Google Play Books & Audiobooks Reviews

I’m trying GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks out because I’m doing battage of the books so I need something that has all the books that are mostly free, my friends on my team are gonna get this so I’m super excited to try it out!
5 days later~
GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks is horrible! I was using my school account cause I didn’t have another one and so did and so did my friends some bug got into all of our accounts and it stated that we had been hacked, if you are gonna get GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks, DONT! And if you are gonna get it anyways, PLEASE DONT USE A SCHOOL OR PERSONAL ACCOUNT!!! Make a new one. It was all so horrible what happened to me and my friends so please take my advice and don’t get GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks. I’m so disappointed and dissatisfied. I was so excited to try GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks and now this makes me sick. I have been experiencing glitches on my school account ever since that on GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks along with all my friends who got it. I’m actually to the point where I’m very concerned about my school acc, sometimes it won’t even open docs and stuff. Please fix this or take all accounts off so it makes it easier for everyone else. Ugh.

I found GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks great, still there are lot of things to improve to make it better. The great thing is that it has best 3d flipping animation while turning pages and it also syncs book to its drive, it can read both pdf and epub though it would better if it could read azw3, djvu, mobi, etc. it would also be better if i could put on some notes in it also it has some issues to be fixed while, i turn on voice for book it shuts off while going to another page simply it could read only a page at a time. i cant edit highlights i've previously made, to edit those highlight i should have to delete whole selected highlight and should be made again. To make GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks better if user could make folders to separate different files. It would be great and i would be so thankful if the above issues and features would be upgraded. Thankyou for listening me.

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Google Books over the years. I used it some years ago for school, but quickly switched to Books when I got my first iPad. A few months ago I went back to GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks to purchase a book in another language. I love that there’s a specific button for translation, but that’s about it. Sometimes notes show up, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they move. And, being in the margin, they’re difficult to retrieve without turning the page, if it opens at all. Also. I don’t know what happened between when I purchased the book (summer 2020) and now (winter 2020), but now purchasing books in GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks is disabled. The prices aren’t even listed. I’ve noticed that the Google/Android model involves needing different apps for functions that could be done by one app, but not being able to purchase books in an app designed for reading books seems overwhelmingly defeatist.

Been using this to read a bestseller technical book for the past 3 months. I've observed the following issues so far:

1. Highlight colors mismatch: I use both web browser version and iOS to read for convenience. When I highlight using blue or red in web browser, the highlights are displayed as green or yellow in iOS app. This is really annoying because I highlight a different category of things in green/yellow. This mixes them up. This is a really small but obvious and disturbing friction for users.

2. Images disappear: I paid $33 for the ebook, the same price as its paper copy. This I'm expecting the same content. However, certain images are not available in iOS app.

3. Highlight "wiggles": countless times when I highlighted, either a word or a sentence, the highlight would wiggle. For example, if a word appears in both the subtitle and the paragraph, when I highlight the one in the paragraph, the highlight would show up on the subtitle. When I highlight a sentence, the highlight will be displayed off by several words or even characters.

4. Highlight disappears: when the highlights don't wiggle, they would sometimes disappear. They'll still show up in the list of notes, but they stay invisible on the page. They GHOST you.

5. My thumbs are too tired to type more but I'm sure I observed more... I rarely rate apps, let alone writing a review this long, but 4.6/5 is beyond inconceivable.

As a reader app it does the job solidly! I can easily read any book I have purchased through Google however the browsing abilities of GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks are severely lacking. I don't want to peruse articles as much as I want to look for more books I might find an interest in. When opening GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks there is a decent "recommended for you" list but with no way to change or extend the list, search a new list or simply refresh the list without going through a "build your interests" type form. Obviously, I can browse on a desktop or laptop but that isn't as convenient as being able to do it from the same device I just finished reading from.
It could also benefit from manipulating the screen timer. It's quite frustrating to constantly have to unlock the phone because the screen times itself out on every page.

All my purchased books have no images. Anytime there is supposed to be an image, it just says “image not available”, including on all the covers and photo inserts. When I download a sample, it does display the image! Does not make sense to me, and this just started only two days ago. I will wait to purchase any more books on my list for google play books until this is fixed. Other than this, it is (was) the highest quality of all the ebook apps.

UPDATE: I thought it was fixed as I was getting images there for awhile, tried downloading some more books and “image not available” is occurring again! Please fix so I can always see the images when I open the book, I wii wait until this is finally fixed before making amy more purchases. Other than this glitch, all is good.

App will not download or display books comprised of images (comic books). GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks will show the download is complete, but all pages will be “image not downloaded.” Until recently, deleting a bad download and trying again would sometimes fix this issue - but not anymore. Application has options “delete download” and “delete from library” right next to each other in the menu. If you accidentally delete from library, you lose the book - permanently. Google can’t restore the original purchase, they can only give you a refund - you have to contact support directly for this. Until the refund is processed, you cannot purchase the accidentally deleted book again, either. GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks used to work for comics, but no longer. You are probably better off trying to purchase and read comics via the comic publishers own apps. Hopefully Google fixes this issue with either the content or GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks soon.

