What are the best reading apps for Android?

Every app in this table has a US Google Play listing, checked on 4 November 2026.

Our 30-app study found Google Play listings for 22 of the 30 reading apps it checked. The gaps matter if you are choosing a phone or switching platforms.

• Apple Books: Apple's app runs on Apple devices only. If you switch to Android, books bought in Apple Books stay readable on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, not on Android.
• Magic Bookmark: iPhone only today. Its website says Android is "on the roadmap for later".
• Hardcover, Thus Far and some smaller trackers: our searches found no Google Play listing. Hardcover also runs on the web at hardcover.app, so you can use it in a phone browser.

If you use an iPhone and an Android tablet, choose apps that run on both, such as Kindle, Google Play Books, Kobo, Libby or The StoryGraph, so your place and your notes follow you.

Book insights is the feature to know. In an eligible ebook, Catch me up gives an overview of what you have read so far, and Ask Play Books lets you highlight a name, a place or a phrase and ask about it. Google describes the answers as spoiler-free context about characters or plot points. It works on Android, iOS and the web for select English-language titles; Google said in September 2026 that coverage had passed a million ebooks.

That makes Google Play Books the Android equivalent of Kindle's Story So Far and Ask this Book, which Amazon describes for Kindle devices and the Kindle iOS app. Both only work inside their own store's ebooks. For the bigger picture on these features, see our study of recap features in 30 reading apps.

• Where the books live. Ebooks bought in one store stay in that store's app. Pick the store first, then the app.
• Library card first. Libby and Hoopla on Android are free and may already have the book you want.
• Audiobook units. Audible and Libro.fm sell credits, Spotify sells hours, Everand sells titles a month. Our audiobook cost per book table does the sums.
• Where you pay. Some services charge different prices on the web and in an app's purchase list. Check the provider's own pricing page before you subscribe.

Trackers such as The StoryGraph, Goodreads and Bookly log paper books on Android, and Speechify can read a photographed printed page aloud. For a recap of a paper book up to your page, the one app we know of that does it, Magic Bookmark, is iPhone only today. Until Android support arrives, the no-app method on our page about getting back into a book is the honest answer.

Audible, Libro.fm, Spotify and Everand all have Google Play listings, so the choice comes down to the unit you pay for. Audible Premium ($14.95 a month on audible.com) gives you one book a month to keep plus a catalog of included titles. Libro.fm ($14.99 a month) gives you a credit that never expires and DRM-free files, and shares profits with independent bookshops. Spotify's Audiobooks Access ($9.99) gives you 15 hours a month, and select Premium plans include those hours. Everand Standard ($11.99) gives you one title a month.

If you do not need to keep the book, try Libby and Hoopla first: both lend audiobooks on Android free with a library card. Our audiobook app picks go through the trade-offs in detail.

The StoryGraph, Goodreads, Fable and Bookly all have Google Play listings. The StoryGraph is our pick for most readers on any platform: a free core app, detailed charts, mood-based discovery, a Goodreads import, and progress synced automatically from Kobo. Goodreads has the largest community and is free with no in-app purchases. Fable adds book clubs with spoiler-free chapter rooms, and Bookly adds a reading timer and goals.

Hardcover has no Google Play listing that our study found, but it works in a browser at hardcover.app. For a full comparison, see the best reading tracker apps.

Most of your reading follows your account, not your phone. Kindle, Google Play Books, Kobo, Libby, Audible and Libro.fm all run on both platforms, so signing in on the new phone brings your books, and in most of them your place. Tracker data in The StoryGraph, Goodreads and Fable lives in your account too.

Two things do not move. Books bought in Apple Books stay on Apple devices, so keep an iPad or Mac if your library is there. And iPhone-only apps such as Magic Bookmark and YOMU will not run on Android until their makers release Android versions. Before you switch, export anything you want to keep from apps that offer an export, such as Goodreads (CSV).