problems loading books or reading them on my I phone. The books are VERY reasonably priced, I got 3 newer books on Google Play for the price of one hardcover!

I enjoy this app because they tend to always have my purchase history regardless of changing phones or computers, would love to have access to redeem hard copy at a discount though for books I desire for an old school method

I’ve experienced forward shifting of the highlighting in this book after turning several pages or closing and reopening the app. The highlights appear to move forward about 20-25 spaces/characters from the original material that was highlighted. Not helpful when trying to study.

Literally the worst app ever! it doesn’t highlight text at times and sometimes it’ll highlight text I never wanted. It so unusable and terrible. The actual website wasn’t that good either. I would give it zero stars if I could

I like google play because it has great promotions that make purchasing books and movies worth it more often. It's simple to use and downloads fast!

This is much easier and convenient. I like reading on my phone and laptop. Carrying around another thing doesn't really make sense once you have this app.

Had this on my Samsung & loved it. Now have it on my iPhone & iPad. Love that it sync to both. Only complaint is when turning pages I have to zoom out, turn the page then zoom in & center. They should update so it remembers my reading size preference.

I can read my books whenever and wherever I want. I don't have to struggle to look for my books or worry bout bookmarking to keep my place. One of the best apps I've tried so far.

App doesn't keep screen awake though that might be an apple thing? Other than that it had been working fine. I do get a non stop loading screen sometimes but one I swipe away the app the app switcher, it reloads and is fine

ok

Good feature available to see the word meaning, just need to select a word. We should add a feature for pronouncing a word as well. Also, add another feature to create own dictionary, it would be useful for students and readers. Will give 5 🌟 if these would be available. Thanks!

dhananjya

you get some books for free and the books that you have to buy are really cheep

great way to spend time reading.

Good

I love this app. I’ve tried the Books app that came on my iPhone and Google’s is much better. I especially appreciate that I can set the screen to black with white letters, which at night go to amber. It’s so much easier on the eyes. I also used to have a Kindle app on a tablet and I still preferred the Google Play Books over that, too.

Thank You So Much For the Books

A big fan of this service.

Best and easiest app for reading my books

Every time I switch back to the app it just spins.

Still can be better.

It’s have lot better clarity rather than any other app and it’s also give sample book to find out that it’s interesting for you or not before you purchase

See I love this app, it’s great, the only issue I have with it, is that it apparently got rid of the option to create shelves for your books. I used to put my books in shelves by series, now if I want to read a series and I didn’t download it in order I have to scroll through all of my books to find them. Other then that I don’t have an issue with this app.

google play books 里面的highlight 功能太难使用啦

These updates on the audio player 🤨 it not work SMH.

iBooks can , play books cannot....why since it’s the same pdf. You get blurry text.

Would love to get a dark mode, also a way to keep audiobooks & ebooks in sync.

One of the nicest reading apps in terms of design, but really needs a lists feature

Literally the worst app ever! it doesn’t highlight text at times and sometimes it’ll highlight text I never wanted. It so unusable and terrible. The actual website wasn’t that good either. I would give it zero stars if I could

I much prefer this app over Kindle for PDF and Word docs.

I’ve been using 4 years this App my old Samsung, but at my new job I have to usé one IPad , and really miss many options, just like how to fix the letters, or some texts in second plan, this app its wonderful, and free... thanks google

Pretty decent ebook reader, although there is this annoying bug that doesn’t allow me to zoom in unless I rotate my screen and try again

I really hope iOS support TTS for this App. I enjoyed a lot having the App reading articles for me on my android device but now I use iOS ones more frequently so I’m not used to the absence of TTS. Would’ve been wonderful if it does.

This application provides an incredible selection of public-domain works, but it crashes often and can be terribly frustrating.

Google Play books has it all; night mode, font size and type adjustable for different size screens, and a massive library of books. Excellent app.

Esta genial no se puede poner ninguna pega

This is such an intuitive and useful app. It is worlds better than iBooks, but that is nothing new when comparing Google products to Apple products.

The book reader does fine, however the display often messes up. I do a lot of highlighting, in various colors. When reading a chapter I previously used some highlighting on, sometimes I’ll turn the page and the entire page is highlighted one color, turn the page the entire page is highlighted another color, turn the page and things are back to normal. If I click anywhere on the page that’s completely highlighted, and hit delete the entire page’s highlighting disappears, but I don’t know if what I wanted to be highlighted also disappears. I hope they fix this bug.

I’ve been using this for my ePub books, and it has been working well. With the last update, the formatting is messed up and text runs right to the edge of the screen.

Why do you not offer infinite scroll (continuous vertical scrolling) for ePub? I’d love to replace Apple Books (iBooks), however without it, I’ll stay with Apple’s Books.

Please

Downloaded books get deleted after switching to another account. I have been using play books for years and personally it’s my favorite book reading aap . On previous versions of this aap the user could download books on different accounts and the books won’t get deleted after switching the accounts but this update deletes books after switching account . I will give 5 stars once this issue is fixed.

The updated app freezes after opening. Had to uninstall and re-download everything.

Excellent application, wonderful layout i have adjusted to the application very fast. My opinion would be too download this application.

Update 5.0.3 fixed my problem with misplacing highlights. Hope it also works in future updates.

What do you geniuses assume will happen by leaving negative reviews in the App Store instead of emailing the developers!?!? DELETED FROM THE APP STORE LIKE THE OTHER APPS!!!! Some of us used real money to buy our books. Please stop being lazy and contact Google instead about your issues! Smh

Th concept of being able to the read the book is great but when it comes to highlighting and clicking on words the system is very slow. I’m using on an iPad Pro that has all updates so not sure why the app is so slow and lags when you click it highlight words.

Pretty amazing.

Getting better. Thank you for your time!

The app keeps getting stuck on home page and does not let me open it.

and an option to make the page turning animation less obnoxious.

I recently switched from Android but I’m still a play books fan. I only found one issue using play books in iOS. When using speak screen the pages don’t turn automatically like in iBooks and it only reads one page and then the app freezes. You can’t turn the page after speak screen stops. Get these bugs fixed and I definitely have to git it 5 stars.

One of the best apps for reading ebooks with only one problem and that is when highlighting a word there is no share button to use third party dictionaries and translators(offline and online)

Small detail but it makes a big difference. The old page flip animation in landscape mimicked turning a page in a real book. The new animation is like you have a xerox copy of a book (2 scanned pages per piece of paper). It is really distracting while reading because the page animation is too long. Please return to the old page flip animation style. If you are going through the effort to mimic a real page turn make it look like turning a page in a real book!

I really enjoy this app. I just wished it had the feature of uploading your own Audiobooks, if so, my life would be so much easier.