Amazon has released a new software update for all 11th and 12th gen Kindles, plus all versions of the Kindle Scribe, including the new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.
It’s been longer than usual since the last update, and the software version has jumped from 5.18.6 to 5.19.2, so there are probably a lot of changes with this update, especially now that the new Kindle Scribes have officially been added to the software update list.
I installed the new software on one of my Kindles, and so far the only difference I noticed is they added a filter option for annotations so now you can sort by notes, highlights, and bookmarks. Amazon didn’t update the release notes for most Kindles so it’s another mystery update, like usual. The new Kindle Scribes are the only ones with updated release notes (pasted below), but I have a feeling Amazon is leaving out a bunch of things like they usually do.
As far as I can tell, there still isn’t a way to open the full dictionary with this update when looking up words like there was before the last update. They could easily add an “Open Dictionary” option to the window but I guess that’s too logical.
For months now Amazon has been saying that new AI features would be coming to Kindles in 2026, so expect the Ask This Book and Story So Far features to start showing up soon.
So far it’s unclear if this update adds those features, but Amazon often activates new features remotely after a software update has been out for a while so we’ll have to wait to find out.
This is the note that Amazon has on the product page for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, so we know it’s coming at some point:
This device doesn’t have a system-wide Dark Mode mode like other black-and-white Kindle devices. This feature, along with AI reading features Story So Far and Ask This Book, will roll out in 2026 via software updates.
Amazon tends to roll out software updates slowly (sometimes it can take months for the update to install automatically), but you can manually update your Kindle now if you want to. Just download the software for your model from the Kindle Software Updates page at Amazon and sideload it via USB onto the root of the Kindle drive.
Here’s the (incomplete) release notes for the new Kindle Scribes:
Version 5.19.2 – February 2026
Here’s what’s new:
Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive: Added a Settings option to control whether imported files from your cloud drive are shared across your Kindle devices. Go to Settings>Connections to learn more.
Send to Alexa+: You can now send your notes and documents on your Kindle Scribe to Alexa+ to summarize, ask questions, and brainstorm. Get more out of your notes – even when away from your Scribe.
Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.
Leave a Reply