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Amazon Releases the Kindle Lite App in India

The newest version of the Kindle app is only 2MB in size and is almost impossible to download.

E-commerce giant Amazon updated its Kindle app last week and the company has now released Kindle Lite app for Android beta testers. The Amazon Kindle Lite app is designed for low-end Android smartphones. The company also added that the app is specially designed for Indian readers.

The app weighs 2MB in size and can work smoothly even on 2G network. The app also enables the users to monitor their data and manage the storage. It offers all the features like the normal Kindle app. Users can shop for books and can also read them in five Indian languages namely – Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi and Malayalam.

The app is compatible with smartphones running Android version 4.4 and above.

Amazon’s regular Android app takes up 111MB on my Android smartphone (and that doesn’t include any content) so I am dying to find out what is different about the lite version of the app.

The app is listed in Google Play as "unreleased", and there are no reviews just yet. I have been unable to download it either through direct or nefarious means. I even tried a couple workarounds (here’s one) but neither worked.

If you get a copy, do let me know what you think.

Edit: A reader told me where we can download the app (thanks, RL!). It’s not worth getting; the app has no formatting or annotation options, tiny text, no sideloaded content, no search, and the "send to Kindle feature" doesn’t work.

image by Pen Waggener

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Comments


RL November 6, 2017 um 10:58 am

I was able to download it from the UptoDown website. It works very well.

Nate Hoffelder November 6, 2017 um 11:05 am

thanks! That worked!


RL November 6, 2017 um 11:09 am

It did replace the other Kindle App when I installed it.

Nate Hoffelder November 6, 2017 um 11:14 am

I have both apps on my smartphone.


Mark Williams – The New Publishing Standard November 6, 2017 um 3:36 pm

"It’s not worth getting."

Well, not if we are lucky enough to have device and network access such as that can run the regular app. For those in India, and elsewhere if it eventually rolls out beyond, better some functionality that no app at all.

For the target audience it is a welcome step forward.

http://www.thenewpublishingstandard.com/beta-kindle-lite-for-indias-slow-connection-readers/


Bill Smith November 6, 2017 um 5:51 pm

The kindle app on my phone takes up 257 MB with two whole text-only books on it.

The previous version was up to 1 GB with three whole books on it before I deleted it (and reinstalled) to get it to stop taking up so much space.

My phone only has 8GB and since I can’t put Kindle content on the memory card, it is a huge storage hog.

I would don’t need any of the features the Kindle Lite app doesn’t include. I just want to read my kindle books … you know, text. On a screen. Taking up less than 1 GB. That’s all I want.

The current app is a bloated mess.


Bill Smith November 7, 2017 um 7:11 pm

Just wanted to say that I just installed the Kindle Lite app — very satisfied, easy to read, has only the useability I need. And best of all, only takes up 8MB on my phone.


Bill Smith November 8, 2017 um 11:31 am

I should have elaborated in my previous comment — the app takes up 8MB with the two books downloaded — same phone, on the regular Kindle app, it takes up 280 MB (grew from 257 to 280 MB in two days with no activity … sigh).

Very pleased with Kindle Lite


Tom S March 30, 2018 um 1:04 pm

The Kindle app for Android has had issues with managing data storage in the past. On my (only) Android device, version 8.5.0.77 takes 173MB for the App but 541MB for Data. I have only two books on there.

I did a Clear Data and after entering my credentials and waiting for Sync to finish, and downloading two books, Data went down to 217MB (without books it was about 200MB – but I assume it needs a local database of my Library, and thumbnails for everything – about 1800 books at this point). (I also tried deleting and reinstalling the app, but it stayed at 173MB.)

By comparison, Bookari Premium takes 166MB for the App. Google Play Books is about 75MB.

Not interested in Kindle Lite myself, even if it were to show up in US Google Play as an option.


Randy Lea March 30, 2018 um 2:59 pm

Its a shame that software guys like add a bunch of features that aren’t essential, wasting speed and storage. I hope they figure out that we are smart enough to select between a full featured app and a lite app, based on out needs, then give us a choice.


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