Do some reading on the go. Kobo’s Android app is perfect for your tablet or smartphone, and it couldn’t be any easier to use. Whether you want to quickly browse thousands of free books or pay for the latest best-sellers, Kobo’s got you covered.
In my opinion the best digital reading experience is on an e-ink screen, which is why I love my Kobo Wireless. Sure, it’s out of date, but all I need it for is reading. Sometimes you don’t have your ereader with you, however, and that’s when Kobo for Android comes in handy. If you own a Kobo, and bought books for it, there’s no reason not have this app. It syncs with your reading material.
Even if you don’t own a Kobo, however, this app is worth checking out. It offers thousands of free books and can easily sync with your computer. It also offers comments on individual pages in any book, something no other reading app currently offers.
Reading On Android
Fire up the Kobo app, log into your account and you’ll be presented with your books along with some recommended titles.
Tap any of your books to start reading, or head to your personal library. All of the books you’ve previously purchased for Kobo will show up here.
There are free books, mainly from the public domain, if you want to try out the reading experience before paying for anything. Speaking of: what really counts when it comes to a reading app is the actual reading experience. Kobo delivers: the app gets out of your way and lets you focus on your words.
Don’t like the look? There are limited customization options. You can’t pick just any font, size and color but you can select from the limited options:
This should be flexible enough for the vast majority of people, and all the choices look good.
One feature – or annoyance, depending on your point of view – is comments for every page. Kobo’s Android app allows you to leave comments while you’re reading the book, and you can also see what other people have to say.
Personally I find this a distraction from the reading experience, but if you love reading comments below web articles you’ll also enjoy this.
One other annoyance: if you subscribe to any newspapers or magazines using Kobo you cannot see them in the Android app. That feature seems to be limited to Kobo devices and iOS apps, for some reason.
Importing Other Books
Do you have other ebook files on your computer? Assuming those files are DRM-free, you can easily import them. Just run the import wizard and the Kobo app will grab them:
Note that imported books will not sync with your other Kobo devices; that only works with books you find in Kobo’s store.
Conclusion
Kobo’s app is worth checking out, if you enjoy reading. Sure, Kobo offers its own tablet, but why purchase a dedicated device when any Android one will do? All you need to do is install the Kobo App and any Android device can do the job.
How do you like the app? Let me know in the comments below, or recommend other Android readings apps.
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Looks good. Will check it out on my Android tablet…
Well, I use some other book readers, but I will try to take a look at it… But I don’t really want more and more signings into services… Tired…
Cheers
Márcio Guerra
amazing article !
Kobo is a good app. Have used it on my bro’s android tablet. Just does what it’s supposed to with minimal fuss.
I tried this app because I Amazon’s Kindle app seems to forget the zoom level whenever I turn the page. However, I created an account and went through the import wizard and it didn’t pick up any of the PDFs I got from the Humble Book Bundle.
They only can read the books purchased in the web.
It can import, but I think you need the EPUB version of the books.
Looks very clean and nice
i will install it on My samsung galaxy S2
Justin,
I am currently using the Kindle Fire app on my Sammy Galaxy Chat GT-B5330 Android 4.0.4 . So what do you reckon, should I changeover to Kobo? I mostly use e-reader to read the great English classics, which I get totally free at Amazon Store.
It’s a matter of preference. Try this out if you’re interested; you’ll find all the English classics in Kobo Both apps are well done, in my opinion.
I use Kobo on my Blackberry Playbook and found it very very good! But the only negative point is that I can only have book purchased from the internet or free one. You can’t import other book inside the app.
Well, you can import other books in the Android version. EPUBs only, I think, but you can.
Cool. I love reading. I have to try this. =)
I remember their was a kobo reading device. Was that project ended at some point? If it was I think this is a really good idea and I may get the app.
They still make eReaders. This app syncs with them, meaning you can read a few pages on your phone before switching to your ereader when you get home.
awesome…………….much better than wattpad!!
For some reason KOBO seems to think I am a 30+ woman or a tween as these are types of books it recommends. I emailed their support for help and suggested they get a system more like goodread.com as it suggests books I am much more interested it. I sideload most of my books with Calibre as Kobo does not show any content on the device that was not loaded via their system. I really only have their app on my PC for updating my device. I will not use their android app until there system displays books not loaded via their store/windows app.
You can add EPUBs to the app easily, as mentioned above. And the recommendations will probably improve if you do so.