Kindle vs Kindle app UI 'consistency' creeps forward

[tomsem]

The latest change to the iOS Kindle app (6.84) has made Downloaded a Library Filter setting, just like Kindle has had for awhile, and so there's no longer a visible way to toggle between ALL and DOWNLOADED. It is probably just a matter of days or weeks before the Android/Fire Kindle app follows suit.

Not a big deal for me, having adjusted to Kindle's way of doing things long ago.

But it is curious that they have been so timid in converging the 3 UIs more generally (leaving aside Mac (**) and Windows for the moment), given how much Kindle UI has already changed to bring them closer.

The visual presentation of Filters and Sort options is still different: on Kindle you get a dialog of buttons to toggle on and off and then close, after which the filters can be cleared individually without the full dialog. The apps have a dropdown list of options that can be toggled, and a way to clear all filters without the menu. Is the jury still out on which is 'better'?

Other differences are with managing content options:

• only Kindle has Return to Public Library, Go to, Search this book, View on Goodreads, Add to Goodreads shelf, Share Progress on Goodreads options
• only the apps let you Manage Household Sharing
• only iOS lets you Archive downloaded items from List view by swipe left gesture (at least the Android/Fire should have this convenient option)
• Kindle has no multiple select option
• Android/Fire is multiple select by default and requires separate tap to reveal options
• iOS is single select by default and you have to choose multiple select and then tap Action button to see what you can do after having selected some items
• iOS lets you sort by Publication Date; Android by Author (Z-A); Kindle has neither

Collection presentation is probably the area which remains most different:

• Kindle Collections view has Filter functionality enabled in Collections mode (and when viewing a collection), the apps do not
• the apps generate collection thumbnails, the Kindle does not
• only Android app lets you view a collection in List mode (*)
• On Kindle, when viewing a collection Add/Remove lets you filter and sort the list, but there's no search by keyword. At least this add/remove is in list view with both thumbnail and author/title.
• iOS and Android/Fire has search by Keyword, and no filter/sort option. But you only see thumbnails, there is no author/title text to look at, so it's not always so clear what you are picking
• Collection sort options on Android are Most Recent, Title, Author (A-Z), Author (Z-A), and Custom (manual sort)
• on Kindle they are Most Recent, Title, Author, Publication Date
• on iOS there's only Manual sort
  

(*) apparently Kindle is getting ability to have collections in List view (see below), but I have yet to see it on any of my Kindles
(**) the Kindle app for Mac has a beta version that is pretty much the same as the iPad version. I expect it will release for at least Apple Silicon Macs at some point. The beta has been going for more than six months already and is very stable, so not sure what they are waiting for.

In reading mode, the app toolbar has Close and ToC icons on the left, and Search/Notes/Aa/menu icons on the right. Kindle has only close on left, and then Aa/ToC/Notes/Bookmarks/Search/menu on the right. I slightly prefer the app toolbar, but given the common icon look and function, why should the order of presentation be different?

I do not expect much progress, frankly, but as someone who uses all 3 regularly, it is annoying to encounter some of these seemingly arbitrary differences.

[Quoth]

They should not make them the same, just have the same features. The actual eink Kindle is really poor now.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

They should not make them the same, just have the same features. The actual eink Kindle is really poor now.

I disagree. 'Somewhat similar' should progress to 'identical' in the more common use cases, except where there are hardware accommodations to take into account. I keep reaching for the ToC icon in the upper left corner on my Kindle and on the upper right on my iPad. There can be no muscle memory until they are more the same.

Likewise when I try to remove a download from Library on my Fire with swipe left, and long press does something entirely different than on Kindle or iOS. (Don't expect swipe to remove to work on Kindle, given the hardware context.)

I'm guessing you do not use the Kindle apps much if at all, and so consistency is a source of badness (e.g. library scrolling instead of paging, list views that are not compact enough).

But except for these examples, there's no problem making a lot of other things consistent across different platforms, and it's what I would expect from a well coordinated development team. It makes it easier to develop and test and know you are successfully fulfilling the same set of use cases across the platform if the UI is consistent. And nicer for users of course.

I am more of a 'glass half full' person, and like or am agnostic about most of the changes. It just feels unfinished and rough when there are all of these arbitrary differences. I'd like to see more attention to detail.

[cvkemp]

I use the latest kindle app on my iPad and I toggle between all and downloaded all the time.
I am not seeing the issue you are talking about. Now I don’t use collections maybe that is why, I still can toggle between all and downloaded

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I use the latest kindle app on my iPad and I toggle between all and downloaded all the time.
I am not seeing the issue you are talking about. Now I don’t use collections maybe that is why, I still can toggle between all and downloaded

You have not updated to the latest version.

Interestingly the macOS (Apple Silicon only) beta Kindle app (same version number) still has ALL | DOWNLOADED.

It's independent of collections. On iOS collections show everything, downloaded or not, and there is no automatic sort. Downloads have a little checkmark icon on the thumbnail. It's easily the worst implementation.

[tomsem]

In an anti-consistency move, Amazon has restored the ALL | DOWNLOADED toggle in the iOS app. Good move.

Speaking of iOS app, the audiobook player has added 1.7x speed and End of Chapter option for the Sleep Timer (both very welcome to me).

They still haven't fixed the issue with losing reading position when switching from one book with audiobook companion to another one (which gets its location overwritten without any prompt). Force-closing the app between books seems to be an effective workaround.

[johnnyb]

The Kindle eink UI is one of the rare cases where the UI is steadily getting worse.
I really HATE how sorting, collections and the library screen have become. It’s bad when iBooks organising is better than Kindle.

What we need is a default library screen and the option to shelve away books into collections. What we have is a cluttered library (without even an option to delete these stupid newspapers that we bought ten years ago) and collections as a weird tucked away afterthought that we need multiple button presses to get to and multiple button presses to get back to the library.