Amazon Fire TV (2nd Gen) was a slim design box discontinued in 2022, replaced by the ever-growing Fire TV Stick, mainly due to the success of the 2nd Gen Fire TV Stick of 2016. Amazon also sells the Fire Cube and previously pendant style models sold. Today, you have several Amazon Fire TV Stick choices from Classic to 4K, and the tips and tricks discussed here should work for any version of Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire Cube, and Fire Pendant. Visually, each model may appear different on your screen from some of the screenshots below.
The Fire TV Stick released in 2016 offered the same features as Fire TV, but it offered more. If you're looking to access apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu, it's hard to beat Amazon's lineup of Fire TV devices. From watching movies and live TV to playing games on the big screen, Amazon's Fire OS devices are the best way to build your entertainment system.
Over the years, Amazon has updated the models and their design with useful tweaks, including the ability to control your TV's power and volume directly from the remote. Meanwhile, they've also improved their software to be cleaner than ever, so you can find the movies you want to watch and dive straight into the action. Installing Kodi on a Fire Stick is just another cool thing you can do, along with many other third-party apps.
Here are nine hidden/semi-hidden features for Amazon Fire TV devices.
Feature #1: use the context menu
If you're tired of navigating through the Settings menu every time you need to put your Fire TV to sleep (no on/off options available), Amazon has included a quick method by default. Your Fire Stick's context menu makes for quick navigation, and once you know where to look, it's something you'll use all the time.
- Press and hold the " Homepage " icon button.
- The “Quick settings” a pop-up menu appears and displays common options, including Sleep, Mirroring, Parameters, and Applications, depending on your model.
Feature #2: Use your Amazon tablet as a second screen
If you have an Amazon Fire tablet, you can use it as a second screen to watch content on Amazon Prime Instant or browse around your Fire Stick. You can also cast content to your tablet, which means you can enjoy your Fire TV even if someone else is using the TV.
As with everything else on Amazon's media box, it's fairly easy to set up.
- Select Parameters, on the TV, then select Second screen to activate it. Just make sure your device and Fire tablet are on the same wireless network.
Feature #3: Mirror your Fire tablet to your Fire TV
Although they no longer ship with newer Fire HD tablets, older Fire HDX tablets can mirror directly to your Fire TV, just like Google's Chromecast products.
- Make sure your tablet is on the same network as your Fire TV.
- Now choose Settings in the menu at the top of the screen.
- Then select Display and sounds, and enable display mirroring for Fire TV and Fire tablet.
Feature #4: Enable Parental Controls to Keep Your Kids Safe
Amazon allows you to place parental controls on your Amazon Prime Instant account or apps installed on your Fire TV device. This option prevents your children from accessing inappropriate content, and it also means that you will not end up with unexpected payments.
While a device-level setting for Parental Controls will cover all Amazon content on your device, you'll still need to set one individually for other apps like Netflix.
Feature #5: Expand your internal storage for games, videos, and apps
As a standard, Amazon's Fire TV comes with 8GB of internal storage, while the current Fire Cube offre 16 Go.
While that might sound reasonable, any serious Fire TV user will find that it fills up pretty quickly. Fortunately, the latest update from Amazon Fire TV decoder allows you to plug in a USB flash drive and transfer your games and applications. You can't easily do the same with the Fire TV 2022 dongle or the Fire TV Stick, but you can buy a USB OTG cable and manually move files to an external drive.
You'll need to make sure it's a USB 3.0 drive, formatted in FAT32, or Fire TV will erase everything when it formats it.
- Once connected, go to Parameters in your main menu.
- Now scroll down and select Applications.
- Then click Manage installed applications to transfer content to the USB flash drive.
Feature #6: Connect Bluetooth Headphones
Did you know the Fire TV supports Bluetooth headphones? If you haven't, you are doing it now. The process is simple.
- Make sure your headphones are ready to pair, then select Settings on your Fire TV homepage.
- Then scroll down and select Bluetooth controllers and devices on your TV. Under Other Bluetooth devices, you can automatically select and connect to your headset.
Feature #7: Keep your home screen tidy
If you don't like the clutter on your home screen, you can remove featured apps from your recently used tab. Navigate to the item you want to remove and below it next to "More Info" select the “Remove from recent. » This option removes the chosen item from your homepage until the next time you use the application.
Feature #8: Create a Custom Screensaver
To add a custom screensaver to your Fire TV device, upload a set of images to your Amazon Cloud Drive. Make sure to choose the same account registered to your Fire TV account. You get 5GB free just for setting up remote storage, giving you plenty of room to upload a few brilliant images to adorn that nice big screen when the Fire TV device is idle.
To access the images, go to " Pictures " tab on your Fire TV device, then browse the downloaded photos to set some as your screensaver.
Feature #9: Install apps from Amazon website
Navigating the Amazon Appstore on Fire TV can be a pain, especially if you're in a rush. But did you know that you can install apps on your Fire TV device directly from Amazon's website?
By browsing Amazon's online catalog or directly accessing the application of your choice, you will be able to buy it and transfer it to your Fire TV device, as long as it is linked to the Amazon account on which you purchased the app.
As you can see above, Amazon's Fire Stick models come with a lot of great features and benefits. Devices are customizable and universal for music, movies, shows, games, pictures, apps, wallpapers, content organization and more! Try some of the features above!
