I truly despise the iOS 16 Apple Books update

[xxray]

The iOS 16 Apple Books app is incredibly buggy. Pages left in the chapter show up sometimes when you tap the screen, sometimes they don’t. The font size changes on its own when I leave the app and come back to it. On my Mac, whenever I open a book for the first time, it opens to a dark background with black text until you change the theme and change it back to dark again. Somehow, it seems to remember my spot I last read worse than it did before iOS 16. Highlights don’t always save.

Instead of me just being able to just set the app to adjust from light to dark mode, I now have to switch between two different themes to get the same effect I had before. I like the “original” theme for light mode (just white background on black text), but the “original” theme has pure white text on a pure black background in dark mode, hurting my eyes. I have to switch to “calm” for dark mode so I can have a light grey text instead, which is what we had before as the default in iOS 15 for dark mode. I can’t just use “calm” all the time, because in light mode, it’s still a grey background instead of white with black text like I usually like. Also, they removed the skeuomorphic touch of the page turning like a real book, and now it’s just a clinical, boring sliding motion.

Listen, I’m not usually someone who dislike app changes and redesigns. I like change, it keeps things fresh. But this has been the worst update to an app I’ve ever seen Apple make besides the original Apple Maps. The UI has gotten significantly more complex and worse, the app is buggier than ever, and there are so many more taps, workarounds, and inconveniences I have to deal with just to try to get a similar app experience that I had in iOS 15. Apple’s Books app went from my favorite eReader to use to my least favorite.

I can’t be the only one who is unhappy with the changes?

 

[MegaBlue]

Mostly surprised anyone is using the Books app.

There are several platforms that have larger libraries, better functionality, and better device support. What’s the benefit of using Books?

 

[sjsharksfan12]

Mostly surprised anyone is using the Books app.

There are several platforms that have larger libraries, better functionality, and better device support. What’s the benefit of using Books?

It's part of the Apple Ecosystem and if you want to buy books with Apple funds, you can? I know there is the Amazon Book app, but what other platforms are there?

 

[MegaBlue]

It's part of the Apple Ecosystem and if you want to buy books with Apple funds, you can? I know there is the Amazon Book app, but what other platforms are there?

Besides Kindle, I’ve had much better experiences (and seen a better selection) with eBooks.com, Kobo, GPB, and B&N Press, personally. Audible and Spotify both eclipse Apple’s audiobooks offerings.

I get the ”ecosystem” argument but I think it’s really hard to justify the ecosystem against the Books app. I mean, if you’re someone who just really invests into having an “Apple Balance” sure. Obviously use what you want, but Books in my eyes has always been, by far, the weakest offering Apple has.

 

[xxray]

Mostly surprised anyone is using the Books app.

There are several platforms that have larger libraries, better functionality, and better device support. What’s the benefit of using Books?

Privacy and integration with the Apple ecosystem. I don’t want Amazon to be collecting more data on me about what books I read, and their Mac app feels like a legacy ported app. Also, the Books app “just worked” for me before. That’s what’s so frustrating about how bad it is now.

 

[MegaBlue]

You know the data Amazon gets from the books you read on Kindles is the same data Apple gets from Books, right? It’s not any more “private”.

Like I already said, use what you like, I just think Books is the weakest thing Apple offers. There’s basically no ecosystem integration anyways. Just sharing my opinion on it.

 

[xxray]

You know the data Amazon gets from the books you read on Kindles is the same data Apple gets from Books, right? It’s not any more “private”.

Like I already said, use what you like, I just think Books is the weakest thing Apple offers. There’s basically no ecosystem integration anyways. Just sharing my opinion on it.

Yes, but Apple has shown itself to be more respectful of user privacy and data than Amazon has. I trust them more. Not much, but enough for me to prefer to use their app instead.

 

[MegaBlue]

Yes, but Apple has shown itself to be more respectful of user privacy and data than Amazon has

I know it’s not the topic of discussion, but can you provide any examples to this? I hear people parrot it all the time but from my experience Amazon isn’t any more or less trustworthy when it comes to data. For example, many people point to Amazon using voice recordings from their devices, but so does Apple, and Amazon offered the option to disable recording collection before Apple did.

Just saying, to my knowledge Amazon hasn’t demonstrated any kind of reckless storage or use of consumer data the way a company like Meta has, which has several severe data breaches and proof of nefarious use of their customer’s data. Not saying you shouldn’t personally trust them or anything. Purely just an inquiry, nothing more.

 

[xxray]

I know it’s not the topic of discussion, but can you provide any examples to this? I hear people parrot it all the time but from my experience Amazon isn’t any more or less trustworthy when it comes to data. For example, many people point to Amazon using voice recordings from their devices, but so does Apple, and Amazon offered the option to disable recording collection before Apple did.

Just saying, to my knowledge Amazon hasn’t demonstrated any kind of reckless storage or use of consumer data the way a company like Meta has, which has several severe data breaches and proof of nefarious use of their customer’s data. Not saying you shouldn’t personally trust them or anything. Purely just an inquiry, nothing more.

