What's New

Welcome to GemReader. Gems stay in sync.

• A new welcome screen on first launch — rotating book quotes and trivia in English and Spanish, with smooth shimmer animations and dark/light theme support.
• Change the app's language directly from your Android system settings (System → Language & region → App languages).
• Collection and folder colors are now part of the theme system, giving your library a unified look that respects your theme choice.
• Copy and search no longer leave stray highlights behind.
• Changing a highlight's color now preserves any notes attached to it.
• Gems list now handles edits and deletes correctly — no more duplicate or disappearing annotations.

Smoother page turns. Faster gestures.

• Book open and close animations now use a sliding transition with a white-flash fix for smoother visual polish.
• Pull-to-refresh gesture refined — activation zone narrowed to the top 15% of the screen for more intentional triggering.
• Fixed external storage migration errors and hiding the option when no external storage is available.
• Highlighting accuracy and rendering improvements for complex EPUB structures.

Notes in your gems. Parallax removed.

• Add notes directly inside the Gems menu with a reveal text box — read and edit annotations without leaving your collection.
• Library and book settings are now more compact.
• Removed library parallax (gyroscope-driven tilt) to improve battery life and eliminate jank — dropped the `expo-sensors` dependency entirely.
• Fixed swipe navigation edge cases.
• Highlight bug fixes for complex documents.
• Better error handling when Google Play is unavailable on your device.

Your library on an SD card — and it tilts.

• Store your entire library on an SD card and migrate books between internal and external storage in Settings.
• Library list view — switch between grid and list to scan titles and authors faster.
• Pinch to toggle between 2-up and 3-up cover columns in the grid.
• Book covers shift gently as you tilt the phone — a parallax effect driven by the gyroscope.
• New page-turning animation mode, the first in a pluggable transition system with more to come.
• Pull down inside a book to reload the reader page and fix any rendering issues instantly.
• Searching within selected text now searches the full book, not just the selection.
• Broken EPUB metadata and structure is repaired automatically during import, with a clearer message if it can't be fixed.
• Fixed: highlight creation, multi-page highlights, footnotes, references, and scroll stuttering.

Now on Google Play.

• GemReader is available on Google Play as an open beta — install from the Play Store or continue sideloading the APK. Same binary, same signing key, either way.

Your Kindle pile finally has a home.

• Import multi-part ZIP and 7z archives as a single book — no manual assembly needed.
• Scan a QR code on the archive password dialog instead of typing the password.
• Search the table of contents with fuzzy matching and jump directly to any chapter.
• Kindle format support — import MOBI and AZW books alongside your EPUB library.
• Pinyin auto-generates for Chinese books that lack ruby annotations when Show Pinyin is on.
• Footnotes and references have a cleaner, redesigned display.

Reading that feels good to hold.

• Toggle pinyin display — show or hide ruby annotation text in CJK content at any time.
• Haptic feedback when you create a highlight.
• Books now animate open when you tap them in the library.
• New reading fonts: Libre Baskerville and Literata, with expanded Noto multilingual script fonts.
• The screen stays on while you're reading — no more mid-chapter dimming.

Distraction gone. Search arrived.

• Immersion mode hides the status bar and all app chrome so nothing competes with the text.
• Search inside any book and results appear instantly as you type.
• Highlight colors are easier to tell apart at a glance, with refined margin placement and alignment.

Focus the paragraph. Bookmark the moment. Share the book.

• Tap any paragraph to focus it — the rest of the page softens so your eye stays on track.
• Bookmarks are fully rebuilt: a dedicated bookmark list, margin icons, and reliable persistence across sessions.
• Share one or multiple books with other GemReader users — original filenames are preserved end-to-end.
• A new Violet theme and refreshed app icon.

Folders all the way down.

• Collections now support nested subfolders — organize your library into as many levels as you need, with locked folders protecting everything inside.
• A new page-based reading mode lets you flip through books one page at a time using tap zones on the left and right edges of the screen.
• Reading progress is now visible directly on book covers in your library.

Everything smoother. Nothing new to learn.

• Navigation throughout the app is smoother — moving between your library, reader, and settings feels faster and more natural.
• Bookmarks are easier to use with a cleaner interface and more reliable text positioning.
• Notes and highlights now anchor to the exact passage more accurately, even across chapter boundaries.

Your spot saved. Your PIN faster.

• You can now bookmark any reading position and jump back to it instantly.
• A new high-contrast Chalk theme is available in Settings, alongside renamed Paper and Velvet themes.
• Locked folders use a redesigned PIN screen that's faster to navigate.

Two small bugs. Both gone.

• Folder colors now apply immediately after you pick them.
• Fixed a crash some users saw on launch.

Pick your colors. Pinch the diagrams. Find your chapter.

• You can now fully customize the reading theme — pick any color with the built-in color picker.
• Pinch to zoom images inside books.
• The table of contents now scrolls to your current chapter automatically and shows your reading progress on the side of the screen.

Lock the app. Favorite the rest.

• App lock is here — protect the whole app with your PIN or biometrics, with a 5-minute grace period so it doesn't interrupt quick switches.
• Added a Favorites tab so your most-read books are always one tap away.
• You can now import archives up to 2 GB, and the app will detect if you've already added a book so you don't end up with duplicates.

Import everything at once. Organize it your way.

• Import multiple books at once, including from ZIP or 7z archives.
• Collections (folders) let you organize and optionally lock groups of books.
• The app is now available in Russian and Korean.

The privacy release.

• Locked folders keep books, highlights, and notes encrypted separately — protected with your PIN and a per-folder key.
• The app now remembers exactly where you left off in every book.
• Added font support for Arabic, Amharic, Myanmar, and Cambodian scripts.