Google Play Newsstand gets Handoff & offline support and other goodies

Google Play Newsstand 3.0 for iOS (iPhone screenshot 002)

Google’s Play Newsstand iOS app (formerly Google Currents) was updated Tuesday with a few new features and several bug fixes.

The software now implements support for Handoff, a technology Apple built into iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite to make it easy to seamlessly transition between Macs and iPhones/iPads in apps.

With Handoff support in Google Play Newsstand, it’s now easy to resume reading on your Mac running OS X Yosemite or an iPhone or iPad running iOS 8. Jump past the fold for other changes in Google Play Newsstand 3.1.

If you bookmark an article, the app will download it to your device so you’ll be able to read it later even without an Internet connection.

People who use iOS’s Dynamic Type feature will be pleased to know that articles in Google Play Newsstand now honor their font size choices in Settings.

The Explore tab now includes international topics and the app supports an additional sixteen languages.

Google Play Newsstand 3.1 changelog:

  • Handoff support lets you resume reading on your Mac or other iOS device (requires OS X Yosemite and iOS 8).
  • Bookmarked articles are now available offline.
  • Articles now use the text size selected in Settings.
  • International topics and sources are available in Explore.
  • Support for 16 additional languages.
  • Fix for an issue with screen rotation on iOS 8.1.
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements.

The 3.1-megabyte app requires iOS 7.0 or later.

Download Google Play Newsstand free in the App Store.