Amazon Kindle Unlimited now lets you download double as many books

Amazon Prime Day deals Kindle Unlimited
(Image credit: Amazon)

One of the best extras for your Amazon Kindle is Kindle Unlimited, a subscription service that gives you unlimited access to a big catalog of books, comics, magazines and more. 

However one small downside was that you could only download 10 titles at a time. That was between devices too, so if you had five books on your Kindle and five magazines on your iPhone, you couldn't download any more without deleting one.

Thankfully, though, it seems that Amazon is changing the rules. As spotted by a Reddit user, users of the Kindle app are receiving a notification stating that the 10-book limit is getting bumped up to 20 titles. It's worth pointing out that, right now, the Kindle website still cites the 10-book max, so it's possible this change is rolling out slowly.

If it seems weird that Amazon's own systems don't reflect the notifications it's pumping out, then welcome to the weird world of the Kindle app. It's not uncommon to get notified of 'new features' months after they come out, so it's just as likely that the company did the opposite this time, and informed app users of the new feature ahead of the website being updated.


Analysis: more books than you think

The ability to download 10 books on your Kindle or phone may be ludicrous to some, who like to burn through books one title at a time. But for other users, the jump from 10 books to 20 could be a game-changer.

Firstly, people going on holiday who will be away from Wi-Fi for a while might want to load up on titles, so they've got lots to get through while sitting on a sunbed by a pool, or up in the mountains over a stove waiting for their coffee to brew.

Secondly, prolific readers of magazines, poetry collections, short story anthologies or comic books might burn through their collection faster, as depending on the size of these works, they can often be quicker to read than novels. Doubling the book limit might let this kind of reader avoid having to connect to the internet quite so often.

Finally, this change could be vital to students. Depending on subject, you might have countless books on the go, both primary reading texts and reference and contextual works - when writing our dissertation we had about 15 books we were jumping between, grabbing quotes from one and reference material from another.

This would be extra useful with the bookmarking, note-taking and highlighting features you can use on ebooks, which are among the best Kindle tips and tricks for power users.

So when this 20-book Kindle Unlimited download limit comes around, there are sure to be people who make the most of it.

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.

He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist. He also currently works in film as a screenwriter, director and producer.