GoKawiilKobo has announced plans to integrate its ereaders and reading apps with the social reading platform StoryGraph in June. StoryGraph is an independent alternative to Goodreads that exists outside of Amazon's ecosystem and offers users more control over their recommendations.
"For a lot of us, the best part of reading is the community. It's a part of how we show up in the world as readers every day," Rakuten Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn said in a statement. "That's why I'm so excited about our integration with StoryGraph. We wanted to strip away the friction between finishing a chapter and tracking and sharing your progress. Now, Kobo readers can do exactly that, seamlessly."
When the new integration launches in June, Kobo ereaders and reading apps will automatically sync with connected StoryGraph accounts. The integration will update book progress percentages, add books you're currently reading to StoryGraph's In Progress shelf and mark finished books as "Read." Besides ebooks, the integration will also work with any audiobooks you listen to through Kobo's platform.
As an alternative to Amazon's more popular, but restrictive Kindle ecosystem, it makes a lot of sense Kobo would work with StoryGraph. Both companies are aligned on giving readers more control over their reading experience. StoryGraph is also just one of several integrations Kobo currently offers. The company's ereaders have an Instapaper integration for reading saved web articles and the ability to access files from cloud storage providers like Dropbox and Google Drive.