Official Google Currents app is available for Android and has been updated to bring a plethora of new features, better interface, and fast performace.
Google Currents is a social magazine app providing you updated media and RSS news on Android. In simple terms, Google Currents app for Android makes it easy for you to browse news from the web and presents it in a simple readable and categorized format.
The app lets you subscribe to items and trending online news available across the web. It lets you subscribe to your favorite publications (for free) and create your own currents library with both media and RSS feeds.
Note: I have actually already written a review on Google Current here. But the latest version of the app is completely updated, and brings to you a new interface as well as host of new features. So, instead of writing just about the updates, I wanted to give a complete overview of the Google Currents afresh.
If you like to consume news on your mobile phone, then Google Currents is one of the best options out there. It lets you subscribe to your favorite newspapers and other websites and read them in a very intuitive form on Android. And the fact that you can subscribe to RSS feeds as well is an added advantage (though, I would stick to my Google Reader app to read my feeds).
How to Use Google Currents for Android:
When you launch the app, you will be prompted to sign-in with your Google Account. If you have already configured Google accounts with your phone, you can just choose one of them.
After that, it shows various categories in which publications are available. The categories include News, Sports, Entertainment, etc.
Once you choose a category, various publications shown in the category are available. Just click on any of those and browse latest articles of that publication on Right side of the app.
To scroll between articles, just keep scrolling up or down. And to scroll between categories, just swipe from right to left.
If you like some publications, then you can subscribe to them (for free) and then latest articles for those will be available on home page of the app whenever you launch the app.
RSS Feeds And Google Currents Categories:
Apart from subscribing to publications that are available within the app, Google Currents lets you subscribe to RSS feeds as well. For that, choose “Feeds” option from the left sidebar. Then click on “Customize”. This will show you all the feeds that are available in your Google Reader. Click on “Add” button for any of the feeds that you want to be available in Google Currents as well. However, one thing I noticed is that any article that I read in a feed in Google Currents is not marked as read in my Google Reader. That’s kinda bad.
One good feature it has is that it lets you read feeds even when you are offline. Of course, only limited number of items per feed are available. Also, images are not visible in offline mode (though, it gives an option to cache images as well so that you can see images also in feed when offline). More on offline reading below.
Read Subscriptions Offline:
As I mentioned above, Google Currents lets you read publications offline as well. Limited content from each publication is available offline. By default, images are not shown when you browse the content offline. However, if you want some subscriptions to show images also when you are in offline mode, you can do that easily. For that, click on “Customize” that is available in the left sidebar after every category. This will show you the list of publications that are available. With each publication, it will show a pin icon. Just click on the pin for the publication for which you want to see images in offline mode. Google Currents will then show you images also for that publication in offline mode.
Android Currents Widget:
Google Currents app for Android has home screen widget as well. You can add Google Currents widget on your Android home screen. The widget small sticky notes like pages which can be flipped on Android screen. So, you can see latest news on Android home screen itself. The widget even has a small refresh icon to refresh the content on the home screen.
Also out Google Finance app for Android reviewed by us.
Features Of Google Currents App For Android:
Subscribe to publishers’ editions and RSS feeds: You can subscribe to various publications and RSS feeds which the Google Currents makes it available to you on your Android device. Just select and start reading the updates on your Android.
Categorized view: The app lets you read the news, RSS feeds, and media news according to the categories. Categories in the app include lifestyle, business, science & tech, sports, entertainment, and the like.
Offline Reading: Read the content even if you are offline on your Android.
Switching between multiple languages: The app provides choice up to 44 languages which you can select and switch between.
Widget support: You can set Google Currents widget on your Android home screen and get all the news, feeds, media updates, and the like in magazine style.
Simple app: The user interface of the app is simple and easy to use. You just have to subscribe to publishers editions and RSS feeds and you are done with.
Also, check out Google Reader app for iPad reviewed by us.
Video Tutorial for Google Currents:
If you want, you can go through the video tutorial below and get the quick rundown of the app’s working and overview.
Download Google Currents App:
Download Google Currents app or just scan the QR code below:
Google Currents app lets you keep yourself up to date with all the tech news, media news, RSS feeds, and all sorts of updates from your subscription. For readers, this Google Currents is a must have app on Android.
