Google Play Books

Two 'Google Play Books' stories August 2013 - September 2013

Google Play Books for iOS updated with Single Sign-On support

Google has been adding Single Sign-On support to lots of its iOS apps in recent months, making it easier to sign into Google apps on their iPhone or iPad. With Single Sign-On, users can sign in once in any Google app supporting the feature and will automatically be signed into all the other apps. The idea is to eliminate having to sign-in multiple times to the same Google account for different apps. The latest app to get the update is Google Play Books, which was updated today to version 1.6.1 with support for Single Sign-On and copying selected text.

Google also recently added Single Sign-On support for its Chrome, YouTube, and AdSense iOS apps.

What’s New in Version 1.6.1

Added support for Google Single Sign-On, so that you only need to sign in once to access all of the Google apps on your device.
Added support for copying selected text, if copyright allows.
Stability improvements.

Textbooks rolling out to Google Play Books iOS app

Google announced back in July during its Google I/O keynote that it would be rolling out textbooks to Google Play Books sometime in August, and today the listings for textbooks have finally arrived in the store via an update to the iOS app. The textbooks get their own section in the Google Play Books store, and are currently only available to users in the US.

Google’s new textbooks are available to purchase, but some titles will offer a rental option that allows users to rent the book for a lower-cost over a six month period. Google is also providing free samples for the new textbooks. The service is currently available through the Google Play Books apps on Android, iOS, and on the web.

What’s New in Version 1.6.0

Highlighting and note-taking are now supported in scanned pages books.
Added support for rental books.
Added sepia reading mode.
Stability and performance improvements.