Flipboard for Android isn’t here, but Google Currents is way cooler, anyhow

Hey Android (and iPad/iPhone) users, check out this glossy, sexy new way to browse through high-quality, magazine-like content: Google Currents, which is available for download now from the App Store and Android Market.

With this free app, you can get professionally produced content from around 150 initial partners, including Forbes, PBS and others, each of which create special editions of their content optimized for tablet and smartphone viewing.

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If that kind of media sounds too high-brow, you can also browse through YouTube videos, download music and movies, and engage with your friends on Google+.

Here’s a demo video explaining more about how Currents works:

Once you download the app, you can pick out your subscriptions, which will be delivered free of charge. If you’ve already got online subscriptions, including RSS feeds or public Google+ streams, you can add those, too. Or, you can just click the “trending” tab to see popular content that you might also find appealing.

Google is giving content publishers, including bloggers, a handy self-service platform to help them design and customize their content for Currents. And of course, Currents integrates with Google Analytics, so you can see all the nitty gritty details of who’s reading your stuff.

Currents was formerly known as Google Propeller while it was being developed. It and Yahoo’s Livestand were intended to provide variation and competition with Flipboard’s popular iOS app — and to offer a more visually appealing way for mobile users to get around content, in general. That design style is creeping quickly into many modern web apps, as well.