In January, Google added audiobook support to Play Books, and after integrating with Assistant Routines earlier this month, Google is updating PlayBooks with “Smart Resume,” Bookmarks, and greater speed controls, as well as expanding Family Library to more countries.
Today we have a few updates to make it even easier to enjoy a great book. – Google
With Smart Resume, Play Books will automatically rewind to the beginning of the word or sentence you paused at to provide greater context as “interruptions happens all the time.” It becomes much easier with a smart resume to jump back into where you have left off.
You can save all your favorite moments on the mobile apps with a bookmark in the Google Play Book app. Tap the bookmark icon to save this spot and revisit your favorite quote anytime. You can do this all in one step, hands-free with Google assistants.
Now you can listen to audiobooks with 3X speed to get through your book even faster, or slow books down to 0.5x in order to savor the language.
The audio player is also expanding the number of playback increments available in the speed control. At the moment, it starts at .75x and goes up to 2x with seven speeds in total. You’ll soon be able to listen to audiobooks at .5x or as fast as 3x.
Now it’s much easy to share audiobooks and ebooks with up to five family members. Shared books can be read online on Android, iOS, and the web. Lastly, the Family Library feature that allows you to share audiobooks and ebooks with up to five members is expanding to 13 new countries: “Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico, Japan (audiobooks only) and South Africa.”
Taken with the updates, Google Play teams are on quite a roll.
