Google Updates Play Books for Better Comic Book Reading Experience For Android

Google launched an upgrade of Google Play Books store to make it easier for Android users to read comics easier on phones and tablets.

According to Tech Crunch, Google also announced a personalized comic recommendations features that makes it easier for users to find other series similar to their preferences and a set of curated comic series pages in the Play Store. These new features are available for Android users in the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, India, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand, and Ireland. Google Play Books lead product manager Greg Hartrell said earlier that this is the first update to the app and it is specifically meant to enhance users' comic-reading experience.

9to5 Google reported that the new update allows users to flip through pages two times faster than the ordinary rate. Meanwhile, The Play Store will now have a comics section that provides better curation and brings top comic book series to the user. Comic books are difficult to digitalize since there are so many of them, but popular comic book publishers are now coordinating with Google to bring comic books more efficiently to the customers.

"Reading a comic book is all about following the story and enjoying the art, dialogue and pace the way you want. But navigating a comic can be tricky on a small phone or tablet screen," said Google in a report by PC Mag. "So, we're introducing a new vertical scrolling experience for comics in landscape mode. Flip your device on its side and you can easily scroll through the story with quick vertical swipes."

Hartrell said they developed the updated reading mode based on how existing users read comic books on Google Play. The recommendations and curated pages aim to make browsing and finding comics easier and more interesting. Notably, these updates are currently only available for certain well-known publishers, such as DC Comics, Image, Marvel, Dark Horse, and IDW.