What is Kindle in Motion?

With the launch of the animated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, more and more users would like to know about the format that has been used to bring illustrations to life.

The new format is called Kindle in Motion, and the new Harry Potter ebook, with animated illustrations from Jim Kay, is the best example of what you can expect.

So, what is Kindle in Motion exactly? It is a special digital format, developed by Amazon, that lets enhance the reading experience with animated or interactive elements.

These elements are:

• animated pictures or illustrations – just like animated gifs, they play in an endless loop,
• animated book cover – the cover of a book is displayed as an animation not only when you open the book in the Kindle app, but also on a book detail page on Amazon,
• videos – videos can be embedded in the content of a book – something you may already know from Kindle Edition with Audio/Video,
• custom page backgrounds – another way to make the ebook more involving.

To see all the benefits of the new format, take a look at the video trailer of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

What’s the difference between Kindle Edition with Audio/Video and Kindle in Motion?

The newer format is more flexible. First of all, you can toggle the extra elements on and off. With animated elements turned off, the ebook is just like any other Kindle publication.

And just like any other Kindle ebook, the Kindle in Motion edition lets you fully control personalization settings. You can resize the font or margins, change the typeface, or turn on the night mode.

If you buy the Kindle in Motion ebook, you can read in on any mobile device with the Kindle application, naming only iOS or Android. Most importantly, you will also be able to open the book on your Kindle e-reader. However, for obvious reasons, the motion elements won’t be displayed.

Amazon introduced Kindle in Motion in the middle of 2016, without the usual press coverage. It’s not surprising – at that time only seven Kindle in Motion books were available.

Currently, a few hundred Kindle books have [Kindle in Motion] in their titles, but there are only some twenty publications in the official Kindle in Motion sub store on Amazon. Among the titles, you’ll find Hugh Howey’s Wool (the first book from Silo series), or a Kindle Single written by Jodi Picoult and entitled Mermaid.

With all the buzz about the animated Harry Potter book, the number of Kindle in Motion books should increase quicker.

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