Add bookmarks, notes & highlights in an ebook

To fit your screen when you change page features like font size or line spacing, most books on Google Play Books use Flowing text mode. You can take notes, add bookmarks, translate, define, and search for words.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app 👁 Play Books
   .
2. Open a book.
   • To add a bookmark, tap the top right of the page.
     • To remove a bookmark, tap the top right again.
   • To highlight text, touch and hold the word. To select more than one word, use the blue sliders 👁 and then
     select a highlight color.
     • To remove a highlight:
       • For Android Play Books app version 2025.1.10 or lower: Tap the highlighted text 👁 and then
         Remove 👁 Remove
         .
       • For Android Play Books app version 2025.1.10 or up: Tap the highlighted text 👁 and then
         Delete 👁 Delete
         .
3. To add a note, touch and hold the word. To select more than one word, use the blue sliders 👁 and then
   Tap Add note 👁 Add note
   .
   • To edit a note, tap the highlighted text where you added the note.
   • To delete a note, tap the highlighted text, then tap Delete.
   • To find all your notes, tap the center of the page. Tap Contents 👁 Contents
     👁 and then
     Notes.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app 👁 Play Books
   .
2. Open a book.
3. Touch and hold to select the text. To select more than one word, use the blue sliders.
4. Select an option:
   • To define a word:
     • For Android Play Books app version 2025.1.10 or lower: Highlight one word.
     • For Android Play Books app version 2025.1.10 or up: Highlight one word. Then, select Define 👁 Image
       .
   • To translate, tap Translate 👁 Translate
     .
     • Select languages to translate to and from.
   • To search for the selection in the book or on the web, tap Search 👁 Search
     .

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app 👁 Play Books
   .
2. At the top right, tap your profile picture.
3. Tap Play Books Settings 👁 and then
   Save notes, highlights, and bookmarks.
4. Name the folder where you want to save your notes. By default, the folder is named "Play Books Notes."
5. Turn on Save notes, highlights, and bookmarks.
6. Tap Done.

To rename your folder, re-open Settings in the Google Play Books app and make the change there.

If you added notes before you turned on syncing, you’ll need to:

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Books app 👁 Play Books
   .
2. Open the book.
3. Add a new note, highlight, or bookmark. This creates a new document with all the notes from that book.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open Google Drive 👁 Drive
   .
2. Make sure you’re signed in to the same account you use for Google Play Books.
3. Open the folder you created to store your notes. By default, the folder is named “Play Books Notes”.

There are two reasons that highlighted text doesn't appear:

• If no highlights appear: The publisher of this book didn't enable the copy-paste feature.
• If some highlights appear: The number of highlights you made exceeds the copy-paste maximum that the publisher set for this book.

To check the text you highlighted, select the page number in the notes document.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the notes document.
2. Click File 👁 and then
    Make a copy.
3. Name your new document.
4. Make edits to the new document.