(TLDR: no page forward from left side of screen)

Pros compared to native iBooks:
- text size, font, spacing far more customizable
- text fills to the edge of the screen (finally!)
- navigation to the "bookstore" is hidden in the left toolbar (no more tapping 4 different bottom-row icons by accident when I just want to read books from my library)
- interface just "feels" more updated/streamlined

Cons:
- NO OPTION TO PAGE FORWARD WHEN TAPPING THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SCREEN. This is my biggest issue with GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks . If you don't mind, then you'll probably really like GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks . It might make it almost unusable for me
- no ability to sort books into folders (while convenient in iBooks, the fact that they force an "all books" main screen instead of just uncategorized books makes it worthless to me, so in that regards it's not a big issue that play books doesn't have it)

I only use it to read uploaded epubs so I don't know how everything looks for purchased books. However, I would like the opportunity to customize the blank cover that shows up with uploaded books, with my own image or text. That alone would entice me to use GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks even without the ability to page forward from the left of the screen.

I’m giving this four stars because in some cases it seems to work well. My biggest complaint is getting samples of books. I like the ability to view a sample... but once a sample, always a sample... in GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks anyway. I purchased the full book and can read the entire book on the browser but as soon as I go back to GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks it’s a sample again. I’ve tried deleting the download and even removing the title and then going back to the full book on the web browser and clicking “view in app”. Even if I’m in chapter one on the browser when I click to view in app, it goes back to the introduction and says none of the chapters are able to be viewed. Like it’s still a sample. So I’m annoyed with that but otherwise GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks seems okay.

I would never lie and say I am an avid reader, but there are some things that catch my interest. GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks's library has not let me down yet! I am extremely impressed by what they consider to be a "sample". There idea of a sample is pretty lengthy and almost to the point that you forgot that you will need to actually purchase the particular book you are reading to complete it. The options to bookmark, easily navigate through the book & highlight makes this a great electronic option for those who prefer or choose to go this route.

Other than that, forget it. Forget sorting your books, looking up word definitions or doing searches for words outside of GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks . The search function used to work until Google ‘fixed’ it in an update. Now the search function just loads your web browser to the Google home page. Thanks Google! The bookmarks function is clunky at best. Translation rarely works as expected. Pages often get cut off at random, or GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks sticks on a page and has to be rebooted. Google really should take a page from the Kindle app, which has far and away superior functionality on all of these fronts. I only use GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks to read the books my partner has downloaded to it, otherwise I avoid it because it’s seriously frustrating.

There is no other app for reading old, obscure works (for free in most cases) but Google Play. With it, I've read Joseph Priestley's "Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit" and I'm partway through his "Corruptions of Christianity." Also, George Berkeley's "Alciphron." Now I've moved on to Sir Humphrey Davy's "Elements of Chemical Philosophy," books that no one in their right mind would spend time on, but still so much fun. This is only augmented by the ability to highlight in five colors and to make your own footnotes. You can define most words in the text or else search for them on the web. I highly recommend this for any fan of dead authors.

I only use this for audiobooks so far (I’m on my third book), and it is competent on this function. Especially, I like how it will go back to the start of a sentence whenever you begin playback, which means you are never lost about what is being discussed.

HOWEVER. The inability to buy books through GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks is absolutely baffling. So much can be done through mobile these days; how can a company such as Google completely hollow out GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks’s potential by making people go buy books on a desktop, just to listen on mobile. This seems like such a blatant omission that there must be some explanation for why it’s not included, but it definitely hurts the user experience.

Do better Google

My daughter recommended GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks because both of us were taking a course that required lots of reading, questions, & class participation. Extra research was required to complete the course. I used other books but I couldn’t under line or add notes to references attached to the original text. So I finally listened to her & switched to Google Play Books. WOW!!!!! Immediate results: my concentration was greatly improved & studying time was decrease drastically. Thanks So Much!!!!!

I recently decided to give Google audiobooks a try. I just downloaded a Google audibook. I started playing it, then navigated away from GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks so that I could check email. Once I navigated away from GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks , the audiobook stopped playing. Seriously? How far behind the times do you have to be? Audible, Kobo book audibooks, Nook audibooks. What do they all have in common? As long as you didn’t press the stop button, the audio continues playing after you navigate away from GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks .

Google Books needs to be update ASAP to allow for background audio for audiobooks; meaning, as long as you don’t hit the stop button, the audibook keeps playing even after you navigate away from the Google Books app.

