Amazon is starting to roll out its redesigned Fire TV mobile app to customers, the company announced on Thursday. While you could previously only use the app as a backup remote, the updated experience lets you browse and discover content directly from your phone, manage your watchlist on the go, and play titles on your TV from the mobile app.
“The updated app turns smartphones into a second screen for discovering what to watch next, making it easy to add a friend’s show recommendation to a watchlist even when away from home,” Amazon wrote in an email to TechCrunch. “This seamless integration between mobile and TV creates a more flexible and convenient viewing experience for Fire TV customers to find what they want to watch, fast.”
The app is rolling out now in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the U.K.
Amazon says the refreshed look matches the new Fire TV user interface that it launched last month, which was designed to put more focus on content, while also simplifying navigation. The updated user interface introduced rounded corners, varied gradients, consistent typography, and increased spacing between content, while also providing more room for pinned apps.
The top navigation bar has been simplified into categories marked with clear icons for Movies, TV, Live TV, Sports, and News. The search button is more easily accessible to the left of the Home tab.
Within these tabs, Fire TV shows the content you’re already watching alongside recommendations from your subscribed services, organized in rows labeled “For You.” The tabs also feature free movies, top movies and shows, and other paid content you might like.
The changes to the app and the user interface come in response to the surge of streaming content, which has made it harder to keep track of what’s available on each service, requiring platforms like Fire TV to function more as discovery hubs rather than just places to launch streaming apps.
