As an avid comic book reader, I know that the outside world falls into two categories … people who love comics and those who think that comic book fans don't know how to read a real book. I have had numerous discussions over the years with friends, family and significant others who tell me that comics are for kids or that there is no literary value in graphic novels. My standard response is to hand them a copy of Alan Moore's Watchmen and tell them to read it. If they still don't think that comic books have value, then I quietly point out that most blockbuster movies since 2008 have been based on characters from either the Marvel or DC universes (well, maybe not DC so much). And if they are remain unconvinced, then I make a mental note to not mention comics again.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2016, we announced Bubble Zoom: a new way to read digital comics on phones and tablets. It uses machine learning to zoom into the speech bubbles of a comic one-tap-at-a-time. Bubble Zoom is available on all Marvel and DC collected volumes with the latest version of Google Play Books app for Android.

Reading comic books on a smartphone is a bit of a bummer. Comic books are designed to be read on a 7 10.5" page, which doesn't translate very well to a 5-inch screen. It's usually pretty hard to see the entire page and read the text, which leads to lots of zooming and panning. Google is tackling this problem the way it seems to be tackling every problem lately: with machine learning. Google has taught its army of computers to detect the speech bubbles in comic books, allowing you to zoom in on them with just a tap.

Plenty of people still like to read their comics on paper, but increasingly, phones and tablets are the devices of choice for keeping up with the Justice League. Last year, Google introduced a new reading experience for comics in its Play Books store for Android that makes it easier to follow along with the story. Today, the company is launching yet another update to the comics reading experience -- this time with a focus on making the speech bubbles in comics more readable on small devices. As Google's Head of Product for Play Books Greg Hartrell told me, the team looked at the feedback it got from the last update. While readers liked the new reading experience, they complained that it was still too hard to read the text on a small screen.

What's more, when you're reading one-handed on your phone, you can use the volume buttons to navigate back and forth. Bubble Zoom is part of the most recent version of Google Play Books, and yes, only Android users are privy to the feature right now. If you're using Google's software, you can employ a technical preview of the reading tool while browsing DC and Marvel volumes that support it. Google will be collecting feedback on the update and plans to make it available on all digital comics and manga. The company says it has to teach its machine learning algorithms how to read more styles before expanding its supported library.