Google Play Books & Audiobooks

Google Play Books to me, is a great digital book, library edition for any reader on any device. Its interface is easy to understand. However, it can be challenging for some who may suffer from certain brain conditions. The outside looks have a brand emblem that's crisp in colors. Now, I have to be candid, but I have bought some of my fav authors' books, samples, etc. But honestly, I don't like to read and I'm a writer, published. Yikes, I said that out loud! 🙊 Great Book Library, Google. 💯

This app is a good place to keep and read my ebooks. I only have two problems with it; one, you can't manually sort books that are in a Shelf. And two, even though I have the "For You" notifications off, I still keep getting popups for price drops on books I don't want. Not going to be a crybaby bigot over it like some people, though. However, these few issues are not that big of a deal, so I gave the app five stars.

It works well for the most basic of use cases: reading. But it lacks a lot of features that other reader apps have. For instance, if you want to highlight text on multiple pages... nope! can't do that! Compare this to what Kindle app offers, or even some of the smaller apps offers, it's very bare-bones. At least the book prices are somewhat competitive!! And syncing books and progress across multiple devices works well.

Does what it's supposed to do without issues most of the time. I never really used it to buy anything, but their books are fairly priced, possibly less than a physical copy in some cases. I prefer either going to the library or buying a physical copy at bargain prices, but whenever I want an e-book, this is 1 of the first places I look. Definitely can give Kindle a run for its money, but it depends on your preference & all. Excellent overall... 👍🏻😍

I have enjoyed using Google Books since the beginning, the only issue I have is when using read aloud, the page in the viewer doesn't always (or most often) stay synced with what is being read. Then if you stop, it returns to the page in the viewer, not where it stopped reading. Please fix... I do want to compliment the speech team, the synthesized voice is very good. It only stumbles on words with 2 pronunciations, like "live" or "minute".

I have used this app for years and been disappointed for most of that time. I held out hope that eventually someday it would improve but it is almost as if it is abandonware. You cannot group your collection by author, you cannot edit or update book information. There are no "shelves" the ui for what little it can do is ok but really it is average. It is kludgy at nearly every task, including if you want to buy a book. The play bookstore is about what you would expect if 5th graders ran it. and just like the app, no apparent order, no way to sort or really do much of anything. I have 500 books in play books but to browse is just ridiculous. This is a 1-2 star app. It's only saving grace is syncing between devices which it does well. The app is terrible and if you ever try to read on a computer, just don't, it is terrible. unlike many google apps this one just never improves. if you upload a book to it, no lie, it then makes you download the book (even if you have it locally already) in order to read it.. I cannot stress enough how bad this app is. I tried another app, not free, but i am getting sync setup so i can just avoid this app from now on. it does not deserve my eyes.

Very pleased. The only things I would like added are a way to sync my library with my pc. So far after many tries, no luck. Also i have not found a way to adjust the reading light level. Tried to do on my Android setting also but the two don't seem to sync, though that could be my ignorance on how to do... Otherwise I love being able to read a book wherever I happen to be and not have to carry heavy books everywhere as in the past( tho' I still love curling up with an actual books at home).

I read in the evening and would really like Red text on Black. Google please can you add more flexibility. This reader is pretty marginal to bad. I would love to use Google Play Books more but I do not like the reader. My main complaint is the lack of color choices. I read in the evening, my other readers for free e-books allow Red text and Black background which I find the best for the evening. Are there any other readers for Google Play Books ?? Please. I need more text color options.

I love this app...... almost to the point of saying it's better than Amazon but I will continue to use both as all authors don't partner with both. My only complaint is where the app recommends "E Books for you" I keep marking some as not interested, the book returns to the "E Books for you" recommendation section. Why? I've already noted I am not interested in that book for whatever reason.

Originally 5 stars for the free read along. But you can not set a timer, so sometimes I will fall asleep and wake up to the book finished. This app also has a hard time catching up to the read along. Sometimes, the book will say I am on page 40, but the read aloud is reading page 120..it doesn't always synch. (This could also be my older phone. I still love this app, though, and I have found myself using this over my kindle more and more

I like most google apps, and when I found out there was a books one I was thrilled. I have a ton of ebooks that I like to read and I assumed this would be a great app to store and read when I want. I was wrong. You cant sort uploaded ebooks at all. You cant add them as a series for easy binge reading, you cant make any "shelves" to sort them into groups, even though there is a shelves page that is pretty much a waste. All your books show in one long list in the library, and some of the names get messed up in the upload due to metadata, but you cant rename them to try and oranize them that way either. Im shocked by the terrible user experience of this application.

I cannot download the ebooks I have purchased for some reason. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app but it didn't work. It keeps saying "The book cannot be downloaded right now. Try again later." It's been like this all day. This is the first time I am having such an issue with google books. I can still download the samples of unpurchased ebooks though. This is very strange. Help. (april, 2025) issue seems fixed, not too sure how though, still a little slow, rating changed to 4 stars

Great, until it stopped functioning. I continually get a "This file couldn't be uploaded. Check your internet connection and try again." error trying to upload a book. I can't find any info online how to fix it, so I have migrated to another app. I don't want to delete and reinstall because I have too many books on here and don't want to have to reload everything. You'd think Google could fix this kind of thing.

They would not cover the cost of my book (purchased and owned for 2 years) when the Book ID suddenly changed and I was expected to buy it again. They would only refund the amount that I paid years ago back when it was $4 and now is $10+ dollars. I've been using Play Books since 2015 and now no longer use it due to their unwillingness to cover the cost of my favorite book. It was not even my fault that the Book ID changed but I was expected to repurchase for more $. Absolutely ridiculous.

Is there a way to stop the app from automatically downloading a purchased book? I like to go through the free books and grab ones that look good, but I'm not necessarily ready to read all of them the minute I "buy" them. It is blowing up my phone and taking up so much storage. I know how to remove a downloaded book in the app, but you can only do one at a time and it takes forever. Would rather just have them waiting in the cloud for whenever I am ready. Other than that, it's a great app.

Imagine you bought an entire series of books and kept them on your shelf to reread occasionally. Now imagine if the store you bought them from decided to come to your house and replace the wonderful cover art with cartoonish images. Imagine they also swap the text of the novels with an earlier draft that requires some serious proof reading. Also, the new version doesn't use the same pagination. Yep, your highlights & notes no longer mean anything. Imagine no more; Google Play Books does it all.

Everything you need plus all the essentials all in one app! That's great! If you are not a regular reader of books, get into it with use of this app. Nothing to hold a reader back, from beginning to end! You can go anywhere in the world in unlimited settings! That's how my mother described reading any book to me, when I was in my early years. She could complete any huge book in a day, lots in one afternoon! And that's a small way a person could put themselves into a book & be there!

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 love Google books, I love that I can tell my Google home to read my book to me. Lately though my audiobooks keep stopping for no reason mid sentence and I have to keep opening the app to restart it. It drives me crazy, I want to set it to play and do my work or drive. This used to be the best app, please fix it! Edited 09/22: The app works perfectly now!

• text to voice needs more voice and speed options • home page of app should be library with a search tool. • book suggestions should be a menu item under profile, or a tab in the app. instead, it's always "greeting" me with "here! buy this!" It's hard (at first) to get back to books I've already bought. soon, we won't be able to go anywhere or do anything without damn commercials yelling at us. I'll tell you how i want to spend my money, thank you. Don't shove stuff in my face. It's rude.