Comic book fans who enjoy catching up on some of the coolest stories on their Android devices, while on the go, have reasons to rejoice with the new features added to Google Play Books.
The upgrade is comprised of two major pieces designed with comics in mind – one that impacts the quality of the reading experience itself and another aimed at helping to keep one’s digital library organised.
Issues from Image, DC, Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse and more will be organised by series and volume, making it much easier to find anything. Previously, the app was a bit hard to search, and didn’t really categorize comics any differently than any of the other books in the marketplace. The app will also offer recommendations based on your reading habits, which is something it already does, but at least now it will be fine-tuned for the comics.
Though Google has had digital editions of comic books from every major publisher for quite a while, the reading experience hasn’t changed a whole lot since Google’s Play Books app’s comic experience was first launched. There were a few animation flourishes to show a page turning, but there was nothing to make Google Books stand out from its competitors.
As for the new recommendations and curated series pages, Google says the aim here is to simply make browsing and finding interesting comics to read easier.
The other big feature is much more mobile-specific, and adds a new way to read the stories beyond standard vertical alignment. In this mode, you can now easily scroll through a story with just vertical swipe. Although with most comics not always formatted to fit that display space, we can’t be too sure of how it will feel to read stories like this all the time.
All of these updates are now rolling out on Android for users in the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, India, Singapore, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa. Google is also offering a handful of new comics this week, including issues of The X-Files, Lazarus, and Jem and the Holograms.
The iOS version will come at a later undetermined date.