Last week I posted about a new software update that Amazon released for Kindle ereaders, version 5.18.4. It added some new accessibility features and a new page view that looks similar to Kindle apps, but now all of the changes have disappeared on my updated Kindles.
The day after I installed the update on my 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite, the new text-to-speech feature suddenly went missing while I was attempting to shoot a video demo. It’s still gone, and it doesn’t appear on my updated 11th gen Kindle either.
But both still had the new large font setting for the user interface and the new page view look after the Assistive Reader setting disappeared. Then yesterday I checked and both of those features have mysteriously disappeared on both of my updated Kindles as well.
The new features were there one day and then gone the next. That’s weird even by Amazon’s standards. Apparently they’ve encountered some problems with the new features so they decided to pull them.
It’s a bit unsettling how easy it is for Amazon to control the features on our Kindles. At any time they can remotely enable or disable features at the drop of a hat. I can understand why some people prefer to keep their Kindles disconnected from the internet most of the time.
The 5.18.4 software update is still available to download from Amazon so they haven’t pulled the update, just most of the features added with the update.
Amazon still hasn’t updated the release notes for the 5.18.4 software, aside from adding a note about the Kindle Scribe supporting notes in multiple languages now, so I guess from their perspective they still haven’t officially announced the new accessibility features yet.
Amazon has a new help article up on their website about using the new Assistive Reader feature on Kindles, so you’d think the feature would actually be available to use on Kindles at this point, but that’s still not the case. The page has been up for at least a month now but the new Assistive Reader is still unavailable on all of my Kindles. It was on my Paperwhite for 1 day before it disappeared. Now the other new features have disappeared as well. Some Kindles still don’t have the new spacing settings that were added with the pervious 5.18.3 update from 2 months ago. What’s going on with these Kindle updates lately?
I received the reading assistant with 5.18.3 and still have it today with 5.18.4. But I don’t have and never did have the new spacing option. And I do have the large display text.
It seems Amazon still has major issues with it’s Kindle software
I manually updated my Scribe (2024) and Colorsoft to 5.18.3 The Scribe had the spacing option at least two weeks sooner then my Colorsoft. I use the Scribe less often then my Colorsoft. Not sure if this is an issue as to why these features appear at random times.
I certainly miss the days of features being present as soon as the update is installed.
Jailbreaking is the way! 😉
As a person that once ran nothing but beta software and jailbroke my devices. I no longer see the advantage of it for my propose of using any device. I guess being retired, I just don’t want to mess with it.
I get that. It just works for me because it stops Amazon from dinking around with my device. I have it how I want it, and any changes are ones that *I* initiate.
“This is weird even by Amazon’s standards.”
These words are worthy of being placed on ball caps and t-shirts.
Mine will no longer show the three page preview, swipe left or right. . It is back to single page.
KSE 11 gen 2022
I always have WiFi connected, and one day the new page view similar to the Kindle App appeared on my Kindle Matcha (5.18.4), and another day it disappeared and returned to the classic view. My other Kindle e-readers are still running version 5.18.3 and everything is the same as before. I have never had the new spacing options available (I have seen them in the Kindle App and personally am not interested in them).
I just checked my Colorsoft (5.18.3) and it too has reverted to the classic view. My Scribe has the same firmware and it still has the new view. Strange. Are these features one giant beta test?