Unless you’re using a device from Boox — which typically run Android — most e-readers and other E Ink devices are often only good at reading and writing. This is often a deliberate way to get people to focus on a few core tasks, and avoid the distractions of notifications, and endless feeds. It’s also often a reflection of the limited power of this kind of hardware, and the slow refresh rate of their E Ink screens.

Boox devices like the Palma 2 Pro are a good example that this doesn’t have to be the case: You can have a smartphone-shaped device that does smartphone-type tasks, while still reaping the benefits of E Ink. The new software features Amazon is adding to the Kindle and Kindle Scribe are also a good example of a company realizing its devices can do more. You don’t have to wait for a new E Ink tablet or e-reader to reap the benefits of a more capable device. ReKindle, a free browser app, leverages the functionality of the e-reader you already have to add features like a RSS reader, to-do list app, and even a messaging app, all designed to run on a Kindle or whatever E Ink device you have handy. It might not reinvent the humble e-reader, but it does make the case that a lot more is possible than just reading books.

ReKindle is like a new home screen for your Kindle Scribe

The web app works in any browser, but feels at home on Amazon’s larger device

Unlike other software tweaks you can make to the Kindle, ReKindle doesn’t make serious changes to the heavily trafficked parts of Amazon’s e-reader and instead adds functionality to a mostly hidden, but still easy to access place: the web browser. To access it, you just have to go to rekindle.ink in your e-web reader or E Ink tablet’s browser. If your device lets you bookmark webpages, you can make it easier to revisit ReKindle later. E Ink devices running Android will even let you add those bookmarks to your home screen.

ReKindle draws inspiration from the minimalist gray software of Apple’s early computers, with simple icons denoting the many features the web app makes available in the browser. It’s best to think of ReKindle as a dashboard of different mini-apps, divided into different categories like “Essentials” (calendar, contacts, and weather), “Tools” (focus timer, calculator, and tasks), “Lifestyle” (Reddit and Wikipedia) and two different categories for games. It’s a lot of content, and not every app is as fully-featured as the last, but the majority of ReKindle’s options get the job done.

The Weather app is pleasant to look at and has most of the important information you’d want out of a smartphone weather forecast app. With some setup, the Calendar app can connect to your Google Calendar and display your events (you can also use it without an account and store your events locally). On a Kindle Scribe, the Tasks can even automatically convert handwritten to-dos into text. Sure, writing in a browser is much more laggy than it is in one of the Scribe’s normal notebooks, but it’s a neat addition.

There’s more in ReKindle’s dashboard than most people reasonably need or want from an e-reader, but even if you only use a fraction of what the website offers, I do think it’s worth it. We’re confronted every day with what’s possible with a web app with things like Google Docs and Canva, so why shouldn’t simpler app ideas work on something like a Kindle? For e-readers that might not be capable of running something as demanding as what you can get on the Boox Note Air4 C, why shouldn’t they try to bridge that gap with web apps? ReKindle asks, and answers that they can.

The current landscape of E Ink software is a mixed bag

You could have Android or a collection of subpar custom options

On the Kindle, these sorts of quasi-apps stand out because Amazon has kept things so focused on reading for so many years. Every Kindle the company currently sells includes a simple web browser, but they’re not really meant to do anything other than read and listen to audiobooks outside of that. The one exception is the Kindle scribe, which gives equal attention to writing. Even with the AI features Amazon has promised to bring in its new Kindle Scribe, what the E Ink tablet can actually do is limited.

In Pocket-lint’s review of the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, the most useful of Amazon’s new additions was AI-powered search. “The AI indexes everything you’ve written on the Scribe…and can group together various topics to answer specific questions about them,” Pocket-lint’s review says. These can be specific if you’re looking for a particular piece of information, or more open-ended if you’re looking for trends across multiple documents and notes.

That could prove to be a helpful skill for diligent Kindle Scribe notetakers, but it doesn’t dramatically expand what the device can actually do. It’s also not clear if it’ll be exclusive to the new Kindle Scribes, or trickle-down to the older models like past updates have. The software experience is similarly limited on reMarkable’s devices, like the reMarkable Paper Pro Move. While the note-taking tablet is great at what it does, it is narrow in its abilities and the pace of development for new features remains slow.

There are charms to being able to download whatever Android app you want on a Boox tablet, but the sweet spot in terms of focus and software features might be the Supernote Manta and Nomad. Ratta, the company behind both devices, offers a mix of core features and side-loaded apps, like Amazon’s Kindle app. The Android-based Supernote operating system is focused on opening and reading files and taking notes, but Ratta has created custom Calendar and Email apps for customers who want a simple version of those features. It’s far from perfect, but it does go a long way to making a Manta or a Nomad more of a self-sufficient tool, rather than a digital notepad you have to use alongside something else.

There’s room for experimentation

Rekindle isn’t practical, but it makes it clear there’s more to be done

ReKindle is free and worth playing with now if you want to do more with your e-reader or E Ink tablet. It’s not as useful as normal Android apps on a Boox tablet, or the desktop operating system experience you’ll get out of iPadOS 26 on an iPad Pro, but it’s better than nothing. And in the absence of e-readers with the ability to do more than just read, listen to audiobooks, and take handwritten notes, that could be more than enough.