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Flipboard brings new curation tools to Android for customized experiences

Flipboard is bringing its magazine curation tools to Android, enabling users to create their own magazines on any topic.

Flipboard 2.0, which launched on iOS in March, expands the platform?s role as a centralized location to read digital news from mobile devices with the ability for users to curate their own experiences. Now, any Samsung Galaxy phone, Nexus tablet or other Android device user can start their own magazine by tapping the + button on items within Flipboard.

?Flipboard is a great place to catch up on the news and events you care about, but this next generation of Flipboard now lets people also save and collect the things they find - on Flipboard or on the Web - into their own magazines on topics they love,? said Marci McCue, head of content and communications at Flipboard, Palo Alto, CA.

?Nearly a million magazines have been created on topics ranging from super niche to mainstream, including men?s fashion, hip hotels, space exploration, cargo ships, Google Glass, the revolutionary war and other educational topics,? she said.

?We have a growing and very passionate Android user base - it was important for us to reach all Flipboard readers with this expansion of the product.?

Personal expression
Flipboard now enables users to save and collect stories, videos and images into custom magazines to provide a platform for personal expression and idea-sharing.

In addition to tapping on the + button on items within Flipboard, users can also start their own magazine by using the Flipboard bookmark to save content via the Web.

Some of Flipboard?s publishing partners have used the new tools to create magazines out of archival content, giving them a way to monetize archival content.

For example, Rolling Stone has a magazine about The Beatles featuring old interviews and iconic photos. The publisher also added Beatles music with tracks from Soundcloud, one of the social networks that can be connected to Flipboard.

?The two biggest learnings right now are that people want to find great magazines, so we will be do more around discovery, and second is about knowing more about the engagement with a magazine, so we hope to do more for curators to understand their magazine's success,? Ms. McCue said.

Shareable content
On Android devices, users also have the option to flip an item into a magazine from other applications, including YouTube, a Web browser or their photo gallery.

Flipboard provides many ways for Android users to share magazines created on the platform, including via the social networks they have connected to Flipboard, from a magazine?s ?share? button on the cover, via text message or email.

Flipboard for Android also enables Facebook members to quickly create a Flipboard account using their existing Facebook login information.

In other news, the company announced Flipboard Editor, a Web-based tool that enables users to change the order of stories, photos and videos in their magazine and have additional insight into how often items in a magazine have been shared.

Additionally, subscribers to the Financial Times can now get full, unlimited access to the latest FT content on Flipboard.

Flipboard 2.0 for Android is available for free from Google Play.

?Over the last month or so on iPad and iPhone we have seen people create magazines on almost anything you can imagine - from sports teams to city guides,? Ms. McCue said.

?We've also seen some people excited about growing the readership of their magazines - many people are sharing their magazines on their social networks and promoting them on their Web sites - everyone from the Oakridge Boys to the Encyclopedia of Life,? she said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York