Well, did you know that you can use Alexa to read your Kindle books? We’re going to explore which devices and books are supported, and detail how to get Alexa to narrate your books.
What Devices Are Supported for Alexa Narration?
Alexa can read to you on a range of devices.
How to Get Alexa to Read a Kindle Book
These are the steps you need to take if you want Alexa to read you a Kindle book:
Open the Alexa app. Tap the Play button. Find your Kindle Library (it must be connected to Alexa). Tap the book you want Alexa to read.
Then Alexa proceeds to read to you. It’s that easy.
Alexa doesn’t read Audible books to you as Audible offers professional narrators, but with Kindle books the assistant does the reading itself.
Which Books Can Alexa Read?
Every Kindle book that supports text-to-speech technology can be narrated by Alexa. For example, if you have a graphic novel, that’s something that Alexa can’t read to you.
There are also some limitations to your book choice; Alexa can’t read all the books you have in your Kindle library.
The Kindle books eligible for Alexa to read to you include titles you bought from the Kindle Store or ones you borrowed from Prime Reading, Kindle Unlimited, or the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Books you shared in your Family Library are also up for grabs.
Limitations of the Alexa Reading Experience
There’s a stark difference between Audible’s professional narrators reading to you and Alexa doing so with your Kindle books. The smart assistant’s voice is robotic.
It doesn’t change tone according to the situation, emphasize words, change voices for different characters, or anything like that.
That said, if you’re able to endure the first few minutes of it, you’ll likely get used to it.
How to Navigate Alexa’s Narration
With voice commands, you can get Alexa to pause, resume, or skip back. Using the Alexa app, you can also choose which chapter you want read to you, and do 30-second skips forwards and backward.
If you’re still worried about that happening, you can rewind by telling Alexa to go back a few minutes or seconds. The same goes for skipping ahead. You can also move between chapters with voice commands.
There are voice commands you can use to change the speed with which the assistant narrates. If you want Alexa to go faster or slower, just say so. And, if you did but didn’t like the change, you can say, “Alexa, read at normal speed.” That’ll get back to the default narration speed.
If you don’t like how Alexa reads to you, you can also change Alexa’s voice.
And the best thing you can do is set a timer for when the reading stops. That way, if you’re in bed and winding down, getting ready to drift off, you know that you won’t have to worry about Alexa blabbering on while you sleep.
Alexa Narration Voice Commands
You can use the Alexa app to control the reading experience: pause, play, skip, etc. Or you can use voice commands, like the ones listed below.
“Alexa, play the Kindle book [book title]. ” “Alexa, read [book title]. ” “Alexa, skip back. ” “Alexa, pause/stop. ” “Alexa, resume. ” “Alexa, go forward [seconds/minutes]. " “Alexa, go back [seconds/minutes]. " “Alexa, next chapter. " “Alexa, previous chapter. " “Alexa, stop reading in # minutes. "
Turn Every Book Into an Audiobook With Alexa
Audiobooks are great for people with busy days who don’t have the time to devote to reading a physical one.