Amazon isn’t as bad as Meta, no, but selling customer data to third parties and letting law enforcement having Ring camera footage without a warrants is concerning to me, along with the microphone listening. Also, it’s more of the history of how Apple has stood up for privacy when they didn’t have to that makes me want to choose them with Amazon. And again, their apps work better with the ecosystem than Kindle does.

 

[MegaBlue]

Out of curiosity, what ecosystem benefit is there to Apple Books? I tried to use the platform but I found it pretty disappointing, and there’s not anything it offers that wasn’t available to me in the Kindle app.

I know you mentioned being able to use your Apple balance (something that doesn’t benefit me sadly. I don’t think I’ve ever had an Apple balance; everything is set to just use whatever credit or debit card I want for that account), but does Books add anything else? I’ve actually found that Kindle integrates better with my Apple devices, ironically. Books would regularly fail to sync my place.

 

[canadianpj]

Its part of the ecosystem is mostly why I use it, I have no problems with it personally. I can get a book, I can see the words it works fine for me. I wont use Kindle as I'm not bouncing out of the app to make a book purchase, if they put in app purchases back I might, but still probably not.

 

[martint235]

Mostly surprised anyone is using the Books app.

There are several platforms that have larger libraries, better functionality, and better device support. What’s the benefit of using Books?

I mainly use it for manuals downloaded from the web. For reading books I have a kindle

 

[mavis]

I just liked the page-turning animation. Now that they've stupidly removed it in iOS 16, I've stopped reading. Lol

I read several series in the past year or two, but coincidentally finished everything this summer (Asimov's Foundation, Robot and Empire series, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series, etc) which was perfect timing because the removal of that animation makes reading on an iPhone or iPad far less enjoyable for me. 🙄

 

[BigMcGuire]

I dislike the update to Apple Books. The biggest thing bothering me about Apple Books is that it doesn’t let me use the full screen on my iPad or iPhone.

@MegaBlue One of the advantages of Apple Books is that I can drag/drop a book from my Mac into Apple Books and it instantly syncs to all my devices. Several years ago (2018?) I moved my Amazon library to Apple Books this way. Taking a PDF and dragging/dropping it to books and having it on my other devices is incredibly handy.

That said, Apple Books (the app) is horrific. Kindle often has sales. Kindle uses the full margins of my devices. While the Kindle app isn’t as featured it has no problems with remembering page. Apple Books CANNOT remember where I last left it (I use vertical scrolling) no matter what, and it has been this way for years. Every year I ask for the feature of being able to use the full margins of my devices and it never does.

And @xxray the new iOS iPAD OS 16 Books app is not great. I have to click 3-4 more times to get the same settings before and say I want to change a font, I now have to change it on 3-4 other themes - switching to light/dark is painful.

I’m convinced that whoever programmed Apple Books doesn’t actually use it to read books. I’d switch to Kindle if I had the funds necessary to do so. I have almost 400 books on Apple Books (200 of which are on Kindle). But as time goes on, I’m getting more and more fed up with Apple Books.

Kindle has a rewards store now, and it has constant sales on books I want. And the app is pleasant to use.

I read about 30-50 books a year.

 

[BigMcGuire]

You know the data Amazon gets from the books you read on Kindles is the same data Apple gets from Books, right? It’s not any more “private”.

Like I already said, use what you like, I just think Books is the weakest thing Apple offers. There’s basically no ecosystem integration anyways. Just sharing my opinion on it.

The only thing I can think of is if someone doesn’t want to support Amazon because they don’t like Bezos. <shrug>. I agree that Books is one of the weakest thing Apple offers. I wanted everything on Apple in 2018 so I moved everything to Apple, including my Books. If I could go back and stop it, I would. Hopefully the latest changes to Apple Books means that Apple will continue to invest in Books a little more than it has since 2018.

While I used vertical scrolling most of the time, I do think the page turn animation was amazing and I miss it.

If anyone reading this is thinking of Apple Books vs Kindle - go Kindle.

 

[alex00100]

Can we steer the conversation back to how apple turned one of their best apps into something almost unusable and completely devoid of any pleasure while using it? With every new update I'm wondering wtf is going on in the company. How do they release software in this state and consider it ok? Why do you remove beloved functionality like pages turning? Surely every beta tester would tell you lack of page turning sucks all life out of reading a book.

 

[martint235]

Can we steer the conversation back to how apple turned one of their best apps into something almost unusable and completely devoid of any pleasure while using it? With every new update I'm wondering wtf is going on in the company. How do they release software in this state and consider it ok? Why do you remove beloved functionality like pages turning? Surely every beta tester would tell you lack of page turning sucks all life out of reading a book.

How is it unusable if people are using it? Perhaps it doesn’t meet your use case but for what I use it for it is fine

 

[FeliApple]

What in the world has Apple done to the page-turning animation?! It’s utterly hideous. I just heard about this, I’m running old versions of iOS on every iOS device I have. It was so cool. They ruined it, completely. Glad I don’t have the new app version.

