Kindle App Not Working With VoiceOver?

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.

I read through this entire thread, and like Heather, I had already made all the setting changes with no results. The reason this is a problem is because the Kindle app pauses after each paragraph. When it used to read a page at a time, the pause only happened when the page turned. The two-finger scroll does work, but the pauses really make it annoying to read a book on Kindle. Oh, and yes, I contacted customer service. My experience has been that they are not helpful. They tell you to reinstall the app, something I already do. I really hope they can fix this, and if some people like it, I hope they can make it some sort of setting. Interestingly enough, this is an issue with Kindle books, but not with documents you send to your Kindle. Reaching the accessibility team is an impossible feat. They really need Kindle users from the blindness community to help them with accessibility. They change some things, causing accessibility to break down. I am using the latest version of iOS, and I have iPhone 16. I really hope Amazon resolves this. I sure wish there is a way to contact someone who actually can do something about it. I have been using the app since 2014, and some of the issues that cropped up left me quite confused. This is only the latest, and not so greatest. Thanks to everyone who wrote in this thread. It helps those of us experiencing issues not feel like we're floundering alone.

Hi, Heather,
Even though Amazon is often unhelpful when contacting them regarding Kindle, I still do it. It is important for them to get as many comments about an issue as possible. The more they hear about it, the more significance they give it. I have an issue, where my Kindle doesn't start with "about the book" even though I have it turned on. I told Amazon about it a couple of times. Finally, someone told me that the developers said they would do something about it if they got more complaints. If only one or two people complain, they may not pay much attention. As frustrating as it is, I still contact Amazon about Kindle issues. I wish I could say they help; they really don't. They have a certain script they follow when you call them. They assume the user is wrong, and they also assume that you don't know to uninstall the app and reinstall it. I really hope they fix this issue. Yes, I absolutely agree. These pauses are insane. They do have an assistive reader you can turn on in reading settings, under the "More" tab, but that's not ideal either. You might want to give it a whirl. Just because I didn't care for it doesn't mean you would not. *smile*

Between the 18th, which was my last post to this thread, and this morning, my iPhone updated to iOS 18.1.1. My Kindle app is still version 7.23.1.
However, I now have this issue you all are talking about. Literally a few days ago things were as I have stated above in previous posts, but now ... Kindle is reading Paragraph by Paragraph.

The only silver lining to this, is that I prefer to listen to my Kindle books through the Alexa app on my iPhone, or my actual Alexa device in my living room.

So having said all of that, I think this is yet another VO issue. Perhaps the 18.2 patch will fix things.

here's to hoping ... 🙄

I have the 18.2 beta, and I reported this in the Feedback app a couple of days ago. Strangely enough, this started Monday, midmorning, and there was no iPhone or Kindle update. How could such a change happen without an update? Yes, I am sure the app worked right earlier. Then, I went for my two-hour long MRI, came back, and it was all changed.

I'm noticing the pause between paragraphs, and a page pause. I get haptic feedback with the page pause, but not with the paragraphs. I'm running the latest public beta. Frankly, I like the pauses between paragraphs, could be very handy for books with lots of dialog, which to me are completely unreadable without some separation, which modern authors neglect. Maybe it would be worse if I ran my speech slower, or maybe what everyone else is getting is way different than what I'm getting.

I, for one, cannot stand the pauses. It slows my reading, considerably. I have my VoiceOver rate between 90 and 100%. The way they have it now, if I want to check a word or line, I lose my place easily. I consider this a nightmare. It definitely stops me from reading Kindle books. Alexa is ay too slow for me, and their assistive reader does not work well. How does one contact someone on the Kindle accessibility team? I would love to know.

The way this is working now, I can see how it is incredibly frustrating to try to read a book through the Kindle app. For the person who said that the assistive reader was too slow, I do not use the assistive reader built into the Kindle app. I use the assistive reader that is built into the Alexa app, and is also on the actual Amazon Alexa devices. That, you can tell to read faster or slower. I currently listen to my e-books through the Alexa app on my iPhone, at 1.5 times speed. That is ideal for me.
Your mileage may vary ...

Hi. I can replicate the behaviour when swiping left and right through pages with three finger swipes and, if you read in this manner, reading does not start from the top of the page. I also get normal reading behaviour if I swipe down with two fingers for continuous reading. In addition to this, if you try and read with a braille display, panning will work for so long and then it just skips a massive chunk of text for no reason. on looking in settings on my Kindle books, it would seem that auto scroll which is under the layout tab, is no longer available either. I am running iOS and iPadOS 18.1.1. The Kindle app version I have is 7.2 3.1 and this behaviour is happening both on my iPhone 13 mini and my iPad mini sixth generation. I have reported the braille display behaviour to Amazon, but it might be worth reporting these issues as well. Very irritating.

Hello,

I am convinced that this is actually an iOS issue. If you go back and look at some of the earlier replies to this thread, you will see that I am also on the same version of Kindle as you. However, I only started having the reading issue as of the latest iOS update.