Kindle App Not Working With VoiceOver?

I think VoiceOver is reading your Kindle book one paragraph at a time instead of a full page. However, if you want to fix this, check your VoiceOver settings to make sure the rotor is set to 'Page' and not 'Paragraph' or 'Word'. You can change this by swiping up or down with two fingers to adjust the settings. If that doesn’t work, try updating or reinstalling the Kindle app. Let me know if you need more help!
Mike Taku.

I'm not having any problems reading books on Kindle with my iPhone SE3, running iOS 18.1.
Having said that, it is possible that you have downloaded a book that does not necessarily have proper screen reader support. Unfortunately, there are a few of those books that exist on Kindle.

Previously, I would 3-finger swipe left or swipe right, and VoiceOver would read the entire previous or next page. It's no longer doing this, for maybe the past several days. Now, it reads the first paragraph and stops. One-finger swipe left or right reads the previous or next paragraph.

I'm okay with this change. Reflowable text page breaks are arbitrary, so having VoiceOver notify me of the end of a page by stopping did little to improve my comprehension. Paragraphs, on the other hand, are rather an important literary comprehension clue to go without.

If you want continuous reading, you can always 2-finger swipe down. It will automatically flip to the next page.

I wish to update my above post. As I mentioned, I am on an iPhone SE3. I can use the three finger swipe gesture to change pages manually, and voiceover (for me) will read that entire page. Or I can do the two finger swipe to either read all or read from top, and voiceover reads the entire page, and then automatically moves to the next page and continues reading.
Just wanted to clarify that Kindle is working fine on my particular device.

Brian, interesting that you aren't seeing this change. What version of Kindle are you on? Mine is version 7.22.1. I assume Heather's is the same.

I have noticed that Kindle screens have become less responsive to touch of late. It's harder to start continuous reading by swiping down with two fingers. However, this is not what you want.

Try the following steps.

1 Open a book.

2 One finger double tap to bring up the options.

3 flick right to "Reading settings" and one finger double tap to open it.

4 Flick right to "Layout" and one finger double tap to open it.

5 Personally I've chosen "small" under the "spacing" option

6 go back to the top of the screen and one finger double tap to open the "Themes" tab.

7 I've chosen "Compact."
The above settings give you the most words on any screen.

8 touch the right side of the screen then one finger double tap to close the menu and bring you back to the book.

9 Now you should be able to do your three finger swiping and Voiceover should read the entire page.

Be warned, these settings don't seem to stick around for long. I don't know why, so you might have to repeat them.

Hey Paul,

This is copied from the version button under settings on my Kindle app.

"Kindle for iPhone"

"Version 7.23.1

Kindle for iPhone software ® 2009-2024 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Amazon, the Amazon logo, the AmazonKindle logo, Kindle, Goodreads, and Whispersync are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates."

I was out of date. Doh! So I updated and ... drum roll please ... Absolutely no change in behavior whatsoever. The app still stops at the end of a paragraph rather than a page, just like Heather.

Color me stumped.

Have you tested this to see if it really is only reading a single paragraph at a time? I ask only because when I open a book, and it starts reading to me, if I do the three finger swipe left or right to change pages, it reads that page and then stops at the end. I have tested this by doing the gesture to read everything from the top to the end, and it also ended at the exact same place, and then makes a little Page changing sound (VO scroll sound), and then continues the book on the next page automagically.

I am also curious as to whether this is only happening on newer iPhone devices.

Hi Heather,

Sorry to hear that you were still having troubles with the Kindle app. I wish I had some more advice to give you, but alas, I am on an older model iPhone, one without the dynamic island, and I am not having any problems on my end. I mention the dynamic island, only because I have noticed that the iPhone 14 and above models, seem to have issues, that the iPhone 13 and below models do not seem to have.
Of course I do not know which iPhone you are using, but hopefully the next Kindle update, or iOS update, will resolve this situation. 🙁

Apologies if you have already mentioned this, but out of curiosity, have you tried changing your VoiceOver voice for the Kindle app?

I’m using an older device with the latest kindel app update and it behaves like heather’s.

So, I cannot remember if I already said this, but I am also on an older iPhone model. iPhone SE 2022 ... a.K.a iPhone SE3, or 3rd generation. I am currently running the latest official release of iOS, 18.1. As much as I hated all of iOS 17, I'm not sure if upgrading would be good for you. There are a few bugs in iOS 18 that are quite frustrating for us voiceover users, one of the bigger ones (in my opinion) is the inability to read notes by lines anymore, unless you're actually Editing the note itself.
Having settle of that, I do not have the Kindle issue on my phone at all. So ultimately, it will be up to you. You could, potentially, have a working Kindle app, but a broken Notes app. And I do not know if you use Audio Ducking, but that has been completely reworked in iOS 18, along with the Photos app.

Just some things to consider ...

I've noticed this change, but I don't have a problem with it. In fact I like it. It makes it easier to tell where paragraphs start and end, to make sure you're tapping on text when you're trying to get to the menu (so not inadvertently clicking on a link) and to find your place again if you interrupt VoiceOver in the middle of a page.

Heather, I don't understand the issue you're having with using the two finger flick down for continuous reading. That's still working for me. Is it just that you prefer to turn the page manually?

