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The new Kindle home screen has replaced the top row of buttons with a large search bar and a two-tab design that switches between the home screen and your library.
Andrew Cunningham
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The library view. Things usually work as they did before, only the UI at the top and bottom of the screen has changed.
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You can now access device settings with a smartphone-like swipe down from the top of the screen, and the new brightness slider is much more responsive than the old one. (Some of these settings depend on the Kindle you have; older models don’t offer Bluetooth or dark mode).
Andrew Cunningham
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These menus have shrunk a bit across the Kindle operating system.
Andrew Cunningham
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The Kindle browser has lost its “experimental” label, but as far as we can tell, it’s still exactly the same browser as before.
Andrew Cunningham
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The top navigation when reading a book also changes, removing the old buttons and swapping some text labels for icons.
Andrew Cunningham
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Although they are smaller, most menus contain the same items as before.
Andrew Cunningham
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Amazon will finally tell you which Kindle you’re using in the Device Info screen, which won’t solve the confusing Kindle naming conventions, but at least makes them easier to live with.
Andrew Cunningham
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Kindles as far back as the 7th generation Paperwhite (released in 2015) can grab this update.
Andrew Cunningham
Amazon’s Kindle e-readers get new software updates regularly, and they’re usually of the unobtrusive, invisible “performance improvements and bug fixes” variety. But the most recent operating system update (version 5.13.7) is now rolling out and it refreshes the device UI for the first time since 2016 or so. Amazon says redesigns for the Home and Library screens, which remain largely untouched in the current Kindle update, will appear “later this year.”
The software update that enables the new interface started rolling out in August, but because Kindles only install updates automatically when charged and connected to Wi-Fi, it will take a few weeks or months for all supported Kindles to have a chance to grab. the update (mine only installed it last weekend). To help you navigate the changes, the gallery above gives a quick tour of everything that has changed.
The new update is available on most Kindles released in or after 2015, including the 7th and 10th generation Kindle Paperwhite, the 8th, 9th, and 10th generation Kindle Oasis, and the standard 8th and 10th generation Kindle. Older 7th-generation Kindle devices, such as the 2014 Kindle Voyage, do not appear to be supported. If your Kindle hasn’t installed the update, the link above will guide you to install it manually.
The new update doesn’t fix Amazon’s confusing Kindle naming scheme, where different devices are grouped into “generations” that are roughly numbered based on when they were released, not what generation of product they actually are; the “10th generation” Paperwhite is actually only the fourth Paperwhite that Amazon has released. But you can now go to the Device Info screen and see which Kindle you’re using instead of guessing.
List image by Valentina Palladino