The search monster Google on Tuesday refreshed its Currents for iOS application with a revamped design featuring all-new navigation, the ability to subscribe and get news from topics you’re most interested in, as well as discover new articles and editions in one place, and more.
There’s also the new My Library feature which collates all of your content subscriptions so they can be easily browsed and managed.
For those unfamiliar with Currents, it’s basically Google’s version of Apple’s stock iOS Newsstand application. The iPhone and iPad is available free in the App Store.
Interestingly enough, the Internet giant has also rebranded the app as Google Play Newsstand. This is in line with its naming scheme for Play Store client apps such as Google Play Music, Google Play Movies & TV and Google Play Books, which have been available on the App Store for quite some time now.
The refreshed app has a new Home screen icon, check out the old (left) vs. new (right) comparison below. I’m not a huge fan of the new icon, by the way.
Key highlights of this update:
- Currents is now Google Play Newsstand
- New navigation helping you easily access the articles and editions you love including:
- Read Now – Easily access articles you subscribe to and discover new articles and editions all in one place
- Topics – Subscribe and get news from topics you are most interested in
- My Library – All of your subscriptions will be found here
- A brand new design giving you a streamlined news reading experience
Google Play Newsstand lets you enjoy multimedia articles featuring audio, video and more from your favorite bloggers, websites and big media publishers. The name of the game is consistency: Google Play Newsstand delivers publishers’ content in a consistent fashion.
Available content covers a wider range of topics, from sports, business, cooking, entertainment, fashion and more, with categories like Arts & Photography, Business & Finance, Food & Drink and what not.
The app doubles as a bookmarking service allowing you to save the stories you don’t have time to read for later.
Google Play Newsstand 3.0 comes in at 6.1MB and works natively on any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad powered by iOS 7.0 or later.