It also launched an affiliate program in June 2011, allowing website owners to earn a commission by referring sales to the then-named Google eBookstore.

However, the reseller program ended in April 2012, with Google stating that it had "not gained the traction that we hoped it would" and "not met the needs of many readers or booksellers".

The affiliate program closed for new signups in February 2012, with Google announcing that it would scale down the initiative, making it private and invitation-only.

The mobile Android app has seen several significant updates since its introduction, including different reading modes with color contrasts, support for text highlighting and note-taking, a zoomed-out view with easy page sliding in an effort to improve reading experiences for books not read cover-to-cover, a vertical scrolling mode for comic books, a "Night Light" feature that gradually filters blue light to reduce eye strain after sunset, using machine learning imaging technologies to expand speech bubbles in comics, and listening to audiobooks.

As the Play Books store had been noted to hold much pirated content, Google discontinued new sign-ups to its publisher program in 2015.

Having already digitized 12 million physical books at the time, including out-of-print titles, Google offered a "far greater" selection than Amazon and Apple did.

[21][22] Towards the end of the month, Google announced that it was temporarily closing its Books Partner Center for new signups, stating that it was to "improve our content management capabilities and our user experience.

However, it continued to remain closed for a long time, leading The Digital Reader to speculate that the closure would be permanent, commenting that "Google has only a minimal interest in ebooks.

[27] As a part of the acquisition, Oyster shut down its existing service in early 2016, and its founders joined Google Play Books in New York.

[31] Seen as a "big blow for small bookstores seeking to compete against Amazon and Barnes & Noble", the move attracted severe criticism from the industry.

"As an enormous, multinational corporation, Google has interests far beyond independent bookstores, and the book world at large, and, at times, it has lacked understanding of many basic principles of our industry", the letter said.

[37] One day later, The Digital Reader reported that Google had removed the pirated book listings in response to the article, but deemed it far from enough.

[41] In September 2012, Google Play Books on Android was updated to feature a new sepia reading mode, in addition to day and night modes; info cards for unknown written geographical locations and dictionary definitions; word or phrase translation; and support for highlighting text and writing notes.

[47][48] In October 2014, Play Books was updated to allow users to tap the center of the screen to enter a "skim" mode, where the page zooms out to allow users to easily slide between pages, in an effort to improve the reading experience for books that are typically not read cover-to-cover, such as non-fiction, cookbooks and textbooks.

Google claims that Night Light "automatically adapts to the amount of natural sunlight outside based on the time of day, giving you just the right temperature and brightness".

[59] Originally, Google allowed publishers and authors to upload books in a number of formats, including DOC, PDF, PDB, MOBI, EPUB, and HTML.

[60] For reading on e-readers or third-party apps, some ebooks, but not all,[61] can be downloaded in the EPUB ("flowing text") or PDF ("original pages") formats.

"[61] Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam.

[64] Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam.

[65] Google Play Books was launched Mexico in March 2013;[66] Austria, Belgium, Ireland, and Portugal in June 2013;[67] South Africa, Switzerland, and Turkey in November 2013;[68] Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela in December 2013;[69] Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan in November 2014;[70] Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine in September 2014,[71] and Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates in January 2016.

Dennis praised the ability to upload personal ebooks in addition to buying them, writing that it makes Play Books "a great universal eReader".

While writing about different forms of customization options available, he noted that "the margins can't be changed", and also criticized the website interface for lacking several features that were present in the mobile app.