Kindle Android app now has continuous scrolling

[barryem]

My phone's Kindle app updated this morning and up popped a notice that it now has scrolling and it asked if I want to turn it on. I said yes and wallah! It scrolls! I love it.

I use the Kindle app as well as Moon+ on my phone and scrolling is the main reason I like Moon+. I don't let it scroll automatically. I just use my finger to go down the page as needed. Now my Kindle app does the same thing and I suspect I'll be using it more than Moon+. In the past I mostly used Moon+.

It's very smooth and there are no breaks between chapters. It treats the entire book as a single scrolling continuous page. I kind of like the chapter breaks in Moon+ but that's a small thing. They've done this very well in the Kindle app.

Next time I see Jeff Bezos (which will also be the first time) I'm going to shake his hand and give him my profuse thanks. Scrolling makes reading a lot more pleasant. I can thoughtlessly scroll while reading so there are no breaks in concentration.

Now if they could just do some magic and make my Paperwhite scroll.

Barry

[HarryT]

Good to hear it's an option for those who prefer it. Not something that I would want to use myself, but more choice is always good! It was added to the iOS app a while ago, as I recall.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Good to hear it's an option for those who prefer it. Not something that I would want to use myself, but more choice is always good! It was added to the iOS app a while ago, as I recall.

I didn't realize the IOS app already had it. I thought I'd discovered something new in the world. I was hoping Amazon might even name the scrolling feature after me, as it's discoverer.

I was just reading with it a bit and I really like it. It just might be the best improvement in the Kindle world in quite a while, at least for me.

Barry

[tomsem]

Newer Fire tablets also have Continuous Scrolling. I think Android app got this a few weeks ago as well (before it showed up on my Fire HD8).

So far, the implementation(s) lack any equivalent of Page View or even a basic scroller when reading options are displaying. And no support for Immersion Reading. I do like it because the paragraph structure is not disturbed by pagination (no ‘widows’ or ‘orphans’).

The iOS app (iPad in particular) suffers because there is no keyboard navigation implementation (such as using arrow keys to scroll, page up/down etc.). Android seems to support that sort of thing by default.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tomsem

The iOS app (iPad in particular) suffers because there is no keyboard navigation implementation (such as using arrow keys to scroll, page up/down etc.). Android seems to support that sort of thing by default.

Do you think that many people would want to control a reading app on a tablet using an external keyboard? The idea seems slight bizarre!

[barryem]

I bought a Fire Phone when Amazon began selling them off at low prices. I never used it as a phone. I bought it to use as an MP3 player and an ereader. I never really used it much. But it did have scrolling in it's Kindle app. It was released in 2014.

It's scrolling worked a little differently. It had 4 cameras to monitor it's position relative to your face in order to enable the 3D viewer. It used that feature to scroll forward when you tilted it back relative to your face or scroll back if you tilt it forward.

I liked that feature well enough although being able to control scrolling with a touch, as with the current Kindle app, is much less awkward. The problem with that scrolling was that if I lowered the phone slightly relative to my face that had the same effect, making it scroll, usually unintentionally. So I had to remember to keep it in a steady position.

The current app is much nicer than that.

Barry

[jhowell]

Since this feature requires KFX (enhanced typesetting) format it will not be available on all books.

For example personal documents that you may have sent to your Amazon account will not allow continuous scrolling, page flip, or switchable ragged right/justified text in the Aa menu.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you think that many people would want to control a reading app on a tablet using an external keyboard? The idea seems slight bizarre!

Virtually every other platform (Windows, macOS, Android, Linux) comes with the expectation that you can turn pages with a keyboard. Touch interface is no substitute for efficiency and ergonomics of a physical keyboard, when one is available. Having navigation shortcuts can also enable a greater range of Accessibility options. For example using Bluetooth foot pedals to turn pages.

Apple Books supports basic keyboard navigation in both paged and scrolling mode, as do some reading apps such as Marvin, Comixology, and Queue. Not to mention web browsers. Many productivity apps like Apple’s and Microsoft’s have keyboard shortcuts.

Of course if you aren’t used to using a physical keyboard with iPad, it might seem ‘bizarre’.