You know how every other e-book reader under the sun supports EPUB files, but Amazon’s Kindle stubbornly refuses to do so? Well, that’s changing.
Amazon is quietly updating its help documentation (via Goodreader) to say that Kindle devices will start supporting EPUB files.
There is a catch, though. “From the end of 2022, Send to Kindle applications will support the EPUB (.EPUB) format,” the document said. This means you’ll be able to send EPUB files to your Kindle via Amazon’s convenient Send to Kindle system, which essentially allows you to upload documents to your Kindle by emailing them to your Kindle email address. However, it is unclear whether Kindles will naturally support EPUB files, which allows you to purchase ebooks from the Amazon library directly in EPUB format.
This is a big deal for anyone who owns a Kindle and doesn’t rely entirely on the Amazon library. Until now, you had to manually convert EPUB files to MOBI (or other format) to load them into your Kindle, and this often brought additional problems, as the conversion was not always perfect.
In addition, the news is notable for the fact that Amazon has avoided maintaining the otherwise widely supported EPUB format for nearly 15 years (EPUB is an open standard that originally launched in September 2007).
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In addition, the Amazon document says that – also at the end of 2022 – its Send to Kindle system will stop supporting MOBI files (ironically, MOBI has long been Amazon’s preferred standard and the company has its own version of MOBI called AZW).
“This change will not affect any MOBI files already in your Kindle library. MOBI is an older file format and will not support the latest Kindle document features, ”the document said.
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