A lesser known feature of the Google News app (and the website) is its ability to show digital copies of magazines, but the company is set to remove this option in a month’s time.

Announced on a support page, Google has confirmed that its News app and news.google.com will remove support for paid magazines next month. The removal not only applies to new subscriptions/purchases, but also to existing libraries of magazines. That means that users who have paid for magazines to use them in the Google News app will be cut off pretty soon.

You can access your library of magazines on News here.

While that’s pretty aggressive, Google isn’t fully stripping paid content away from users. Ahead of the December 18 shutdown, users will be able to export copies of paid magazines. Magazines that cannot be exported due to interactive elements will be eligible for a refund.

Google explains:

The company further adds that affected users will receive an email titled “An update to Google News magazine support” which will contain instructions on how to download copies of magazines they’ve paid for. However, the cutoff for downloads and/or refunds is also December 18, 2023, which means the clock is ticking.

If you’ve built up a library of magazines on Google News, drop a comment below and let us know how this affects you, and how the download/refund process goes.

Update 11/16: In a statement to 9to5Google, a Google spokesperson explains that “only a handful” of people will be affected by this change, and that magazine purchases have not been available since 2020.

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Google News offering free 4-month New York Times trial

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