The Ultimate Guide: Selecting the Best 5 Mobile Bookworms Supporting AZW3 Format for Google's OS

The Ultimate Guide: Selecting the Best 5 Mobile Bookworms Supporting AZW3 Format for Google’s OS

Top 5 AZW3 Readers for Android

Posted by Sisi Liu on 4/20/2022 10:26:50 AM.

The format AZW3, aka KF8 (Kindle Format 8) was released by Amazon in late 2011 along with the release of Fire Tablet. It’s the update of the AZW format, which was built off the Mobipocket format. AZW3 is much smaller and has better performance than MOBI. Amazon rolled out AZW3 to replace MOBI and updated the formatting for new models, including CSS3 and HTML5. So nowadays AZW3 becomes one of the mainstream Kindle formats. eBooks downloaded from Kindle eInk readers with firmware version lower than 5.6.1.1 are in AZW3 format. Since AZW3 is also the Amazon exclusive format, the best reading effect can be displayed when read on Kindle related devices or apps.

What should you do if you want to read AZW3 books without converting the format but don’t have a Kindle eReader? In our previous articles we’ve introduced How to read AZW3 books on an iPad/iPhone and How to Read AZW3 Books on PC and Mac . While in this article, I’ll introduce the Top 5 AZW3 readers for Android. One of the perks you go with Android is so you could read all your books from all your stores. Reading AZW3 files in Android smartphone is no big deal. You can make it happen easier than you think by installing some programs on your Android devices.

Please note that only DRM free files can be supported by these apps. You need to strip DRM from your azw3 files before reading them on these apps. If you want to read DRM protected mobi/azw/azw3/azw4/kfx files with these tools, I highly recommend you to install the best eBook DRM removal and converter – Epubor Ultimate !

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Amazon Kindle

No doubt that eBooks in the Amazon exclusive AZW3 format can be read perfectly in a Kindle app. With the Kindle app installed, you can get the best reading experience available on your Android phone.

This Kindle app puts millions of books at your fingertips. You can read thousands of free books or shop for more than 850,000 books by tapping into the Kindle online store right from your phone. It automatically synchronize last page read, bookmarks, annotations, and highlights between different Kindle devices and apps with Whispersync feature.

Of course you can customize your reading on this Kindle app. You can adjust font size, screen brightness, background color, and choose to read in portrait of landscape mode. One of the prominent perks about the program is that it has the Built-In Dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia. It allows you to look up words instantly while you’re reading your ebooks. Simply tap and hold a word to view its definition or use the Google and Wikipedia links to get more information.

The disputable point about the Kindle app is invasive security permissions. During the installation, the app requests unreasonable permissions, such as getting access to user’s name, email, location, pictures and files, managing user accounts, network/bluetooth settings, etc. See all application permissions .

For some users, this is obviously a concern in terms of security and privacy. Actually it shouldn’t be problem prevents you from installing this fantastic program. What you need to do is denying any permissions requested during the installation. Then under the settings/apps/amazon kindle/app info/permissions it says “no permissions granted”. You won’t face any issues with the app running properly with these settings.

How can I read my personal documents in azw3 format on my Android device with a Kindle app?

Copy the azw3 files into your Android device via USB cable and place them to the Kindle directory, then run your Kindle app, these files will be auto-scanned and displayed in your library. The path to store the personal documents should be /Android/data/com.amazon.kindlefc/files or /android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files.

The size of this program is 57.5MB, and the operating system to run it should be Android 4.4 and above. You can download and install the program from Google Play Store . If this program is blocked in your location on Google Play, you can try downloading the Kindle app directly from Amazon app store .

FBReader

FBReader is a popular multi-platform eBook reader which supports azw3 format. The program’s name stands for Favorite Book Reader and it does what it is advertised. Its UI design is kind of old fashioned, but effective and non-nonsense which delivers a straightforward and simple way of navigating.

FBReader is a fast and highly customizable eBook reader. Many users like its ability to configure margins, fonts, and backgrounds to make the experience more like reading a real book. Book collection, reading positions, and bookmarks can be synchronized with FBReader® Book Network , a Google Drive™ based cloud service. It is integrated with popular external dictionaries like ColorDict, SlovoEd, Fora, FreeDictionary.org etc. Moreover, FBReader can handle automatic hyphenation while a Kindle app can’t.

Some users even claims that the Kindle app could learn a few things about configurability, SD card storage, and epub support from FBReader. But some functions like PDF support and comic books support are accomplished via plugin on the free version of FBReader. If you want to get the fully featured version, you need to pay to upgrade it to premium edition. You can visit its official website to get to know the differences between Free and Premium editions of the app.

It’s quite a lightweight software whose size is only 6.4MB. The minimum operating system should be Android 3.0. You can install it via Google Play Store .

AlReader

AlReader is another eBook reader compatible with Android 1.6+ and supports azw3 format. With a variety of features, AlReader does it all, including text-to-speech, autoscroll, and synchronization of your reading position across other devices.

The UI design is simple and intuitive. The interface comes with customization options, auto-scrolling, page turning animations, and various view modes for your comfort. You can scroll through authors alphabetically or organize your library of books the way you like. Its simple page views make reading with AlReader joyous, and the accessible interface helps you organize your ebook better.

