Joining several Google apps getting updates today, like Hangouts, Drive, and Search, the Google Play Newsstand app has an updated poised to start rolling out to users. The update bumps the version up to 3.1 and adds some new features. Probably the most significant addition is translation. Using their own Google Translate engine, the Newsstand app is now able to translate any news feed into one of 47 different languages. Unfortunately, translation is not available for magazines yet.
Another noteworthy change is the addition of a widget for the app. It is not the greatest as it may be described as a “flat” widget. Users can resize the widget, but they are not presented with a stack of items to flip through like some other Google widgets like the one for YouTube. Instead, users get one story and an arrow to tap on to go to the next story. The update also moves the settings option to the hamburger menu instead of being in the overflow menu. Google also tweaked the layout when the app is loaded on a smartphone to present “mini” cards that cut down on the number of images presented, focusing more on presenting text on the limited screen space.
You can hit the download links below to check out Google Play Newsstand in the Google Play store. With Google's phased rollouts, you may need to check back over the course of a few days before the update appears for you.
