When comparing Google Play Books vs Swarm by Foursquare, the Slant community recommends Google Play Books for most people. In the question“What are the best Material Design apps?” Google Play Books is ranked 65th while Swarm by Foursquare is ranked 77th. The most important reason people chose Google Play Books is:
Google Play Books offers many options while reading such as bookmarks, highlights and notes. Making for a good app to use for academic .pdfs and .epubs.
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Pros
Pro Allows bookmarking pages, highlighting text, and adding notes
Google Play Books offers many options while reading such as bookmarks, highlights and notes. Making for a good app to use for academic .pdfs and .epubs.
Pro Supports PDF & EPUB uploads
Users can use the Google Play Books webpage or app to upload their own .epubs or PDFs.
Pro Built-in dictionary
Google Play Books has an inbuilt dictionary for users to use to look up unfamiliar words.
Pro Font, font-size, layout and theme can be customized
Margins, text size, line spacing and color theme of the page can be changed to the users liking,.
Pro Syncs across devices
No matter what device one is using the Google Play Books service on it will sync all eBooks and placement into the cloud.
Pro Immersive mode
Google Play Books has built in immersive mode when reading. This allows for the navigation and notification bars to be hidden, allowing the full screen to be used for the eBook.
Pro Responsive interface
Like the majority of Google's apps, Google Play Books has a slick interface that works quite smoothly.
Pro Has light and dark themes
Google Play Books offers a dark and a light theme to make it easier to read in dark or light rooms.
Pro Books can be bought or rented directly from the app
Google Play Books has an in built eBook store within the app, making for a convenient way to purchase titles.
Pro Has text-to-speech support
Text to speech can be used to have an eBook read to the reader aloud.
Pro Stickers
Formerly known as badges in the original app, you will be rewarded stickers whenever you check-in to a specific place or for the number of check-ins you have made.
Pro Mayorships
Mayorships is a feature where the person with the most check-ins in that particular place will be rewarded with a mayorship of that particular place.
Pro Leaderboard
Leaderboard is a features that ranks how frequent you and your friends gain points via check-ins, exploring new places and mayorships.
Pro Powered by Foursquare
All of the places data is obtained from Foursquare, as Swarm is part of Foursquare product.
Cons
Con Lacks library management features
No shelves, categories, or reading lists.
Con External SD card
Google play books doesn't have the ability to save the downloaded books to an external SD card.
Con Viewing a place requires main Foursquare app
Since there is a split between place discovery and the social check-in feature in main Foursquare app, anyone who wants to check out a place must install the main Foursquare app in order to view the places details, photos and contacts.