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10 Hacks Every Amazon Fire TV User Should Know

ResidentialBusiness
in Home Office Setup & Equipment

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The first thing you need to understand about Amazon Fire anything is that a Fire TV and a Fire TV Stick are not the same thing. Some hacks only work on Fire TVs, others only with Fire TV Sticks, and others with both. You can have a Google TV (or any kind of TV) and hook up a Fire TV Stick to it: So if you don't have a Fire TV, know that there is a simple $30 solution that can fix that. I've been using the Fire OS for many years, and although it's not my favorite, it has some pretty cool hacks that no other OS has.

Make menu navigation more detailed

If you press Fast Forward and Rewind at the same time and hold them for two seconds, you will activate the Text Banner in the navigation menu. This will make a white box appear at the bottom of the screen with more information about anything you're highlighting in the navigational menu. You can get IMDB ratings, length of movies or shows, year it was released, rating, summaries, etc. You can use the Fast Forward arrow to get more information from the banner. You also get a better menu by pressing the Menu button, which gives you a different menu option, where you can add shows or movies to your watchlist or platforms where you can stream them.

Restart the Fire TV Stick quickly

Fire TV Sticks and Fire TVs are mini computers, and as such, they might malfunction and need a restart from time to time. Hold the Circle and the Play/Pause button together for five seconds, and your Fire Stick will restart immediately. This is much easier than having to find the restart option on the menu or physically disconnecting it from the wall.

Mirror your iPhone to the Fire TV

While Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks can mirror/cast Android phones natively, iPhones need to jump through hoops to do the same. Just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's not possible. You'll need to download a paid app like Screen Mirroring for Fire TV to do this for you. (There are other free alternatives (AirScreen, DoCast, LetsView), but they will restrict you in some way or another by putting ads or setting a time restriction until you pay for the app.) To get started, after you select your app, hold the Home button for five seconds and select the Mirroring option that comes up. Then open the mirroring app and make sure you're on the same network as your Fire TV. Then follow the on-screen instructions on the app.

You don't need a Fire TV remote to work your Fire TV

Losing your remote (or buying a used TV without a remote) doesn't mean you're screwed. There's an easy and free solution. Download the Amazon Fire TV app, which essentially turns your phone into a Fire TV remote, often with more options. You need to make sure you're on the same network as your TV to set this up. One of my favorite reasons to use this app over the physical remote is that you can type anything you're searching for on your phone rather than selecting each letter individually with the remote.

Watch anything virtually for free with Kodi

Kodi is a free, open-source media system that lets you reliably stream your entire media collection to any local device, like your Fire TV Stick. The catch is that it takes a bit to set it up, but worry not. I've gone through the steps in this tutorial to make it easy for you to install. Plex and Jellyfin are also good alternatives, as they're easy to download from the official Amazon app store (but check out our coverage for their advantages and disadvantages).

Use your computer as a Fire TV

If you want to watch your Fire TV on the go or don't have a TV, playing it on your computer (Mac or PC) is helpful—especially if you've got Kodi already running on your Fire TV Stick. To set it up, you'll need to install an open-source software like OBS Studio to make this work. But you'll essentially have another method of watching your shows and movies.

Use your Fire TV Stick as a computer

You can access the web through your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, and it's surprisingly easy. Download the Amazon Silk app on your Fire TV or Stick and you'll be able to check your email, social media, or do anything you do on a browser on your TV. And if the idea of using your remote to type stresses you out, remember the Amazon Fire TV app I mentioned earlier, or you can get one of these cheap remotes to type easily. If you get really good at it, you can get to the point where you make homepage shortcuts for your favorite websites as if they were apps.

Use your Alexa speaker as a hands-free remote

Sometimes we have our hands full or can't find the remote or our phones in time before the preview to the next episode spoils the show for us. If you have an Alexa speaker nearby, simply use voice commands to tell Alexa to, for instance, "Pause the TV."

Listen to TV with your Bluetooth headphones

Many people notice the Bluetooth feature on TV sticks and don't think much of it—but it's a powerful feature. You can connect your wireless keyboard to type out searches, hook up game pads to play games, connect your surround sound or portable speakers to it, and, most personally useful of all, connect your Bluetooth headphones to listen to shows without disturbing anyone else you live with. Go to Settings > Controllers & Bluetooth Devices > Other Bluetooth Devices > Add, and it will find any device that is in sync mode.

See who's at your door right on your TV

If you have a camera that's compatible with Alexa, there's a way to get it to show up on your Fire TV. Some of these brands include: Nest, Arlo, Blink, Wyze, Logitech, Ecobee, TP-Link, Aqara, Honeywell, Kami, Reolink, Zmodo, Amcrest, Canary, Vivint, and SwitchBot. They will not all have the same level of features and on-screen options, so it's best to see what your brand is capable of doing in the Fire TV and how to set each one up correctly.

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