For those of you who are experiencing this change, does this now allow you to read a Kindle book with just a swipe of one finger? For example, you double tap on a book in your library to open it, and you start reading from line one, and at the end of the paragraph, do you just swipe right with one finger to get to the next paragraph, and rinse and repeat to also get it to switch pages?
That, seems like it could be useful. As I have said above, I am not experiencing this, so for me it's start a book, and I'll only have to manually change a page, or I could do the read all gesture and just let it go on its own.

I wonder if there is a way to disable automagical page turning? I, think, Apple Books has an option to disable this, but no idea about Kindle.

Hi all,
A few posts back, somebody mentioned about dynamic island causing problems for VoiceOver users. I checked this out because I don't want this causing problems when I get my new iPhone. According to the below blog article, you can customise it so apps don't use certain features.
https://www.appypie.com/blog/notch-no-more-how-to-use-iphone-dynamic-island#:~:text=Accessing%20Dynamic%20Island%20Settings%3A%20Go,its%20interaction%20with%20specific%20apps.
And Heather, I'm not experiencing the issue you are when reading. On another note, for the past few months, I can only navigate the books in my library using explore by touch, I can't swipe through my books from left to right. Has anybody else noticed this? It's driving me mad.

Hey there Tara,

I am actually experiencing the library thing as well. I've gotten so used to it by now, that I haven't really thought much about it, but I cannot honestly remember the last time I was able to navigate by swipe gestures.

Edit: I updated this post, as my last post somehow posted twice.

Speaking of Corky Kindle updates, a version or two ago, if I was searching for a new book, and it happened to be one that I had borrowed before via Kindle Unlimited, Kendall would not tell me if I had borrowed that book before. On the latest update however, once I open a book to its details page, right after the "done" button, it will have a message saying something along the lines of, "you last borrowed this e-book on ...", Followed by a date. Also, in my post above I mentioned the issue with navigating books that are in my library. Well, I actually just discovered earlier this morning that once I do explore by touch to land on a book title, I can then swipe left or right to go through my library. Although, it seems kind of wonky, once I get out of it, I have to explore by touch to get back into it.
I am wondering if this is a situation in which we have to use interact, which I have never used on iPhone, even though by default it's two finger swipe left or right to interact or stop interacting.

Just some food for thought ...

Well that article quotes iPhone 15 upwards. So, it is interesting that on my iPhone 15 pro it does not exist either in display and brightness. So, maybe it is turned off if you have vo enabled. If not where is it! it shows at the top of the screen so it does exist just no settings.

A three finger swipe left or right moves forward and backward through the pages and reads them, stopping at the end of the page.

Still can't buy books in it though! So daft.

I believe the dynamic island only exists on iPhone 14 and above, however it's ironic that the directions for modifying it don't seem to work, even on an iPhone 15 Pro, or Pro Max.

I cannot remember where, but I read an article somewhere that Apple charges a huge tax in order for services like Amazon to be able to allow customers to buy directly from Kindle, as well as Audible, via their respective applications. Luckily we can still do it from their webpage.

Hi Heather,
I haven't got the dynamic island on my phone. I've got an iPhone 12 mini which doesn't support it. As people said above, the dynamic island is only available on the iPhone 14 and later. . I was just reading about it earlier because I'm planning to upgrade my phone at some point next year, and I wanted to know about it. As for explore by touch, this is when you have to put your finger on the exact location of something on the screen to be able to access it. If you swipe left and right, you miss it completely. In the case of the Kindle library for me, when I double tap on 'library', I swipe right to try and find my books, and they're not there. I can only find the different tabs like 'home' and so on. I used to be able to swipe right and I could find all my books. So now I have to put my finger towards the bottom of the screen, and then I hear some of my book titles, and then I can swipe left and right through them. I hope that helps. And Brian you said about the interact thing, I tried that and I just get a tone sound. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

This is the confusing thing, you can buy books in the audible app.

At Tara,

Nope. You're doing it correctly. Under the touch gestures inside voice over settings, it's called move in and move out. It's basically interact though. Kindle is just weird ...

At Ollie,

Willie? I was not aware of this. I've been buying my Audible books through their Mobile website, since for the longest time we could not actually purchase them through the app. It's nice if they have added that option now. Good to know anyways.

Certainly in the UK you can now buy books in the audible app. I think it has been around for about a year. Probably not more than that. They always said they couldn't do it and then suddenly they could! Go figure.

So I opened my Audible app this morning, tapped on the Discover tab at the bottom, picked new releases to browse through, and what do you know? I can not only purchase books through the Audible app, I can even purchase more credits through the Audible app.
Go figure ...
no idea why we don't have this on Kindle as well.

Don't buy credits through the audible app though, they are more expensive that way. Best to load up on the website. I don't mind buying directly through the app, each book costs no more than £7.99 for members.

Heather, If you're struggling with the two finger swipe down gesture, you can change it to something easier. In VoiceOver settings, Go to commands, then touch gestures, then in the list of commands that appears, select "read all from current item", and you can change it to any gesture you find easier. Just wanted to make sure you know that.

Hi Heather,

Unfortunately, upgrading your phone won't improve the accessibility or functionality of an app. I would be very surprised if getting a newer phone helped with this. I would reach out to Amazon to make them aware of the issues you are having. While I cannot speak to these resources from personal experience, Amazon's website lists accessibility@amazon.com as a contact for topics relating to accessibility. They also have a support page with a link to contact Accessibility Customer Service.