Officially, we still can’t read EPUB format on Kindle ebooks. It’s not up to us, but what the manufacturer decides: Amazon readers are not compatible with the EPUB format of most books, but we can fix it by changing the file to send it to the reader later. Until now. Starting in late 2022, Kindle devices will finally support the EPUB format, though there are buts.
Amazon has almost quietly announced that it will support the EPUB format, although it will not be completely.
This is how Kindle and EPUB will coexist
Kindle will not have native EPUB support. Instead, what Amazon’s e-book will do after the end of the year is email the EPUB file so it can be converted into a format Kindle can read.
Kindle Oasio
The format EPUB was released in 2007 and was quickly adopted by e-reader companies like Kobo, Sony, and Barnes & Noble. In fact, we could say without fear of being wrong that the most common among eBook users.
Until now, the only way to read EPUB books on the Kindle is to convert them. You can use, for example, the Caliber or Convertio program, which could also send the book in EPUB to a format supported by Kindle. Now it will be the Kindle itself that does the conversion through the Amazon ecosystem. The actual process can be a bit messy, as you had to download one of these third-party programs, upload the ebook, and convert it to a MOBI file. From there, you send it to your Send to Kindle email address and upload it to your Kindle device. Now that process will be less cumbersome.
This advancement of Amazon in the recognition and support of EPUB is not expected to be a revolution either. You can only buy Kindle-format ebooks from the Amazon store, while competitors offer more flexibility. Buying an ebook in EPUB format automatically made it compatible with a wide variety of devices like Kobo or Sony.
That the online store begins to offer other file formats would be a surprise that we cannot imagine, since the Kindle business is also based on that exclusivity.
MOBI support is removed
In addition, support for MOBI files (.AZW, .MOBI) in the send-to-library service through the Kindle Personal Document Service will be removed. MOBI is an old file format and does not support the new Kindle features for documents. If you already have MOBI files on your Kindle, don’t worry about a thing, they will continue to work. You just can’t get any new ones once the update is implemented.
Kindle
You can send documents to My Kindle Library using your Kindle Personal Document Service email address. The authorized email address is compatible with the following file types:
- MOBI (.AZW, .MOBI) (will no longer support newer Kindle features)
- Microsoft Word (.DOC, .DOCX)
- HTML (.HTML, .HTM)
- RTF (.RTF)
- Text (.TXT)
- JPEG (.JPEG, .JPG)
- GIF (.GIF)
- PNG (.PNG)
- BMP (.BMP)
- PDF (.PDF)
- EPUB (.EPUB)
