Google / Ron Amadeo
Google News is identified to most individuals as an enormous pile of internet hyperlinks, nevertheless it truly hosts magazines, too. Before the times of the Internet, a “magazine” was an enormous bundle of paper stuffed with articles you might get shipped to your door, type of like if you happen to printed out a web site. For a time, you might pay chilly, onerous money for a digital copy of a paper magazine by way of Google after which view that content material by way of regardless of the newest Google magazine/information app was.
Magazine content material gross sales have been shut down in 2020, although, and shortly, Google’s magazine content material will now not be hosted on-line. The firm introduced on a assist web page that purchased content material will probably be shut down beginning December 18. You can see in case you have purchased (or freebie) magazines at this hyperlink.
Let’s see if we are able to placed on our “Google archeology” hats and work out the place this all got here from. Google began promoting magazines in 2012 with “Google Play Magazines.” You might purchase particular person magazine points for round $8 or subscribe yearly for $11. These have been all hosted by Google, with entry obtainable by way of the app and internet. One 12 months later, in 2013, Play Magazines was merged with one other Google information app, Google Currents, to create Google Play Newsstand. Newsstand featured paid magazines and free web site content material. Google spent 2013–2016 rolling out buying assist throughout an increasing number of international locations.
By 2018, Play Newsstand was changed by the primary “Google News” app, a long-overdue entry within the Google app portfolio given how a lot of a powerhouse Google News has been on-line. The new app targeted extra on on-line content material however saved a spot in your magazine subscriptions. The Android Google News app nonetheless has the identical package deal identify from 2012: “com.google.android.apps.magazines.”
With gross sales of recent magazines lifeless in 2020, it was solely a matter of time till Google shut down the internet hosting of outdated, purchased magazine content material. The excellent news is which you can obtain a PDF of your purchased magazine earlier than December 18. Anyone who has purchased magazine content material must be getting an e-mail with an choice to obtain or, for some magazines, request a refund.
Google says that some magazines will probably be refund-eligible as a result of they “comprise interactive components that can not be downloaded and saved for future entry.” December 18 is not simply the date for the internet hosting shutdown, but in addition the deadline for downloads or refund requests.
Offering a PDF obtain is higher than nothing, however static PDFs are much more cumbersome and depressing than the slick person expertise Google’s authentic magazine offering had throughout all of your units. Remember, all on-line content material purchases are actually simply leases.