Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Amazon Instant Video on your Android phone

For awhile Amazon's Instant Video only worked if you installed a third party browser (Chrome does not support flash) and the Adobe Flash apk.  In my experience this worked, but was not optimal for mobile viewing. To make it work on a Nexus 7, I had to install the Dolphin browser with the jetpack add-on. I also had to install the Adobe Flash apk. Since it is no longer in the Google play store, that meant downloading and saving it to my device to install it.

Now you can install the Amazon Instant Video app on your phone or tablet, though as of this writing it only works on a phone. I have only tested this so far on a Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 with Android 4.4.4 and an ASUS Transformer 101 with Android 4.0.

I should clarify that if you already have the Amazon app store app you can skip this part and go straight to installing the Instant Video app. Right now it's a convoluted method to get the Instant Video app but it works better than modifying a mobile browser. Why Amazon can't just release it along side their other apps in the Google Play store is beyond me. I suppose they still don't want people to know about it to try and entice people to buy a Fire tablet or phone.

You'll need an Amazon account, preferably with Prime to watch Prime Instant videos. First you will need to install the Amazon Appstore App. Annoyingly this is also not available in the Google Play Store. If you do a search in the play store, Amazon Appstore Installer from Sweet Wind will come up. This is not the one you want.

You'll need to modify your security settings in Android to allow installation of non-play store apps. Go to --> settings --> security --> make sure the box next to unknown sources is checked.  Open up a browser on your device and go to  http://www.amazon.com/getappstore. Click on download the Amazon Appstore. Follow the on screen prompts to install it once it has downloaded.  From here open up the Amazon Appstore which should now be in your app drawer. You will have to enter your Amazon logon but this should only happen once. Below is what the app should look like once installed.


Search for Amazon Instant Video. It is generally the first app that comes up. Install the app and once it's done navigate to your app drawer. For some reason I got a warning that says I already owned the app. I ignored the warning and re-installed the app. In your app drawer look for the green icon labeled Instant Video.

Open it up and you're done. So far this hasn't worked on tablets; instead it just opens up the default browser to Amazon. On my phone this works fine on WiFi or 4G. Though if you are using 4G it prompts you if you want to limit viewing to WiFi. If you tap the 3 bars in the top left a pop out menu appears and you can navigate to your watch list or video library. Viewing is nice with no noticeable choppiness and it's a lot easier to navigate and use than running it in a mobile browser.


While this is a nice addition, the limitation to phones and the fact it's too many steps to download make it less appealing than using Netflix or Crackle. Still I can say, it's about time Amazon. I can understand trying to keep Instant Video propriety to their Fire tablets and phone however I'm paying for the service so why do I have to jump through hoops to use it.

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