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consolation prize for button-lovers

Newer Kindles get a work-around for touchscreen page-turning in new software update

"Double tap to page turn" works on latest Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft.

Andrew Cunningham – | 79
New Kindles with the 5.18.1 update installed support double tapping to turn pages or advance the screen. It's not quite a button, but it's a non-touchscreen option for people who want one. Credit: Amazon
New Kindles with the 5.18.1 update installed support double tapping to turn pages or advance the screen. It's not quite a button, but it's a non-touchscreen option for people who want one. Credit: Amazon

Amazon discontinued 2016's Kindle Oasis in early 2024, and since then, the company hasn't offered a new e-reader with physical page turn buttons or any other alternative to touchscreen input. There still isn't a Kindle with buttons, and the feature seems unlikely to return, but buyers of the latest Kindle Paperwhite or the Kindle Colorsoft are getting a possible consolation prize in the new 5.18.1 software update: a "double tap to page turn" feature that will turn the page or move to the next screen when you double-tap on the back or side of the device.

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The 5.18.1 software update is available on all Kindle readers going back to 2018's "10th generation" models, but the double-tap feature only works on the newest 12th-generation Paperwhite and the Colorsoft, not on any older Kindles or either Kindle Scribe model. We verified this firsthand by installing 5.18.1 on a 10th-generation Paperwhite, but we also checked the release notes for each individual Kindle on Amazon's software update page.

All Kindles that get the 5.18.1 update also gain access to new book summaries for "thousands of bestselling English language Kindle books," aiming to make it easier to pick up a new book in an ongoing series.

When a recap is available, it will be accessible from your Kindle's home page, or by opening the book and selecting "Recaps In This Series" from the menu. Opening a recap will show you a spoiler warning before you tap through. Based on the handful of recaps I could find and skim, there's a pretty good chance these summaries are mostly AI-generated, but Amazon's release notes and the Kindle interface don't say one way or the other.

The 5.18.1 update also includes the typical non-specific "performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements" for all models. This is the first update to get the Colorsoft and the other Kindles running on the same software version—before now, the other Kindles were all on version 5.17, and the Colorsoft ran a version of 5.18 that wasn't available for manual download from Amazon's software update page.

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Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter
Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue.
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