Skip to main content

Amazon Bringing Kindle to Android This Summer

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Online mega-retailer Amazon.com has always said planned to make Kindle a broad technology platform, not just a series of portable electronic readers—and the company took another step in that direction today, announcing it plans to launch Kindle for Android this summer. The application will be free, and (once available) will put Android devices on par with PCs, iPhones, iPads, and BlackBerry devices as members of the Kindle ecosystem.

“Kindle for Android is the perfect companion application for Kindle and Kindle DX owners, and is also a great way for customers to enjoy over 540,000 books in the Kindle Store even if they don’t yet have a Kindle,” said Amazon’s Kindle director Jay Marine, in a statement. “We think customers are going to love the convenience and simplicity of having instant access to a massive selection of books from Amazon on their Droid, Nexus, Incredible and many more Android devices.”

The Kindle app for Android devices will offer a fairly standard suit of Kindle features: users will be able to search the more than half-million titles available from the Kindle store, including browsing by genre or author. The app will also enable users to tap into reviews and recommendations, access their entirely library of previously-purchased Kindle titles, sync their reading location between their Android device and other Kindle gizmos and applications, and have control over display text size as well as read in portrait or landscape more.

The move make complete sense for the Kindle platform, particular as Android is enjoying a wave of success in the mobile device market. What Amazon is not being specific about is when they think Kindle might be available for Android: in marketing-speak, “summer” in the northern hemisphere essentially means anytime before September 23.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
How to use iMessage on an Android phone or tablet
iMessage on an iPhone 14 Pro Max, plus iMessage on an Android phone using the Beeper app.

One of the big draws of iPhone and Mac is the iMessage software. This texting app makes it easy to stay connected to friends and family, and many users point to it as a key reason they stay within the Apple ecosystem – venture off to Android, and you'll be stuck with third-party apps or standard text chats.

However, that's not actually the case anymore. While Apple's iMessage software is exclusive to iOS and you won't find it in the Google Play Store, a new app called Beeper lets you access the iMessage platform. The universal chat app works with a variety of texting software beyond iMessage, making it a one-stop-shop for all your communication needs.

Read more
How to download the Android 15 beta right now
The Android 15 logo on a smartphone.

Android 15, Google's next major Android update, is now available for testing. Following a couple of developer previews launched earlier this year, Google released the first Android 15 beta on April 11 — making it available for anyone to try.

Read more
Google just released the first Android 15 beta. Here’s what’s new
The Android 15 logo on a smartphone.

Google has just released the first public beta build of Android 15, marking an end to the developer-focused test phase. The beta version’s release also means that Android 15 is finally in a state where it can be tried by the masses without people having to worry about too many bugs leaving their phone in a sorry state.

The first beta version of Android 15 doesn’t introduce a ton of new features, as most of the notable additions have already appeared in the Developer Preview builds. Google’s blog post, however, mentions the following features as the key highlights

Read more