Making book buying easier on iPhones and iPads with Google Play Books
Buying ebooks on your iPhone or iPad has always been a bit tricky because you couldn’t buy them directly from most apps. But now, Google Play Books is changing things up to make it simpler.
Before, if you wanted to buy an ebook or audiobook through Google Play Books on iOS, you had to go outside the app. This was because of Apple’s rules about how purchases are made in apps. The app was only good for reading books you had already bought elsewhere, like on a website.
Now, Google has found a way around these rules. When you see a book you like in the Google Play Books app on your iPhone or iPad, there’s a new “Get book” button. When you tap it, a message pops up telling you to finish getting your book by going to a Google website.
But here’s the catch: after clicking the button, you get a warning from the App Store. It tells you that you’re leaving the app to go to an external site. Here, Google doesn’t manage your Apple account or payment methods, and Apple won’t handle any issues like refunds or subscriptions for purchases made there.
Once you agree to proceed, you don’t go straight to the book’s page. Instead, due to Apple’s restrictions, you land on a special Google page where you can pick up where you left off. From here, you choose your book again and complete the purchase using your Google account.
This new method is still a bit roundabout, but it’s an improvement from having to manually search for the book on Google’s website. It’s similar to what other apps like Netflix have done to navigate these same restrictions.
For a long time, Google Play Books has been available on iOS, Android, and the web, allowing users to buy and read books on different devices. Now, with the “Get book” button, buying books directly from your iOS device just got a little easier.