Amazon has announced that all modern Kindle e-readers will support EPUB, the world’s most popular ebook format. The company just revised its “Send to Kindle” guidelines, stating that EPUB support will be added later this year. Because MOBI is an older file type, Kindle could disable the ability to load MOBI files onto the reader. However, MOBI books that are already available on your Kindle will remain available.
Amazon’s Kindle Store is a significant ebook seller, and the most popular ebook format is EPUB. Kindle readers do not currently accept this format, thus users must manually convert their book library to a Kindle-friendly format using applications such as Calibre.
Right now, the most popular format for kindles is MOBI, an older French file format that was Amazon’s proprietary ebook format for a time. Mobipocket was acquired by Amazon in 2005, and the company was rebranded as AZW. Do note that you can still read ebooks in any format on your Kindle if you already have them. Only new ebooks are affected by the change.
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Get the latest technology news, reviews, and opinions on tech products right into your inboxThis change could be coming to the E-INK readers first, followed by a larger rollout onto the main Kindle app on Fire tablets. Folks at the Good E-Reader noted that Amazon is doing this because the company is in the process of transitioning their existing Java framework to React Native, which is why EPUB compatibility will be available by the end of this year. They also found out that Amazon is converting the EPUB that was uploaded to KF8 (AZW3). As a result, it appears that they may not support EPUB natively.
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