External dictionaries such as ColorDict3, GoldenDict, Fora Dictionary, Dictan, Lingvo, FreeDictionary, HedgeDict, AardDictionary, QuickDict, Slovoed are integrated into the app. If a file is in an archive, edited file is unpacked to the same directory as the original one. It’s able to adapt the appearance for the E-Ink screens and support fast refresh for Sony T1/T2, Nook Simple Touch/Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light, Onyx Maxwel/Kopernik/Kepler, Texet 138. Do I mention that this amazing free software has the ability to hold screen backlight up to 20 minutes of inactivity? Yes, it’s capable of doing that!

Compared to the free edition of FBReader with which users need to install some plugins to get the whole set of features, AlReader incorporates all the features within the app itself, and it opens eBooks much faster than FBReader. Probably the only shortcoming about AlReader is that its bookself looks not so straightforward and the app icon is somewhat hedious. But it doesn’t matter because it really does what its title says!

The software is also lightweight and its size is only 6.37MB. It can be installed via Google Play Store and you can visit its official website to learn its full features.

EbookDroid

EBookDroid is a free and open source (GPL’d) ereader in Android that lets you open electronic books, comics and other documents in practically any format you could possibly imagine. Although it primarily aims to read PDF and DjVu files, AZW3 files are also supported. Its interface is simple and the UI is easy to use.

One of the best features of EBookDroid is its customizable and supportive nature. Each document’s layout can be tailored to give you the best reading experience and all settings will be remembered the next time you will open it. You can change the interface style and appearance, customize the gestural shortcuts, adjust the format, change the performance options and much more. You can set lots of named bookmarks so as to make particular passages easy to find.

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You’ll definitely love its ability to automatically split double pages. This functionality is extremely useful if the file you are reading happens to have facing pages on a single page, like a photocopy. And it will automatically crop margins and scale pages to the content area. Additionally, it provides dictionary support, text highlighting, free-hand annotations, and more.

One thing that needs to note is that EbookDroid uses MIME types to handle different file types. Unfortunately, Android’s and many other file managers might not support all MIME types. When this happens, you will not be able to open said files directly from the file manager. Some file managers allow you to add new MIME types and associate them with the corresponding file extensions.

The software size is 8.92MB, and you can install it via Google Play Store . The App team also provides after-sale customer service. If you experience any issues when using the software, you can report them in the Issues section on the developer’s website.

Librera Reader

Librera is also one of the best Android eReader supports azw3 files. The program developers added thousands of users’ wishes and continue to improve it. This robust reading app is thoughtful and easy to customize to your preferences. It has a modern and powerful interface. You can customize the theme color for your comfort, not to mention the ability to change the size of the font, zoom in and out, etc. You can switch between night and daytime themes. The night mode offers you easy reading experience for your eyes. On top of the book search, you can search the words in the text. Even for the PDF files, you can comment and draw with this Android book reading app. In addition, Librera Reader supports online document format conversion.

Quoted the following two paragraphs from its official website :

With Librera Reader, you can easily create self-maintained libraries of all your documents by specifying which formats to include and which folders to scan. All document collections can be viewed in either a list or grid pattern. Documents are easily identified by size-adjustable thumbnail covers and detailed descriptions. Your library can be sorted by path, name, size, or date and, there is a filter to help locate specific documents or document groups.

While reading, documents can be locked into a vertical only scrolling mode and can be set to either page or screen flipping. Text can be reflowed and annotated. Volume keys can be configured for scrolling and backgrounds customized. Excerpts can be translated, shared, copied, and searched on the internet.

![Librera Reader](http://www.epubor.com/images/uppic/Librera Reader.jpg)

One feature impresses me most is the ability to get translation of the phrase in the Google Translate pop-up in one action. Without releasing your finger, select the phrase or word upon release you’ll get translation in the program of your choosing. It supports translation in online dictionaries (GTranslate, Dictionary.com, Oxford, Longman, Cambridge, Collins, Merriam-Webster, Vdict) as well as offline dictionaries (GoldenDict, ABBYY Lingvo, ColorDict).

Just like nobody’s perfect, the software has its weaknesses too. Some users feedback that some epub files display no text in night mode. Some users find it inconvenient that there is no option to keep screen on which is useful when they have to leave and return to the book. It would be better if users are able to add a “shelf” so that they can have tabs – library, books, finished reading – the way Google Play Books does. Many users complain that there’re too many ads in the interface. It’s quite annoying and interfere with reading. Actually you can get the paid PRO version of Librera to get rid of the ads.

The app is 14MB in size and the installation requires Android 4.0 or higher. You can install it via Google Play Store .

Conclusion

The above apps are basically the best 5 AZW3 readers for Android. Other than those, Universal Book Reader and Balto Speed Reading Free are also eBook readers for Android which support azw3 files. Let me highlight again that only DRM free files can be supported by these apps. You need to strip DRM from your azw3 personal documents before reading them on these apps. If you want to read DRM protected azw3 files with these tools, I highly recommend you to install the best eBook DRM removal and converter – Epubor Ultimate!

You can download the software for free by clicking the links below. The trial version of Epubor Ultimate handles DRM removal and format conversion of 20% contents of your original eBooks. If you want to get 100% contents of eBooks decrypted and convert their formats losslessly, you need to upgrade Epubor Ultimate to the paid version.

Epubor wants you to be satisfied with our products. If, for any reason, the software you receive does not meet your expectations, you can claim a refund within 30 days since you place the order. So why not give it a try? You’ve got nothing to lose.

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