Barnes and Noble is back to playing their weird games with the Nook Windows app, as it’s no longer available to download yet again, and they’ve removed all mention of it from their website.
There’s a note on a help page on the Barnes and Noble website that says the following:
As of 11/29/2023, the NOOK for Windows App is no longer available for new downloads from the Microsoft Store. However, existing customers can continue to use the app as usual, with all previous NOOK content accessible in their NOOK Library.
For a broader reading experience, we encourage users to explore our suite of NOOK Reading Apps for Android and iOS devices, as well as NOOK for Web, which allows reading online. All previously purchased NOOK Content will still be available on these other applications and services.
For more information, please visit our NOOK Reading Apps page to discover all available options.
The funny thing about this is it’s not the first time this has happened, and it probably won’t be the last. B&N has discontinued their Nook Windows app at least two times prior to this, first starting back in 2013 and then again in 2020.
B&N still offers Nook apps for Android and iOS devices, but apparently it’s too much of a bother for them to support their apps on computers anymore.
As the help page at B&N states, you can still use the Nook Windows app if you already have it downloaded, but how long is it going to continue working if they aren’t going to be updating it anymore?
Barnes and Noble is such an unpredictable company when it comes to Nooks. You never know what to expect, and they don’t exactly instill much confidence in the Nook platform moving forward. B&N also recentely announced plans to stop supporting older Nooks in 2024. What inexplicable changes are they going to make next?
This type of decision is the reason I won’t buy digital media that I can’t back up. I stopped buying ebooks from B&N years ago because of all these barriers. The last book I bought was a manga that I thought I could back up using Nook Study. Instead I had to use my tablet and take page-by-page screenshots.
I stick with Kindle, Kobo (and Google, rarely) and am grateful that my public library has expanded their digital catalog over the past few years.
Does anyone know if you can use the nook app for android to liberate your books? Or is that ability limited to the windows app? I don’t have a nook device but was thinking about getting one for Christmas but I don’t want my books being confined. I want to own them.
I’m not sure on the current state of things, but you might find some info on the DeDRM tools page at GitHub about it.
I too I am disappointed. I create our Worship Bulletin, I have a kindle app on my PC that I am able to copy and paste prayers to a word document. I was hoping I could do the same since I got a membership with B&N. So I guess I have to purchase from their competitor if I want that capability.