I like iBooks, I’m used to it, and it’s a cool ecosystem-integrated app.

 

[AppleFan735]

I use my iPad as my primary reading device now. I used to have a Kobo e-reader but highlighting and taking notes in Kobo is not a smooth experience at all. The e-ink screen just has a too significant of an input lag for me to be productive. Scrolling through books at 120hz, highlighting and adding notes is infinitely more enjoyable on iPad.

With that being said iPadOS/iOS 16 was a step backwards. They moved the menu from the top toolbar to the icon in bottom right corner and now everything takes 1 click more than before. You used to tap on screen and then tap on the action you want to perform from the top menu bar. Now you have to tap screen, tap the menu icon and then tap the desired action. That’s a 50% increase in the number of actions you need to take to get anything done.

Another issue introduced in iPadOS/iOS 16 was that a double tap would automatically add a bookmark. This was driving me nuts as the algorithm for it was very sensitive and I was constantly adding unintentional bookmarks all the time. In iPadOS/iOS 16.2 they finally fixed it and double tap no longer adds bookmarks. Still need to go back and remove dozens of unintended bookmarks from a few books.

Overall I like the native Apple Books app, but it’s a shame they have only made it worse recently. It doesn’t feel like there’s a single person at Apple that deeply cares about making Books better and the app is just an afterthought.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I use my iPad as my primary reading device now. I used to have a Kobo e-reader but highlighting and taking notes in Kobo is not a smooth experience at all. The e-ink screen just has a too significant of an input lag for me to be productive. Scrolling through books at 120hz, highlighting and adding notes is infinitely more enjoyable on iPad.

With that being said iPadOS/iOS 16 was a step backwards. They moved the menu from the top toolbar to the icon in bottom right corner and now everything takes 1 click more than before. You used to tap on screen and then tap on the action you want to perform from the top menu bar. Now you have to tap screen, tap the menu icon and then tap the desired action. That’s a 50% increase in the number of actions you need to take to get anything done.

Another issue introduced in iPadOS/iOS 16 was that a double tap would automatically add a bookmark. This was driving me nuts as the algorithm for it was very sensitive and I was constantly adding unintentional bookmarks all the time. In iPadOS/iOS 16.2 they finally fixed it and double tap no longer adds bookmarks. Still need to go back and remove dozens of unintended bookmarks from a few books.

Overall I like the native Apple Books app, but it’s a shame they have only made it worse recently. It doesn’t feel like there’s a single person at Apple that deeply cares about making Books better and the app is just an afterthought.

Great post. I’m glad I was not the only one who spent the last bits of time with iPad OS 16 constantly adding bookmarks accidentally. Probably didn’t help I use vertical scrolling (I like reading near the top). It ALMOST made me switch back to Kindle, lol.

Agreed at 50% increase in actions just to turn things on like dark/light mode.

Only positive thing I can say is that they are fixing bugs and slightly improving it. Better than nothing but … still. Lol.

 

[AppleFan735]

Great post. I’m glad I was not the only one who spent the last bits of time with iPad OS 16 constantly adding bookmarks accidentally. Probably didn’t help I use vertical scrolling (I like reading near the top). It ALMOST made me switch back to Kindle, lol.

Agreed at 50% increase in actions just to turn things on like dark/light mode.

Only positive thing I can say is that they are fixing bugs and slightly improving it. Better than nothing but … still. Lol.

Same, I use vertical scrolling and like reading near the top. It makes sense as well, since everything else is designed to use vertical scrolling might as well read that way, reduces cognitive load when context switching. I think they removed the double-tap bookmarking because of exactly this reason - people were going mad by constant accidental bookmarks. Extremely irritating. Glad that's now gone at least.

 

[w5jck]

Mostly surprised anyone is using the Books app.

There are several platforms that have larger libraries, better functionality, and better device support. What’s the benefit of using Books?

I use Books for reading PDFs. I use Kindle app for books though. But it is convenient to use Books to open owner manuals and such.

 

[Atomic1977]

What is the books app? I never used it. On the other hand iOS 16.2 is pretty awesome.

 

[Mr Todhunter]

I just liked the page-turning animation. Now that they've stupidly removed it in iOS 16, I've stopped reading. Lol

I read several series in the past year or two, but coincidentally finished everything this summer (Asimov's Foundation, Robot and Empire series, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series, etc) which was perfect timing because the removal of that animation makes reading on an iPhone or iPad far less enjoyable for me. 🙄

I get your joke but I did not update and do not intent to update any of my iPads to iOS16 because they took away the page turning animation. And that’s NO joke.

 

[ericwn]

Its part of the ecosystem is mostly why I use it, I have no problems with it personally. I can get a book, I can see the words it works fine for me. I wont use Kindle as I'm not bouncing out of the app to make a book purchase, if they put in app purchases back I might, but still probably not.

The one thing that never bothered me with regards to Kindle is to make a purchase on the Amazon site. Buy a few books, go on vacation after, done. It’s not as if the iBooks Store is anything to shout home about.