Google has launched a new app and storefront which rolls digital magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other news sources into one service. It’s called Google Play Newsstand, and it replaces Google Play Magazines and Google Currents on Android devices.
You can use the app as a free news reader for content from online publications. Or you can use it to subscribe to content from magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, or Vanity Fair.
There are two pieces of the new Newsstand. You can visit the Newsstand category in the Play Store to find and purchase content. And you can use the mobile app to read on your Android phone or tablet.
You can save articles from various news sources to read when you’re offline. And even if you don’t subscribe to anything at all, you can probably find something to ready when you first fire up the new app — the “Read Now” page offers recommended articles from various news sources.
Before you can download any content from Newsstand you’ll have to update the Play Magazines app on your mobile device — or Google Currents if you’re in a region that never had access to Play Magazines. Newsstand effectively replaces both of those apps.
According to Engadget, Google plans to make Newsstand available for iOS in 2014 as well, although it might not have all of the features available in the Android version (like support for in-app purchases of periodical subscriptions or individual issues).
Does anyone know if there’s any plans to also support RSS feeds a la Google Reader? Will we come full circle? This would be an awesome all-in-one news and information app!