Amazon Is Adding an AI-Powered ‘Recaps’ Feature to Kindle Devices

Amazon is adding a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature to Kindle devices that will help users quickly refresh their memory while reading a book series. Announced on Wednesday, the new feature is dubbed Recaps, and it will provide a short AI-generated recap of the books already read in a series to bring the user up to speed before they read the next book. The e-commerce giant is currently rolling out the new feature via an over-the-air (OTA) update in the US. Notably, in November 2024, Amazon added a similar X-Ray Recaps feature to its video streaming platform, Prime Video.

Kindle Devices Will Now Provide an AI-Generated Book Recap

In a newsroom post, the Seattle-based tech giant detailed the new feature, which is being rolled out to Kindle users in the US. The AI-powered Recaps feature is designed to help those readers who find it difficult to get back into a book series because they do not want to read older books to remember key plot details.

This issue particularly occurs when a book series is not complete and the reader has gone through the released titles. By the time the next book arrives, the memory of the events has faded. Many readers opt to read through a series in continuity because of this issue, which has its downsides, such as reading fatigue and genre boredom.

Amazon's latest feature solves this problem by providing readers a short, AI-generated recap of the books they've already read so that they can move on to the next title without an issue. The recap contains plot points, a storyline summary, and character arcs. The company warns that the recaps will contain spoilers of the previous books. Currently, the feature is available for only English language ebooks that are part of a series.

Notably, Amazon only recognises those books as a part of a series that were purchased or borrowed from its digital store. So, even if books added from other sources are part of a series, they will not show as such in the Kindle library, and the Recaps feature will not work.

Users who have access to the feature can try it out by looking for the “View Recaps” button in the series page in their Kindle Library. Alternatively, it can also be found as an option within the series grouping three-dot menu. Updating the e-reader is necessary before the feature becomes visible. Amazon has not shared when the feature could be released in more regions.