How Google is Beating Amazon at the eBook Game

Audible is Amazon’s audiobook company. One of the nice things about using an audiobook from Audible is that, when paired with a Kindle ebook, the audio in Audible stays synchronized with the text of the ebook. That means you can effortlessly switch back and forth between listening to the book and reading the book. One of the main drawbacks of Audible though is the pricing. You need to pay for the book plus pay for the audio.

Enter Google Play Books.

Google Play Books is a free app that lets you purchase ebooks, as well as read your own ebooks (formatted as epub.) Like Kindle, Google Play Books synchronizes your progress across devices – even for books you didn’t purchase from Google (such as those downloaded from Project Gutenberg. Unlike Kindle, all of your books are available even in their browser reader and desktop.

On top of that, GPB has another killer feature. While reading any book, simply choose "Read Book Aloud" and your ebook is instantly read to you using Google’s dictation AI. While not nearly as good as an author reading their ebook, I’ve found it’s actually very useful and works really well – especially considering the price: FREE. So before buying your next Kindle Book with Audio from Audible, give Google Play Books a try!