The Kindle App For iOS Has Features Your Aging Kindle Doesn’t

Amazon is going all out to bring artificial intelligence to your reading experience, and is adding a number of new smart features to its famous Kindle e-readers. Officially announced in June 2026, the group designed its AI add-on to “make it easier to stay immersed in your books,” offering spoiler free recaps and AI assistants capable of bringing context to your reading experience. When combined with your Kindle’s previous smart features, which allowed users to do everything from look up definitions to translate foreign languages, the rollout is indicative of a publishing landscape that’s exploring new ways to incorporate emerging technologies into your reading experience, whether you asked for it or not.

Unfortunately, not every reader will have access to Kindle’s AI Infusion. As it stands, Amazon has rolled out its new Recap features for new Kindle devices and US iOS users. However, its Ask This Book AI chatbot will only be available on the US-version of its iOS Kindle application for now. Kindles will get the Ask This Book feature later this year. Similarly, both Recaps and Ask This Book functionalities are expected to come to the Android application by the end of 2026.

These additional features come as Amazon continues to push users toward new models of its flagship e-reader. Earlier this year, the Seattle company announced it would end support for its early Kindle models. To allay concerns, Kindle assured users that their older models would continue to work. However, users will not be able to import new titles into their libraries.

Similarly, Amazon will not be pushing its latest feature updates to its older Kindle models. Instead, the relevant devices will only be available for Kindles released in 2024 or later. With this in mind, the phone app proves to be a useful solution, allowing readers to test whether the AI ​​functionality is really worth the upgrade.

Amazon has introduced its new recaps functions similar to the “Already On…” segments of popular television shows. Readers can seamlessly return to their favorite series without missing a beat through a “quick refresher” of previous installments, including key plot points and character development. It’s important to note that these recaps are anything but spoiler-free. As someone who judges people who go after a book, the idea of ​​accidentally reading a recap of a book I haven’t read yet sends a cold shiver down my spine. Proceed with caution.

Readers can find out if recaps for their favorite series are available in both their Kindle and iOS apps. If you’re using your e-reader, simply go to the series’ page in your Kindle library and select the “View Recaps” button above the books listed. From there, select the book you want a refresher on. You can also select “View Recaps” via the three-dot menu at the top right corner of your screen. If you’re using your phone, the same option will appear when you select and hold a book grouping in your library.

A new addition to Recaps’ functionalities is Amazon’s Story So Far feature, which gives readers the option to receive spoiler-free summaries “tailored to your current position in the story.” US users can use the feature on all Kindle Scribe devices, as well as any Kindle, Kindle ColorSoft, or Kindle Paperwhite released in 2024 or later. Readers connected to their older Kindle products can access the upgrade through the iOS app.

It’s important to note that these updates are not available for all Kindle books. To find out if the book you’re reading is among the “thousands of best-selling English-language e-books” eligible for Amazon’s latest feature, look for the “Read Recap” button when you press and hold a book in your Kindle. To access the feature while reading your book, tap the three-dot menu at the top right corner of the screen.

A new AI assistant will be added to your reading experience. In its press release, Amazon said that its chatbot, called Ask This Book, will immediately “answer questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without interrupting the flow of your reading.” While these responses will be tailored to your current location in the story, users can also ask the chatbot about the book in its entirety. You can also ask text-specific questions by highlighting passages in your Kindle.

Ask This Book is available on Kindle’s iOS application for US customers. The chatbot will be expanded to Amazon’s new Kindle devices and Android OS apps by the end of 2026. But not all books are eligible for this tool. To find out if your text is within the wheelhouse of Amazon’s AI Tutor, simply highlight any selection of text in your book, where you’ll see an “Ask” symbol in addition to features like “Highlight,” “Look Up,” “Copy” and “Note.”

Users can access their Ask This Book Assistant in one of several ways. First, you can find the feature in the in-book menu of the application. You can find the chatbot in your in-book menu, or access it whenever you highlight a passage in your selected text. From there, tap “Ask” and a prompt of suggested questions will appear at the bottom of your screen. You can also type your question in the brown space below. From there, you can interact with your book assistant just like you would a chatbot.

Unsurprisingly, Amazon’s latest AI features have sparked controversy, as authors, publishing houses, and readers alike have criticized the group for potential copyright infringement. As the Authors Guild explained in a statement, Amazon did not receive prior licensing permission from authors and their publishers to include their work in its chatbot feature. As the Guild argues, the addition of AI features “turns books into searchable, interactive products akin to advanced eBooks or annotated editions – a new format for which rights must be specifically negotiated.”

Amazon, for its part, responded to the Authors Guild by saying that Ask This Book “only uses the book’s content as a prompt” rather than training its built-in LLM. Amazon also noted that this function is “a natural language extension of the search functionality that already exists in the Kindle apps and which requires no license,” comparing Ask This Book to Internet searches that users do during their reading process.

As things stand, authors and publishers have no control over whether their books are included in Amazon’s chatbot toolkit. In response to the publishing industry newsletter Publishers LunchAn Amazon spokesperson said the group did not provide the ability to opt out of the tool in order to maintain a “consistent reading experience.” Furthermore, Amazon’s dominance of the e-book market further hinders the author’s ability to opt out of convenience, as Amazon has an estimated three-quarters of the e-reader market. Overall, the Authors Guild said that the feature “sets a dangerous precedent for the future of licensing for AI features.”

Ultimately, this controversy reflects ongoing legal battles throughout the AI ​​field. Will authors be compensated for their role in AI models? Or should it simply be considered a cost of doing business in the ever-changing ebook landscape? No matter where you stand on the issue, Amazon’s latest AI features reflect the forces shaping the next era of book publishing. Whether Amazon customers feel the benefits of AI are worth the ethical ambiguity it creates will remain the focal point.