Amazon quietly rolled out a Kindle feature users have been requesting for years

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By Sharmishta Sarkar
published

Kindle ereaders can finally display cover art on the lock screen

Amazon Kindle Oasis
(Image credit: Future)

Amazon's Kindle ereaders have never had the option to display cover art on the device's lock screen as a wallpaper... unless owners were able to jailbreak the Kindle. Instead, there was a little library of wallpapers that the device would cycle through automatically.

However, Amazon quietly began rolling out a firmware update to add the option to do just that a few days ago, and has now confirmed that the Display Cover feature will be available to most Kindle users worldwide in the coming weeks.

Finally! It's a feature Kindle fans have been asking for since the devices first launched almost a decade ago, so it's a long time coming.

All three of Amazon's Kindle ereader models will receive this feature in the coming days – whether it's the basic Amazon Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite or the Kindle Oasis – as long as it's running the 5.13.5 firmware. Note that not all generations of the Kindles are currently supported by Amazon and won't be able to update.

The lucky ones receiving the Display Cover option are the 8th and 10th generation Kindles, 7th and 10th-gen Paperwhites, and 8th, 9th and 10th-gen Oasis devices. Amazon is continuing to support the 7th-generation Kindle Voyage, which will also receive the firmware update.

Once updated to the latest operating software (OS), the Kindle will display the cover art of the book you are currently reading, with a toggle button to select the feature being made available in the device's settings pane.

According to a report from online publication Good Ereader, this feature will also display cover art of ebooks that were sideloaded, not just those purchased from the Kindle Store.

The Special Offers edition of Kindle ereaders that is available in some markets – the devices that serve ads to allow customers to buy the ereaders for less – will unfortunately not receive the Display Cover feature.

The firmware update is being rolled out now, so it should just be a matter of time before the Display Cover option arrives on a Kindle near you.

Sharmishta Sarkar
Sharmishta Sarkar
Managing Editor (APAC)

While she's happiest with a camera in her hand, Sharmishta's main priority is being TechRadar's APAC Managing Editor, looking after the day-to-day functioning of the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore editions of the site, steering everything from news and reviews to ecommerce content like deals and coupon codes. While she loves reviewing cameras and lenses when she can, she's also an avid reader and has become quite the expert on ereaders and E Ink writing tablets, having appeared on Singaporean radio to talk about these underrated devices. Other than her duties at TechRadar, she's also the Managing Editor of the Australian edition of Digital Camera World, and writes for Tom's Guide and T3.