Oyster launched two years ago with a simple idea to build a better way to read on mobile.

We’ve made incredible progress towards that goal—the vast majority of reading on Oyster happens on a mobile phone and we’ve dramatically improved mobile reading with product features like Lumin and leading editorial content on the Oyster Review. Through it all, our mission has remained the same: connect readers with books they’ll love.

As we continue on, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of ebooks and mobile reading. We believe more than ever that the phone will be the primary reading device globally over the next decade—enabling access to knowledge and stories for billions of people worldwide. Looking forward, we feel this is best seized by taking on new opportunities to fully realize our vision for ebooks.

With that, we will be taking steps to sunset the existing Oyster service over the next several months. If you are an Oyster reader you will receive an email personally regarding your account in the next few weeks. We look forward to sharing more details soon, but rest assured, your account will continue to operate normally in the meantime. If you’d like to request a refund, please contact us at refunds@oysterbooks.com.

We’re excited for what’s next, but for now we hope you continue to live the life well read with all of us at Oyster.

Onwards,
Eric, Andrew, Willem, and Team Oyster

Maybe we’re biased, but when we think summer, we think of one thing: summer reading. OK, we also think sun, sand, and relaxing, but let’s be honest—it’s all better with a good book.

To celebrate the start of the season, we’re kicking off our #ReadAllSummer giveaway on Oyster today.

All summer we’ll be sharing books we think you’ll love, and asking you to share the books you’ve knocked off your list. And yes, there are prizes.

Here’s how it works:

1) Finish a book on Oyster and share it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram from the app with the hashtag #ReadAllSummer.

Sharing is easy on both iOS and Android, see?

2) Each book you share is an entry. We’re giving away everything from totes to posters, tank tops, and even a free year of Oyster.

3) We’ll be choosing a new winner every Friday. Your entries accumulate over the summer, so the more time you spend reading in that hammock, the better your chances!

We can’t wait to see what you #ReadAllSummer.

Today we’re introducing Lumin, a feature specifically built to automatically adjust the amount of blue light coming from your screen, based on your location and the time of day. The addition of Lumin to the Oyster Reader makes it the absolute best way to read, at any time of day.

We’ve all seen the headline that warns: “Don’t look at screens before bed!” According to studies, late-night screen time can cause insomnia, disrupt your sleep, and make you tired in the morning.

We know that a lot of you like to read at night—reading on Oyster peaks between 9 and 10 pm local time—and so do we. But you shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything to enjoy reading on Oyster, even after the sun has set.

Since we weren’t happy with any of the current solutions for making night reading better, we dug deeper into the science. Studies suggest that these negative effects are a result of the level of blue light that’s emitted from those screens. Daytime exposure to blue light—which is contained in sunlight—helps boost attention, mood, and alertness. On the other hand, exposure to blue light in the evenings has been shown to suppress the production of melatonin, which helps to regulate your circadian rhythm.

Enter Lumin. As the sun sets, Lumin gradually filters the blue light from your screen, replacing it with a warm, soft amber light. So whether you’re commuting home on an evening subway, curled up on the couch, or reading under the covers, reading on Oyster will always be easy on your eyes and help you drift off into a peaceful slumber once you finish just one more chapter.

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Turning it on is easy. To activate Lumin on your phone or tablet, update your Oyster app to the latest version through the App Store or Google Play. Then open a book and tap the “Aa” to open up the appearance menu.

Auto: Lumin’s Auto mode uses your location and the time of day to automatically adjust the level of blue light coming from your screen as the sun sets and rises. Just turn it on once, add your location, and never think about it again.

Custom: If you’re more of a DIY-er, you can also choose to adjust your Lumin settings manually in Custom mode. In Custom, you can adjust the blue light level based on your personal preferences and choose from a range of low-contrast backgrounds. Custom settings stay constant throughout the day.

We’re also introducing two new Reader Themes to Oyster today. We’re calling them ‘Ace’ and ‘Highline,’ and we’re looking forward to sharing more about what makes them so great with you soon. It’s all part of making Oyster the very best way to read.

For more on what makes Oyster’s Reader perfect for reading on your phone or tablet, visit our brand new Reader page. And to celebrate the launch of Lumin, The Oyster Review has a Spotlight of the “21 Books Best Read Before Bed" and a comic about the magic of bedtime reading.

