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Google is killing off Play Newsstand in favor of Google News

By Milen Yanachkov

Updated: May 31, 2018, 6:47 AM

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Google is killing off Play Newsstand in favor of Google News

Google is reportedly planning to kill off Play Newsstand in favor of the older Google News app, which will be revamped to incorporate rich media elements from both Newsstand and YouTube, as well as the technology behind Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). The redesign is expected to be unveiled at this year's I/O conference.

According to AdAge, the Google News overhaul is aimed at bringing all of Google's news services under one roof, employing the digital magazine format of Newsstand, coupled with YouTube's News section.

Citing people familiar with Google's plans, the report from AdAge suggests that the company has been talking with publishers in recent weeks about the changes coming to the platform.

"It's a consolidation of all the ways you can interact with news on Google," claims one of these people. "There are a lot of Google services where you find news, and what they're trying to do is bring it all under one brand."

In its current form, Google News is primarily a text-focused platform that delivers news in a simple feed. With the big update, Google hopes to introduce all the bells and whistles that users have come to expect from platforms that rely on rich media to deliver content. Naturally, AMP will also play a big role in making the whole experience seamless and app-like. The company is expected to reveal its plans for the future of News at I/O 2018.

This development will spell the end of Google Play Newsstand, AdAge claims, which reflects a broader trend at Google. The search giant is rumored to be preparing to kill off Google Play Music once the new YouTube Remix music streaming service launches, while the future of its Inbox mail client is uncertain in the light of upcoming Gmail updates.

source: AdAge