Amazon revamps Goodreads app, adds friend updates, improved shelving and more

Goodreads 3.0 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 001)

Goodreads, the popular social cataloging service owned by Amazon, on Wednesday pushed a major 3.0 update to its iPhone and iPad application.

Now with a revamped user interface and several new features such as friend updates, improved shelving, a handy reading progress indicator and streamlined navigation, the app gives reading aficionados greater flexibility in terms of content discovery and exploring their favorite books.

Goodreads boasts more than 20 million members who have added an enormous 570 million books to their shelves. The app is available free of charge in the App Store.

If you haven’t used Goodreads before, it’s the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations which lets you discover and share interesting new books by browsing personalized recommendations based on books you’ve read and your favorite genres.

And thanks to the built-in barcode scanner, the app makes it fun and easy to read reviews before buying or add any book in your local bookstore to your To-Read shelf in Goodreads.

Goodreads 3.0 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 002)

Social features include keeping track of what you want to read, seeing what others are reading and so forth.

Goodreads 3.0 changelog:

  • Friend Updates: Beautifully re-designed feed where you can see your friends’ updates and like or comment on what they’re reading.
  • Streamlined Navigation: Access all of your favorite features more easily than ever.
  • Reading Progress: Now it’s simple to track what page you’re on and share thoughts on what you’re currently reading.
  • Improved Shelving: Shelve books as Read and Want to Read, and even create new shelves with custom names.

The 16.9-megabyte app runs natively on any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad capable of running the iOS 7.0 software or later.

[App Store]