Kindle Whispersync – How Amazon communicates with your Kindle!

What is Whispersync?

To make it simple, Whispersync is just a name for the process that Amazon uses to wirelessly communicate with your Kindle. When you buy a Kindle, you will either get a WiFi version or a 3G wireless version, depending upon which you choose.

The WiFi versions are cheaper, and you naturally must be in range of a WiFi router that you have access to in order for your Kindle to be able to communicate with Amazon.

The 3G versions are more expensive but do not need to be in range of a friendly WiFi router. These models can connect anywhere there is 3G wireless service available – even while riding in the car.

How is Whispersync Used?

Whispersync is used in these ways

• To send books to your Kindle that you have purchased
• To send free books to your Kindle that you have chosen
• To send books and documents to your Kindle that you have emailed to Amazon via your Kindle’s email address.*
• To sync all of your devices – then you can pick up reading on any device at the place you left off on the previous device.

*Your Kindle Has Its Own Email Address!

When you purchase a Kindle, you have to link it to your Amazon account. When you do this, Amazon assigns a distinct email address for your Kindle. This is really neat. Read on to see why.

The email address will be in the format of :  sarah_9976@kindle.com, or something similar. You can find your Kindle’s Send to Kindle email address at your Amazon “Manage My Kindle” page or on your Kindle device. If you do not like the address that Amazon gave you, you can change it to something more friendly by visiting  your “Manage My Kindle” Amazon page.

Why is this neat? Because, if you have a personal document that you would like to be able to access and read on your Kindle, you can send it to your Kindle’s Amazon email address. Then, Amazon will send it to your Kindle via the Whispersync wireless service. How great is that?

Typical Purchase Sequence

• You buy a book via the Amazon Kindle Store
• Go to the Amazon web page.
• Go to the Kindle Store.
• Find the book – for pay or for free – that you want to get.
• Buy it. If it is a free book, your price will show as $0.00.

There will be a little box asking you which Kindle device you want it sent to. If you have, say, a Kindle plus a Kindle Fire, or an Android smartphone, with the free Kindle app installed, then you will have two options. Choose the device that you first want it sent to. Then, when in the Kindle app, you can download it to your Kindle Fire and/or smartphone, too.

Documents You can send to your Kindle

• Ebooks in the .mobi or .prc format – If you find an ebook elsewhere, like Project Gutenberg,  then you can download it to your computer and email it to your Kindle.
• Microsoft Word documents in .doc format
• Rich Text Format documents in .rtf format
• PDF files – .pdf format
• Text files – .txt format

Typical Send to Kindle Sequence

Note:  Before you can send anything to your Kindle’s email address, you must go to your “Manage My Kindle” page and add your own email “From” address so that Amazon will know that you have authorized that address to send books to your Kindle.

Steps:

• Find a document or ebook that you want to send to your Kindle.
• Make sure it is in a supported format.
• Make sure it is on your computer. Download it if necessary.
• In your favorite email program, create a new email message.
• In the “To:” field, enter your Kindle’s email address.
• Put anything you want in the “Subject” and “Body” fields. This is for your information only. Amazon doesn’t care what you put there.
• Add the document as an attachment.
• Click “Send”.

Voila! Before long, your document will show up on your Kindle.

Or you can download and install Amazon’s “Send to Kindle for PC” application and do it that way. As you can imagine, I do it the way I described above, but if your want to look into the Send to Kindle for PC app, then click here. Then type “Send to Kindle for PC” into the search blank

Like I said, neat, huh? If you have any questions about Whispersync or any other Kindle subject that you think I may be able to help you with, then please feel free to contact me via the link in the right-hand column. Click here to go to the main Kindle Models page.