New Issue When Reading Kindle Books on iOS With VoiceOver/Can Others Duplicate This issue?

By David Goldfield, 28 July, 2018

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi.

I am noticing a new issue when reading Kindle books on my iPhone. I sent the following report to device-accessibility@amazon.com but I am reposting it here as I'm wondering if others on this forum are able to reproduce this issue.

Hello. I am noticing a new issue regarding the Kindle app on my iPhone 8, running iOS 11.4.1 using VoiceOver.
Description

In the past, when performing a continuous read with the two-finger swipe down gesture the reading flow was always smooth. In other words, VoiceOver did not pause at the end of each line of text, but only paused at the end of sentences or paragraphs, making the reading flow sound natural. The only other pause was when the page needed to be flipped but this was very brief and produced a very short earcon.

Recently, this behavior has changed. Now, VoiceOver pauses after each line of text, making the flow of reading sound more unnatural. I have tried changing the font and adjusting font size and spacing but altering these settings does not resolve the issue.

Additionally, the earcon when the page flips is a bit different, sounding like the earcon you hear when opening an app, which makes the pauses between page flips more noticeable and jarring.

This behavior occurs with all of my books. The one exception is when reading a magazine in text view, where the app behaves as expected during reading.

Steps to Reproduce

1. With VoiceOver running, open the Kindle app and ensure that a book is currently open. Ensure that the book contains more than one page.

2. Swipe down with two fingers to cause VoiceOver to read continuously.

3. Allow the reading to continue past the current page so that the page flips.

Expected Results

When reading continuously VoiceOver should only pause during page flips and at the end of a sentence.

Page flip earcons should be very slight and brief.

Actual Results

During continuous reading pauses occur after each line.

Page flip earcons are longer than in previous versions.

Options

Comments

By Kerri on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

Hi David. I’ve been having the same problem with the Kindle app, thanks for explaining it far moore succinctly than I did in a previous post. I plan to report this bug to Amazon as well, hopefully it’s addressed in the next update.

By Paul on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

I tried on my iPhone 7+ with version 6.9 of the Kindle app, and I can't reproduce the issue. Incidentally, you didn't mention the app version in your report, that is a vital piece of information in any bug report. It could be a book specific issue, or more likely, a device specific issue.

By sry on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

I have used VoiceOver to read my books to me ever since I got my iPad Pro. But with the latest iOS Kindle app release it is pausing at the end of every line and is very disruptive (almost not listenable). I am very interested in a solution also.

By Ann on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

Hi David,

This is happening to me too. I'm using an iPhone 6S running the latest iOS version and the latest Kindle app.

The only thing different for me is that I don't even hear a sound when the page flips, but otherwise those pauses do make the reading experience unbearable.

~Ann

By Endarion on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

It happens on my fully patched iPhone 8 too. In addition, when reading line by line, every time the page flips, the first line of the new page is not announced.

By Kimbowen on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

I have an iPhone X running the latest iOS version and the latest version of the Kindle app. I’m having the same issue everyone else’s, voiceover is pausing at the end of each line, which is making reading books almost unbearable! This is kind of a problem because I review kindle books for Amazon and I get paid for doing that. I hope Amazon fixes this frustrating issue ASAP!

By Kimbowen on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

This is a temporary fix until Amazon updates the Kindle app. Use Alexa to read your kindle books, either the app or The actual device. She reads everything normally and there are no pauses between lines. Say Alexa, read the name of the book. Alexa will respond by picking up right where you left off in the last book you read. All the books in your Kindle library are copied over to Alexa, so she can read any of them, just tell her the title.

By Jessica Karim on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

Thank you so much for wording this so eloquently. I have the same issue as well, on an iPhone 8. I think I will copy this post and email it to the accessibility team. I tried calling them, but I don't know if they understood what I was trying to say.

By Jesse Anderson on Friday, July 27, 2018 - 10:43

I've tried several books on my iPhone 7 Plus and haven't encountered this bug yet.

In addition to having both IOS and the Kindle app updated, what voices are people using? I'm using Alex at about 75% speed, and it's reading normally. Maybe it's voice specific behavior?