Announced in June, at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple’s redesigned book app is available for iPad and iPhone users who have updated their devices to iOS 12.
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The app, previously called iBooks, is now Apple Books. The change of the name could suggest we will see a milestone update. In a press release from June, Apple even calls the app “new,” what is reflected in the App Store (iBooks is removed, Apple Books is available at the new link).
Apple Books, […], is a new app that has been entirely redesigned to make discovering and enjoying books and audiobooks effortless for iPhone and iPad users.
The changes and improvements are considerable, but it’s not the new app – at least from the user’s point of view. For instance, the book reading interface was not touched at all. The design follows a general iOS trend to show ultra-huge headers – but this time they are in a serif font.
Among the biggest changes, there is a quick start section called Reading Now, better library management, and automatic night theme.
Reading Now puts together the titles that are currently in use, making it easier than before to resume reading.
But Reading Now includes also books that the user might consider buying. A good move from Apple, having in mind that it’s the only book-reading app in the App Store that offers full support for in-app purchases, not only free samples.
So, under the books that you’ve purchased, you will see titles that you’ve added to your wish list. Swipe down, and you will see recommendations from Apple’s bookstore in a few popular categories.
The bookstore has a dedicated section. The homepage includes lists of trending books, plus top charts in paid and free categories. When you tap the menu icon in the top right corner, you will also access trending titles in most popular genres.
The app makes it easy to manage the books you’ve added to your account. Under Library tab, you will see default collections, based on different criteria:
- format: Audiobooks, PDFs,
- reading status: Want to Read, Finished,
- cloud status: Downloaded.
The biggest improvement, however, is the introduction of the Auto-Night mode. It’s like the dark theme, which can be enabled automatically when it gets dark. What’s important, the dark theme applies not only to the book-reading view but also to the library.
I see a lot of similarities between Apple Books and the redesign of Kindle for iOS app from October 2017. The Reading Now is Kindle’s Discovery tab, the Auto-Night mode is a dark theme in the Kindle app. Plus, both apps provide advanced library management.
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