Google Play

If you are new to using the Google Play Books app, you'll find you have three free books in your library to help you get started: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, and Great Expectations. Just tap the book cover to start reading.

To add more books to your library, tap the shop icon to browse a selection of books on Google Play or tap the search icon to search by book title or author name. If a book in your library does not appear on your device, select Refresh, accessed from the action overflow button at the top-right corner, to update the display.

To resume reading a book, simply tap on the cover.

To turn the page, tap the right side of the screen or swipe from right to left. (To turn back, tap the left side or swipe the other way.)

You can also tap the center of the screen, which reveals a slider that you can use to see what page you're on or to move around the book.

In the top right, you'll also see two menu icons: one for searching for text in the book, and the action overflow button with additional options.

Another way to move quickly to other parts of the book is by using the table of contents. Tap the action overflow button in the top-right corner, and then tap "Contents" in the menu to access the table of contents. Note: If you are reading a free sample, the chapters that are not available as part of the free sample are grayed out.

To change the way your books are displayed, select the action overflow button in the top-right corner when reading. Then tap the "Display options" menu item.

There, you can change the font size, typeface, line height, and text alignment. You can also change the brightness settings, or choose between day and night themes. Note that many of these settings only apply when you are viewing the flowing text version of a book (see below).

Back to library. Tap the Google Play Books icon in the top-left corner of your book to go back to your library.

In-book Search. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner to search for a word or phrase in the book you're reading. This feature works only for books in flowing text. If you've made a book for offline reading, you'll be able to use in-book search even when offline.

About the book. Tapping "About the book" from the action overflow button in the top-right corner will display the Google Play Store page for the book, with its description, ratings, reviews and more.

Share. Tapping "Share" gives you the option to share about the book you're reading on the social networks you have installed on your device (i.e. Google+, Twitter, Gmail).

Available offline. To ensure that your book will remain available for offline reading, tap the box next to "Available offline" to check it.

We’re working hard to add features to the Google Play Books app for Android. If you would like to suggest a feature, please vote for it on this page.

First, tap the action overflow button in the top-right corner, and tap "Accounts" from the menu to make sure you’re signed into the Books app using the same account you used to purchase the book. Your Google Wallet receipt will be emailed to that account.

If you still can't see your book, tap on "Refresh" from the action overflow button.

If you still don’t see your book, you may need to manually re-sync your Books app. You’ll have to be connected to the internet, and we recommend connecting to a Wifi network if you do not wish to use data. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Android home screen
2. On an Android phone, go to Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All > Books > Clear data. (On an Android tablet running Honeycomb, go to Apps in the top right-hand corner > Settings >Applications > Manage applications > All > Books > Clear data.)
   
3. Re-open the Books app. There may be a delay in loading the first time as the complete book is re-downloaded.

Books that you read are automatically added to your library and downloaded to your device. If your device runs low on space, the local copies of books that you have not read recently may be removed to free up space. As long as you have a network connection, however, these books are still available to read, since they are still available in your library.

To see which book are available for offline reading, select Make available offline from the action overflow button in the top-right corner.

If you plan to be without a network connection — for example, on an airplane or on vacation abroad — then you can guarantee that a book will be available offline by "pinning" it. If you un-pin a book, it won't immediately be unavailable offline, but it may be subject to removal if your device runs low on space.

Note: The feature of being able to removing a book from your library on your Android device is currently not working. If you removed a book and can't add it back to your library, please go to the Known Issues page, where you can report this particular issue and be notified of when we've fixed it.

To remove a book from your library, long-press on the book cover in your library and select Remove from this device. Choosing this option will allow you to remove the book from just that device, freeing you to download the book onto an additional device if you are hitting the publisher's download limit. (Note that "Remove from this device" only appears if you've downloaded part or all of the book to your device.) Alternately, if you select Remove from my library, you will remove the book from your library across all devices.

You can re-add a book to your library via Google Play. Within Google Play on your device, choose "Open" for the book you'd like to add and then click "Read Now" in our mobile store.

You can re-add a book by visiting the My Books section of Google Play. Then click on the book's cover and then select 'Save in my Books' link. The book should now download automatically to your Android app.

Switching between carousel and list views in your library. You may view the books in your app's library in either a 3-D carousel mode or a list view. To switch between these, tap View as carousel or View as list from the action overflow button in the top-right corner.

Using another Google Account. If you have books under another Google Account which is registered with your Android device, you can switch to that account by selecting Accounts, from the action overflow button in the top-right corner.

Other ways to read books on Google Play. Any books you read on your Android phone will also be available for you to continue reading via your web browser and on other supported devices.

The Google Play Books app automatically stores books in the location with the most free space, whether that's your device or your SD card, as of when the app was first launched. If you've upgraded your app, your books will continue to be stored in the same location they were before the upgrade.

If your Android device came pre-installed with the Google Play Books app, you will not be able to uninstall it.

If you would like to make sure the Google Play Books app does not auto-update, go to the main section of the Google Play Store app. Then tap the action overflow button in the top-right corner. Tap My Apps. From the results, choose the Google Play Books app. Then, un-check the box that reads "Allow automatic updating."

If you would like to make sure the Google Play Books app does not use any data, go to Settings > Accounts & sync. If you have "auto-sync" checked, click into each of your accounts and un-check "Sync Books".

You can easily hide the Google Books app if your device is running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. Android 4.0 and higher now allows you to to to remove the icon from your home screen or app list. To do this, go to your device's Settings. Then tap Apps > All > Google Play Books. On this screen you can tap the button, "Disable." Once you have taken this step, you will see a notification asking if you wish to "Disable built-in app?" This will allow you to hide the display of the Google Play Books app, preventing the app from receiving any updates or notifying you. Note that if you don't see "Disable", you may instead see "Uninstall updates". You will have to uninstall any updates you made to the app before being able to disable it.

Please note that this will not permanently remove the app, and you can re-enable it at any time again from your device's settings.