We have REALLY big news for you. We’re talking Infinite Jest big.¹ Today, in addition to your Oyster subscription, you can also buy any book you could ever want in our brand new ebook store (including Infinite Jest!).

With our new ebook store, virtually any book you can think of is available on Oyster, including all new releases and pre-orders like Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman and Jonathan Franzen’s Purity. And through our unlimited subscription service (now known as Oyster Unlimited), you still have access to the same million books—from Harry Potter to American Sniper—for the same monthly price.

Everything we do at Oyster is focused on connecting readers like you with books you’ll love. Over the past year and a half, we’ve worked hard to create the leading subscription service for books and build the best ebook discovery and reading experience for mobile and tablets.

We’ve been so thrilled by the enthusiasm we’ve seen for Oyster so far and at how much you’re reading on Oyster—over a 100 million pages a month, up from just 8 million in December 2013. It’s clear that there is huge demand from readers for an app that helps them find great books and lets them read them in beautiful, easy-to-use environment.

Now we are expanding Oyster so you can access all your options—subscription and for-purchase—in one place. You’ll never have to go anywhere else to get a book, because everything you’re looking for is on Oyster. Go ahead, try it out.

The Girl on the Train? Absolutely. Becoming Steve Jobs? It’s right there. Dead Wake? Look no further.

The store includes all of the biggest five publishers in the US (that’s Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster) and many more from Scholastic to Harlequin and Norton to Chronicle. It’s the center of your books universe.

And the best part is that whether you buy, subscribe, or both, you can always enjoy the full Oyster experience—the best content across subscription and for-purchase books, beautiful design built for mobile reading, and a great discovery experience with spot-on editorial, algorithmic, and social recommendations.

Wondering how to purchase a book from our store? You can buy books on our brand-new website or in the Android app. Purchases will automatically sync to all of your devices.

On top of that, we added a toggle and banners to help you see what books are available in subscription, redesigned the Explore tab to add new categories (43 in all!), added tons of new complementary colors to book detail pages, and incorporated a lot of nice tweaks and improvements throughout. To get started, update your Oyster app to version 2.0 through Google Play or the App Store, or visit our website to see all the new books.

And to celebrate, we’re giving away three of our top new books to a lucky winner: Open City (which our editors at The Oyster Review named the Best Book of the Decade So Far), Becoming Steve Jobs, and The Girl on the Train. We want to see where your favorite place to read is! Tag a photo on your instagram with #whereiread for a chance to win.

¹ Bigger than the Great Concavity. Bigger than the O.N.A.N. circa the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, though perhaps a non-physical comparison is more appropriate, in which case it is bigger even than James O. Incandenza’s complete filmography.

Over the past year and a half, Oyster has grown quickly, as we’ve built the leading subscription service for books. We’ve expanded to every iOS and Android device and the web, and closed deals with most of the biggest publishers to bring you a continuously expanding selection of great titles (Macmillan! Harry Potter!). And we know you’re taking full advantage—more than 100 million pages are read on Oyster each month.

Looking forward, the Oyster leadership team will work to increase that base of readers by growing the content library, expanding globally, and launching new product initiatives that continue to make Oyster the best place for reading books.

As we enter this next phase for the company, we’re thrilled to welcome two new additions at Oyster, Jeannie Mun, our Chief Financial Officer, and Barry McCarthy, our new advisor.

Jeannie was previously the CFO of MediaMath, a global technology company that grew from 30 to more than 650 people during Jeannie’s 6-year tenure. And Jeannie’s not only an impressive and experienced executive—she’s also an enthusiastic Oyster reader herself. Recently, she’s been reading the Berenstain Bears on Oyster to her kids, and she used our travel selection to guide her on a last-minute trip to Panama in February.

Barry was previously the CFO of Netflix, the world’s leading streaming video company with over 50 million subscribers, from 1999 to 2010. He currently sits on the boards of Spotify, Rent the Runway, Chegg, Eventbrite, NatureBox, and Wealthfront.

Stay tuned for more on those new initiatives coming to Oyster, and as always, share what you’re reading with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

When we think of books, we don’t just think about the words on a page—we think of the worlds and images those words evoke in our imaginations.

