I received an email from Amazon the other day titled “Your Kindle Scribe writing check-in”, and it shows how many days I’ve written notes on the Kindle Scribe over the past month.
I haven’t been using my Kindle Scribe very much at all lately, and it was probably in airplane mode for the past couple months before December, so maybe Amazon has been sending out these monthly notifications for awhile now, but this is the first time I’ve gotten one, and I’ve had a Kindle Scribe since 2022 when they first came out.
I tried to learn more about this new “feature” and to see if there was any settings or a way to turn it off, but I couldn’t find anything about it. I figured the “Learn more about Kindle Scribe” link at the bottom of the email would lead to more information, but it just directs to the main Kindle Scribe page at Amazon where they try to sell you a new Scribe.
I noticed the calendar is an active link as well, but clicking that takes you directly to the product page for the new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. Yeah, that’s real helpful. And completely relevant to a calendar tracking writing days. I guess this monthly email is just another ploy for Amazon to sell more Scribes; it’s not good enough if you already own one.
Amazon has been tracking reading stats on Kindles for ages. They even have a handy Reading Insights page where you can view how many days you’ve read each month, and keep track of reading streaks.
However, there does not appear to be a page for Notetaking Insights, at least not one I can find (there used to be a way to view notebooks from the Kindle Scribe using a web browser, but Amazon seems to have taken that down). If they’re going to start tracking how many days people write each month, and sending out emails about it, there really should be a place for people to see that. Maybe they’re still getting around to it. There’s probably going to be a steady rollout of new features to help bring more attention to the new Kindle Scribes over the next few months, and I could see them coming out with something like the Reading Insights page to tie into these “writing check-in” emails.
Are they also tracking what people are writing?
To me that is a little too intrusive. Like someone saying how many times you left your house each month. I can understand the reading insight if you want to keep track of number of books you have read but why do you need to be told how much writing you have done when you can see your notes on the Scribe.