Updated Google Currents app now available on the Play Store

At Google I/O 2012, we caught a glimpse of the new Currents app during the unveiling of Jelly Bean and now, you can find the updated app in the Google Play Store. The first thing you’ll notice is that Google has changed the logo of Currents and it’s no longer multi-colored but instead just a simple blue, much like the theme of Jelly Bean. The changes are not merely cosmetic though as Google has improved the performance of the app as well so web pages open and render a lot faster and smoother than before. They’ve also changed the look and feel of the app making it slicker and more fluid. Grab the app from the Play Store here. Currents is Google’s answer to Flipboard which gives you magazine like presentations for websites. 

Grab the new app

Here are some of the features that are present in Currents. 

• Publisher editions - Publishers such as Forbes, The Guardian, TechCrunch, PBS, Saveur, and more have produced hundreds of editions including in-depth articles, videos, fine photography, slideshows, live-maps, and social streams.
• Google trending editions - Google Currents uses Google search technology to hourly build a set of editions tracking the five most recent trending stories in categories such as world, entertainment, sports, science, and more. Each story is presented through a fresh edition of articles, videos, and pictures,
• Your favorite blogs and feeds - Instantly, turn your Google Reader subscriptions, or any of your favorite blogs/feeds into a beautiful edition with a magazine feel.
• Each edition is available for high speed offline reading, and provides quick-touch sharing. Google Currents self-adapts to differently sized phones and tablets, with your subscriptions synchronized across devices. Google Currents - a reading experience not to be missed.

When Currents first launched, Google’s Mussie Shore mentioned, “With this update, we’ve made Google Currents available globally, wherever apps are available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. International publishers, using Google Currents Producer, can now begin adding local content for an international audience, choosing where to make it available globally and whether to enable auto-translation.” 

Changes in the latest edition include :

• User interface - updated to Android standards
• Top navigation bar - auto hide, touch to show
• Library/trending toggle - moved to navigation bar
• Performance enhancements
• Bug fixes