Oyster’s Instagram is all about capturing the feeling of wonder that we get from books and giving you a sense of who we are on Team Oyster.

Below are some our favorite posts—tell us what you think on Instagram or share your own book-inspired images by tagging @oysterbooks.

When we see a picture that reminds us of a passage from book, we love to share them both.

“To me the sea is a continual miracle/ The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships with men in them / What stranger miracles are there?” - Walt Whitman Photo: @coopersmith

A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Mar 3, 2015 at 9:29am PST

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”~Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden. Photo by @candicehokama A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:31pm PST
Each week we share the cover of our Book of the Week. To post the beautiful cover images from the books you’re reading on Oyster, tap the “Share” icon on the Book Details page in the app.
A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Mar 2, 2015 at 1:49pm PST
A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Feb 17, 2015 at 11:19am PST
We use #whereiread to share our reading spots—use the hashtag to show us yours!
@khwelsh loves the unexpected quiet that comes along with reading on Coney Island in the off-season. She’s currently reading ‘The Virgins’ by Pamela Erens. #whereiread A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:15pm PST
“I would say my perfect day involves reading a book at the airport. I love the grandness of airports. They’re the crossroads of people, cultures, lives, and stories,” said @revivek. #whereiread A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Oct 7, 2014 at 12:46pm PDT
That little patch of sun is #whereiread A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Feb 19, 2015 at 2:33pm PST
#whereiread by @allisonve A photo posted by Oyster (@oysterbooks) on Nov 19, 2014 at 10:41am PST
We love seeing photos from people who love Oyster. Tag us @oysterbooks to show us what you’re reading.
Honeymoon packing in progress. Essentials: reading material a la @oysterbooks, @hawaiiantropic sunscreen, @burtsbeesus Chapstick and my @canonusa G12. A photo posted by Courtney Malone (@broadandmain) on Feb 26, 2015 at 6:31am PST
What my Saturday looks like. Honey Vanilla Latte & @OysterBooks. Perfect! 💋 #PHXLife #AZLife #LifeOfMarshie #DesertLife #Coffee #Caffeine #CoffeeAddict #CaffeineAddict #GiantCoffee #HoneyVanillaLatte #PHXCoffee #AZCoffee #Localist #OysterBooks #BookWorm #BooksAreFun #ReadingIsFun #ReadingNow #Reading #TheBeginingOfEverything #EveryoneGetsATragedy #RobynSchneider #Saturday #UrbanDecay #LipstickStain #RedLipped #LipstickJunkie #LipstickAddict #LipstickObsessed A photo posted by Marcia Trinidad (@marshiebcakes) on Jan 10, 2015 at 4:02pm PST

Home is your center for browsing books on Oyster. And at Oyster, browsing is about more than choosing a title from a list: it’s about effortlessly discovering the next book you’ll love.

We designed the new Home with that process in mind. To introduce you to your next great read, we’ve created a personalized feed of recommendations, exclusive editorial (like articles from The Oyster Review), and beautiful design that’s constantly updating with new content to explore.

1. New Recommendations:

The best reading suggestions come from either those who know you well or great editors you trust. The new Home combines both—algorithms that know your reading tastes and the knowledge of our editorial team—to create a discovery experience that has the insight of both a trusted expert and a close friend.

The new Home brings you new content that’s being updated all the time, all geared toward getting you into the right book for you, at the right moment. We’ve taken content from The Oyster Review and put it right in the app so you’ll be able to read exclusive reviews, spotlights, interviews, comics and more. We’ve also added trending books on Oyster, and picks just for you—all front and center in the new Home.

We’re also rolling out recommendations tailored based on the time of day and day of week, because what you want to read during a relaxing Sunday at home is probably very different than during the fifteen minutes on your commute.

2. New Designs:

Recommendations come in all shapes and sizes, so we’ve created new designs for different types of “stories” and presented them in a visually striking feed.

3. Overall Refresh:

We’re always thinking about new ways to make Oyster the best (and most beautiful) way to read, so we took this opportunity to make countless other improvements throughout the app to make the reading experience better, from improvements to the Reader to a redesigned Profile tab to make it easier to manage your books and Lists.

Together, these updates are giving Oyster new power to connect you with great books. Moving forward there are going to be more all-new stories and content appearing in Home all the time, so keep an eye out—there’s a lot more in store!

