Google Play Books & Audiobooks

Google LLC

About this app

Google Play Books is the one app you need to buy and enjoy ebooks, audiobooks, comics, and manga.

Choose from millions of best selling ebooks, comics, manga, textbooks, and audiobooks. Download your book to read or listen on the go. When you’re finished, find your next favorite from recommendations personalized just for you. Buy audiobooks and ebooks as you go - with no subscription required.


Choose from millions of popular ebooks, audiobooks, and comics
* Buy ebooks and audiobooks as you go - no subscription required.
* Preview samples before you buy.
* Get extra discounts on select bundles.
* Receive emails or notifications about new releases from your favorite authors and when your wishlisted books go on sale.
* Earn Google Play Points with every purchase, then exchange them for Google Play credit.
* Receive notifications or emails for price drops in your samples and new releases from your favorite authors and series.
* Discover new releases, best sellers, and personalized recommendations across genres like romance, science fiction, mystery & thrillers, self-help, religion, nonfiction, and more.

Best in class reading and listening experience.
* Read or listen on Android, iOS, or your web browser, even when you’re offline.
* Pick up where you left off on any device.
* Customize your reading experience. Adjust the text size, font type, margins, text alignment, brightness, and background colors.
* Track your reading progress. See what percent you’ve read and how many pages you have left.
* Organize your library into shelves. Use the new shelves tab to curate your library by theme or genre. View your shelves across Android, iOS, and the web.
* Save to SD card. Choose to save your books to the device or an SD card, so you never run out of space.
* Use reading tools in children's books to get kid-friendly word definitions, listen to specific words, or hear the book read aloud.
* Use Bubble Zoom for easier comic reading on a mobile device. Tap the page and watch your favorite comic or manga come to life.
* Take notes that sync with your Google Drive and share them with a group for easy collaboration.
* Look up definitions, get translations, save highlights, and bookmark your favorite pages while you read.
* Turn on Night Light to automatically adjust the background color and brightness or set the app to use the OS brightness.

Ratings and reviews

The app flips through ebooks okay, with flaws. If you're just reading page to page, it's okay. But if you want to go back, and review a chapter, it's not so simple. The navigation to the front of the book table of contents is wonky. Supposedly you tap the screen, but what happens is when you tap the word highlights and dictionary appears. Please make a slider or ability to get to table of contents. Secondly, the read aloud capability is awful. It is way too fast, and natural is not natural

I really want to like Google books because audible forces you into a subscription plan. I'd much rather pay à la carte. however, I rely heavily on reviews when making decisions about what books to get. reviews are almost non-existent on this platform. It's probably because so few people use it. I also found that books are slightly more expensive here than an audible. sadly, I'm going back to audible. otherwise the experience is great.

I enjoy reading comics from all my favorite franchises, and the app is easy to use. But, I do wish there was more to the app. I don't know, maybe some form of reading goal you could meet? This probably is just a me thing as well but I wish my bookshelf felt more like an actual bookshelf than just a list. It just adds more personality. Either that or make a actual bookshelf style widget. I also find it hard to search for the exact book I want the search doesn't seem to be that smart at all.

What's new

Arriving in 2023.04.17
* Multiple library improvements, including multiselect, improved filtering, an unshelved shelf, and an alphabetical index to jump to a specific title or author

Recently added
* Navigation improvements to reach series pages
* The wishlist tab