Google Currents was introduced back in December, bringing to the Android platform yet another app that collates news from websites, various publications, and blogs to present them in a more interesting magazine-like layout. While Google initially restricted access to the app to users in US only, it didn’t stop the APK file from making the rounds on the Internet, allowing international news junkie to get their daily fix of information.
It’s only today Google rolls out the international version of Google Currents. Along with the international roll out, which now makes the app available in 44 languages, the new 1.1.0 version of Google Currents comes with other improvements. The most notable one is the improved sync speed, which Google apparently has boosted by seven times. One of the things people disliked about the old Google Currents was how fetching new editions of certain publications seem to take ages. We’ll see how the new one handles it.
The updated version of Google Currents removes the sync button from the app’s main interface, as it gives way to the instant online sync feature. This means users can simply select a publication and the app will fetch the latest stories for them. There’s still a handy menu to sync all the publications you have by going to the settings, which is something we’d actually prefer. Instead of waiting for the app to fetch the stories from each publication as you open it one by one, it’d be much more efficient to click that one button and wait until everything has been updated.
If, for some reason, you want your news to come in another language, you can now have the app translate everything to your desired language, and you have 38 to choose from. Some old features have also receive a facelift. For instance, the Google trending feature now provides a glimpse of what local topics are the hottest in countries outside the US, such as France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia.
We love what we’re seeing so far at the new Google Currents. Our main gripe is not about the update itself, but about how some publications don’t actually show the whole articles and force you to go to their website. But this is more of an exception, rather than the rule. So we can live with that!
What do you think about the new update? Yay or nay?