To get started, update to the latest version of Oyster through the App Store or Google Play.

Last week when we launched Harry Potter on Oyster, we told you why Team Oyster loves the books. We also asked you to tell us about your favorite Harry Potter book—as expected, we got some great responses, from the funny to the serious to the extremely detailed.

We’ve included a some of your posts after the jump, but before you take a peek, keep in mind that some of the answers may contain spoilers!

Note, these are not winners of the trip to Universal Orlando® Resort. Winners will be chosen through a random drawing and contacted by email.

Keep reading

Harry Potter has consistently been one of the top ten searches on Oyster since we launched.

Today, the search is over. We’ve partnered with Pottermore to make Oyster the first and only place you can read every Harry Potter ebook through a subscription. We’re raising a glass of butterbeer in celebration, because we now have all seven of the main Harry Potter books AND the three Hogwarts Library Books by J.K. Rowling!

Harry Potter is one of the most beloved book series of all time—a timeless, modern-day classic that’s here to stay.

So many readers—including everyone on Team Oyster—are loyal and enthusiastic fans. We keep returning to Harry’s wizarding world for third, fourth, and fifth readings. At the same time, almost eight years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there’s a whole new generation of readers who are discovering the magic of Hogwarts for the very first time.

Reading Harry Potter has always been something special—from opening up the newest book after a midnight release, to taking in the details of the beautiful cover illustrations, to discussing characters and plot twists with so many fellow fans.

Now we’re bringing some of that magic to Oyster.

Make sure your Oyster app is updated to version 1.9 and ¾ (you can get it on the App Store  and Google Play), and then open a Harry Potter title to get the full effect. Once inside, rather than one of Oyster’s reader themes, choose one of the new “House Themes”—with designs inspired by Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff—or tap the Sorting Hat icon to have one selected at random. Then dive into a custom reading experience inspired by your favorite Hogwarts House.

The Harry Potter experience continues throughout the app. On the new Harry Potter page in the Explore tab, discover more books Harry Potter fans will love on Oyster. And for the rest of the week, we’re dedicating The Oyster Review to Harry Potter—head there for editorial content celebrating Harry Potter, commissioned and authored by Oyster.

And last but certainly not least, to celebrate the launch of Harry Potter on Oyster, we’re sending one lucky reader and a guest on a trip to Universal Orlando® Resort to experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™. To view the official rules and enter for a chance to win, head over to www.oysterbooks.com/harrypotter.

We’re kicking off 2015 with two really big announcements.

1) Macmillan books are now on Oyster.
Macmillan is one of the largest publishers in the world and distributes some of the most iconic books out there. We’re thrilled to have books from across their well-known imprints—new sci-fi and fantasy from Tor, literary fiction from FSG, genre favorites from St. Martin’s Press, and more.

2) Oyster now has over one million books.
Over the past several months, the number of publishers we work with has grown dramatically. That means even more great books are being added to our library every day from great publishers. Some of our favorite recent additions include Candlewick, New York Review Books Classics, Capstone, Soho Press, Bloomsbury, and many others.

And let’s not forget our existing partners, like HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, who collectively add thousands of new books to Oyster regularly.

We think it’s fair to say that your Reading Lists (and ours) just got much, much longer.

We’re proud of the work we’ve done to make Oyster better and better. Our library has grown ten times larger since we launched in September 2013. We’ve also expanded our app from just the iPhone to almost every smartphone and tablet out there (plus the web), launched The Oyster Review, and connected readers with countless books through personal recommendations. And we’re planning even more for 2015.

With this many new books to choose from, we thought we’d highlight a few of our favorite new additions to our library from Macmillan and other new publishers. For more, head over to The Oyster Review for a review of It’s Beginning to Hurt by James Lasdun, this week’s Book of the Week.

Best of Macmillan

Best of Tor

New York Review Books

Distinguished fiction and nonfiction from the publishing house of The New York Review of Books

Candlewick

High-quality, award-winning children’s books

Capstone Young Readers

Exciting new kid’s, middle-grade, and YA including Batman, Superman, and Scooby-Doo

Soho Press

Independent publisher known for new literary voices, international crime fiction, and young adult mystery and thrillers

New Books from Longtime Partners

  Existing partners like Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt continue to add new great books to Oyster.