Mygazines, a Toronto-based software company that posts high-res online versions of magazines, has made its collection accessible across all mobile platforms in a digital interface that is more accessible and user-friendly for e-readers than a mobile app, they say.

The new mobile interface, which acts as a browser, will make the magazines available immediately to mobile users. The extension enables readers to access their magazines as soon as they receive an e-alert about a new issue, and provides yet another access point to consumers for advertisers, explains Yoav Schwartz, CEO of Mygazines.

‘It’s not being run through the Apple store or the Android store – it’s available on all these devices through one common element,’ Schwartz tells MiC. ‘The real point of this is first of all to say no to the app.’ An app is often only accessible through one type of branded device, and consumers have to go through the extra step of downloading additional software, which creates barriers for online readers, he says.

Toronto-based Mygazines.net acts as a digital newsstand for magazines around the world – most of them in the US and about 25 in Canada – including trade publications like G.A.P Adventures, Avenue Calgary, Up!, and Birthing Magazine. It runs the technology that makes an online magazine version look the same way it does in print. There is the familiar layout and the ability to flip a page, and the reader can also bookmark pages on social networks and click on links that lead to other pages, for instance.

All of the same features will now be available on mobile, and that, says Schwartz, is because Mygazines has decided not to develop different apps, but instead a hybrid mobile web interface.

It’s an extension that both publishers and readers were looking for, says Schwartz. ‘They send out scheduled email alerts when new issues are available for their publications. Until now, the only way the consumers would actually read that publication is when they got their email on their desktop.’