Google Currents: a mobile look at magazines

April 12, 2012

schedule 2 min read
Google Currents provides a new, user-friendly magazine reader interface that purports to be faster and better than others

Google Currents provides a new, user-friendly magazine reader interface that purports to be faster and better than others

In December 2011, Google, the user-friendly Internet giant, released an app for Android and iOS that allows users to read their favorite magazines on tablets and smart phones: Google Currents. About four months after its debut a new update improved the app’s speed and performance. The new improvements were all spurred by suggestions from users.

 

The first user-incited improvement was faster syncing between the app and their favorite magazines. Google delivered on this petition with a “7x speed increase.” With this improvement, readers access content from a plethora of providers such as Forbes, PBS and Popular Science faster than ever, with updates that are just as fast.

 

The second augmentation was the massive update to the app’s international support. Google has added support for 44 languages with the ability to instantly translate 38 of these into other languages with the touch of a button. Among the obvious benefits, this enhancement will be especially helpful for international university students and students in the ESL program looking for a new or different way to brush up on their English.

 

Currents also provides a fresh way to view blogs. This new interface will help students keep up on class-related blogs that have become more popular in academic curricula. Professors often look for new ways to share course content with their students and blogs seem to work quite well for this.

 

Currents is not the first app to provide this type of experience on mobile devices, though. Flipboard and Reddit provide similar experiences, but Google has certainly raised the bar with its language support, something that these other apps have only lightly touched.

 

This app is a must-have for Android users looking for a new way to view magazines on their tablets and phones. As per Google’s modus operandi, Currents will likely continue to deliver an amazing experience that will only get better.

 

By John Carlsen

Technology Writer