I gave Google’s new Audiobooks support a chance, because I own Google Home products.
Playback constantly fails, and then it will not remember the last playback location, returning to the one before it failed. This happens when using voice commands with your Google Home or when casting from GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks. The only way playback won’t fail is you either play it locally on your phone or use Bluetooth, which is what I was doing before (and will now return to doing) with Audible.
So for ebooks? Sure, go ahead and get it. But if you’re looking to start using this for your new audiobooks purchases, I must suggest you hold off until Google works out all the kinks and it doesn’t feel like a beta feature anymore.

I love GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks as depending on the system you use you can listen to your books which is a feature I love. I wish it read PDF books as well however, for some reason the latest update has every book regardless of form errors out. All I get is a message saying there was an error uploading the file. Just to be on the safe side I have tried to re-download one of my previously downloaded books from my IF app (Instafreebie) and I still get an upload error message. Outside of this first and only issue I have had with GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks I would give it five stars however the fact that it’s not working for any new books I buy or books from the authors I review for I have to give it 1 star as I am now forced to use other reading apps rather than the one I want to use.

Select titles stop opening or cut off text. Google tech support personnel untrained to resolve problems with google play books app on iPhones. Malfunctioning titles deleted from google play books library on iPhones are not replaceable. Requests emailed to google customer service to receive a functioning copy of a malfunctioning title are ignored. Google customer support drops calls. Google automated refund system rejects valid refund requests and requires manual override by customer support personnel. (To obtain my refund for a malfunctioning title, I had to call customer support three [3] times. Customer support had to call me back three [3] times.) Tone of service of google customer support personnel is very good; but google customer support personnel lack the training and tools to resolve problems after the sale. Buyer beware.

Let me start by saying that this is easily the worst reading app I’ve ever used. I’m amazed at its inability to perform even basic functions. It doesn’t recognize my pressing and dragging to highlight, so anything I’m reading as research takes 2-3 times as long. It randomly freezes and crashes, and pages take long seconds to turn. I’ve rage quit countless times and feel like a total idiot for buying 3 Google Books having not tried the apps. GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks has now become the bane of my existence. Reading has become a giant source of frustration. Please do not make this mistake and buy their books if you rely heavily on reading apps!!! I honestly never write reviews but this product is so bad I had to say something.

GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks works well enough to allow me to simply read my books and take notes… but that’s really all it is. The design interface is bare minimum with no real features to write home about. Compared to the features and usability of Apple’s Books app, this one is pretty basic and under performs what I’ve seen Google put into their other applications and products. Additionally, I am unable to purchase books through it (is this an Apple issue?) which isn’t convenient by any means. GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks just feels like it’s due a well deserved refresh and overhaul.

Pros: GooglePlayBooksAudiobooks is very good at syncing between all your devices. Also allows for multiple highlighting and annotations, though they are rather unattractive. Also, kudos to Google for being the only reader that allows you to choose between scanned and flowing editions. This is very helpful for the academic who really needs to see physical page numbers for citation purposes.

Cons: The previous update allowed for highlighting of scanned pages, and that's a step in the right direction, but it didn't work very well at all and was quite frankly a mess on the scanned page I used it on. The new search function in PDFs is also a great idea, though, once again, it didn't work on some of the PDFs; it did, however, work on most of them.

Lacks one common sense feature. For example, if I select a hyperlink and it takes me to another part of the book, it would be nice to have a "back" button. For endnotes, you can select the number of the endnote and get back to the place you were in the text, but endnotes are not the only hyperlinks, and there needs to be a "back" button in these instances (as there is in the desktop version). Currently there is none. Also, The method of selecting the text for annotation is clunky and needs to be improved like the other readers.

Certainly not a replacement for Kindle or Apple Books at this point. Otherwise, a decent app.

I'm so thankful that Google decided to digitize and preserve the writings that may have been lost in this digital era. Their work has been a treasure trove for people like me who feel that the only true way to have a complete picture of our past is to continue to read the writings of those who have preceded us. And if we don't know our history we are sure to repeat the worst parts of it. Thanks, Google. Now I can take thousands of interesting and thoughtful people with me in my relatively tiny purse.

The book reader does fine, however the display often messes up. I do a lot of highlighting, in various colors. When reading a chapter I previously used some highlighting on, sometimes I’ll turn the page and the entire page is highlighted one color, turn the page the entire page is highlighted another color, turn the page and things are back to normal. If I click anywhere on the page that’s completely highlighted, and hit delete the entire page’s highlighting disappears, but I don’t know if what I wanted to be highlighted also disappears. I hope they fix this bug.

I am a college student and I just love how easy it is to upload PDF versions of textbooks to google play on my computer and then view the on my phone. Google play automatically compresses the textbooks and lets me download them for offline viewing on my phone. I can then access the textbook from any device with either the google play app or any computer through their website. The yellow (blue light removal) feature is also great for late night study sessions.