Kindle for Android Adds Handwritten Notes

In short

In the last days of October 2026 Amazon began rolling out handwriting to the Kindle app for Android. Readers with a stylus can write handwritten notes, sticky notes and free-form "active canvas" notes straight onto ebook pages, with the text reflowing around them, much as it does on a Kindle Scribe. The feature is Android-only for now; the iPhone and iPad apps do not have it yet.

Works on stylus phones and tablets such as Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S and Onyx Boox devices
Pen style, size and colour can be changed
Amazon has not published a formal announcement; the rollout was spotted by users

Readers of Kindle books on Android can now pick up a stylus and write directly on the page. Android Authority reported on 23 October that the Kindle Android app had gained handwritten annotations, a feature that first appeared on Amazon's new Alexa-branded tablets. Good e-Reader confirmed on 26 October that the update adds handwritten notes, sticky notes and active canvas notes on supported phones and tablets, including Galaxy Tab and Onyx Boox models.

It is a small update with a clear message: the phone and tablet in a reader's bag are now treated as serious reading devices, not a fallback for when the e-reader is at home. For authors, small presses and author platforms that want to offer their own reading experience, from annotated editions to companion apps for a series, it also raises the bar for what readers expect, and it is a job for a specialist Android app development team rather than a quick wrapper around a PDF.

It arrives a few days after Amazon renamed Kindle Unlimited to Kindle+, which we covered in our note on Kindle+ and AI-narrated audiobooks. Taken together, the two changes show Amazon pushing reading, listening and note-taking into one app experience.

What changed in the Kindle Android app?

Until now, Kindle's handwriting tools lived on the Kindle Scribe, Amazon's e-ink notebook. Phone and tablet apps offered highlights, typed notes and, more recently, underlining and outlining. The new update closes that gap on Android.

According to user reports collected by Android Authority, the feature already shows up on a Galaxy Tab S10 FE, Galaxy S24 and S23, an XP-Pen Magic Note Pad and a Boox Go 7. Readers can choose pen styles, sizes and colours, and the book's text flows around handwritten notes instead of being covered by them. The eBook Reader lists the same three note types and notes that readers on older Android versions say they cannot see the option, so availability seems to depend on the device and system version.

Amazon itself has not put out a press release. As with many Kindle app features, the change appears to be rolling out gradually, so not every reader will see it on the same day.

Why did Android get it before iPhone and iPad?

Amazon has not explained the order, but there is an obvious practical reason. Amazon's own Alexa tablets run on Android, so the handwriting code was already written for that platform. Android also exposes stylus input, pressure and palm rejection through standard developer APIs, documented in Google's stylus input guide, which makes it easier to bring a feature from one Android device to thousands of others.

The catch is fragmentation. A stylus on a Samsung tablet, a Boox e-ink reader and a budget note pad behaves differently, and early comments from Boox owners mention some lag. Building a reading app that feels good across that range is real engineering work, which is why so few independent reading apps offer handwriting at all.

What does it mean for authors?

Most readers will use handwriting the way they use a pencil in a paperback: underlining a line they love, circling a word, writing a question in the margin. That matters for writers in three ways.

Study and book-club reading. Dense science fiction, with invented terms and timelines, is exactly the kind of book people annotate. Readers who annotate are usually readers who finish and recommend.
Beta readers and editors. Authors who send advance copies through Kindle tools can now ask beta readers to mark up pages by hand on a tablet, which feels more natural than typed comments for many people.
Reader expectations. Once readers can write on a Kindle page, a bonus ebook or companion app that only lets them scroll will feel dated.

Handwritten notes stay with the reader's account. Authors do not see them, and nothing suggests that will change.

What should authors do now?

Check your ebook on an Android tablet. If the text reflows around notes, wide tables, images and fixed layouts may behave differently. Make sure your formatting survives.
Invite annotation. Add a short reading-group guide or a list of discussion questions at the back of the book. It gives readers a reason to pick up the stylus.
Rethink your extras. If you plan maps, timelines or a reader companion, decide whether they belong in the ebook or in your own app. Our guide on how to turn your book into an app walks through the options.
Keep wide distribution in view. Apple's apps do not have this feature yet, but readers move between platforms. Our step-by-step guide on publishing on Apple Books covers the other big store.