The latest update to WordPress for Android includes a new reading and setup experience, as well as significant updates to the user interface. Here are some of the highlights of this release.

New Reader

The app Reader has been completely redesigned, and now provides a much-improved, native reading experience. You’ll definitely notice its speed — posts appear in a snap, and images fade in as they load. You can also view users that have commented or liked posts, as well as edit the list of tags that you follow. We’ve revamped the like, reblog, and comment interfaces to make it easier than ever to respond to posts that strike your fancy.

Redesigned Blog Setup

When signing in to the app or creating an account on WordPress.com, you’ll notice a brand new user interface that makes it super-simple to start blogging. If you keep multiple blogs on your account, they will all be automatically added for you. You can also hide whichever blogs you don’t wish to work on in the app.

UI Improvements

We’ve given the app a facelift, including a new color scheme, a refined navigation drawer layout, and sharp-looking lists in notifications, posts, pages and comments.

You’ll also notice some changes to the post editor, with larger images and a new Post Settings area where you’ll manage post data such as status, post formats, and categories, among others. The post content area will now go full screen while you are editing, to give you maximum space to focus on your content. Give the app a try here:

Download the update today from Google Play.

What’s next?

A big thanks to all of the contributors who worked so hard on this release: aerych, daniloercoli, Jason-Chen, maxme, nbradbury and roundhill!

The mobile team isn’t stopping here! We have pretty big plans for the months to come and the rest of 2014. You can keep up with the development progress over at http://make.wordpress.org/mobile. You can also follow the app on twitter @WPAndroid.