One of the technological products of the current year is certainly the Amazon Fire Stick, the mini box to be attached to the TV to make it become "Smart", that is to add an internet connection and the apps necessary to be able to watch on TV and streaming from internet, without having to turn on the computer, movies from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and videos from Youtube. The Fire Stick, which is like an Android mini PC, can be bought in Italy on Amazon for 60 Euros in its Basic version, which compared to the more advanced versions available only in the USA lacks some features such as voice commands, pen support USB and streaming in high quality, but it works very well, also very easy to configure and use.
Being the Fire Stick an Android device, even if very personalized and limited in the settings, it still has many more functions than you can read on the manual included in the package and allows, in addition to watching movies from Netflix, also to do many more things like we're going to find out in this article.
Below, then, the guide to the Amazon Fire Stick with the best tricks and apps to be able to take advantage of every function even the most hidden ones.
READ ALSO: Optimize the Fire Stick for fast video streaming on TV
1) Use your smartphone as an Amazon Fire Stick remote control
Even if the Fire Stick comes with a remote control, you can also use an Android smartphone or iPhone as a remote control.
The app to be installed is the Fire TV remote control, available for both Android and iPhone.
The phone screen replicates the layout of the official remote control, with the 6 buttons at the bottom and a touchpad in the center on which you can swipe your finger to go up, down, left and right.
At the top there are the keys to access the settings of the Stick and the installed apps.
Unfortunately there is no key to do global searches and the voice commands do not work because the Stick Basic does not support it.
2) Use the Fire Stick on hotel and hotel TV
Since hotel TVs are always limited to a few channels, if there is a wifi network available you can use the Fire Stick wherever we go.
The important thing is to connect it to the right wifi network from the Settings> Network menu, find the network you want to connect to.
If necessary, you will have to log in from a registration web page and you can use the three-line key to switch from one field to another.
3) Correct apps that don't start and recover memory space
If any application such as Amazon Prime Video or Netflix does not start or has problems loading movies, you can repair the application by deleting the data it has stored during previous use.
Then go to Settings> Applications> Manage installed applications, find the one that is not good, press on it and then do " Clear data " and " Clean cache " to reset it.
This operation is also useful to recover space on the internal memory of the Stick, which we remember only has 8 GB of space and cannot be expanded (support for USB sticks is available only in version 2)
4) Play Android games with joypad
On Amazon Fire Stick you can install many of the games developed for Android, such as Asphalt 8, Tetris and many others.
These games can be played using the remote control, using the Remote control app on the phone as seen in step 1 or with a JoyPad Bluetooth, which is best.
You can buy a joypad for Amazon Stick on Amazon, paying a price between 20 and 30 Euros.
To configure the joypad on the Fire TV you have to go to Settings> Bluetooth controllers and devices> Game controllers
5) Install applications and games for Android not present in the Amazon lists
The Amazon Fire Stick is an Android device like any Samsung or Huawei smartphone, only it has a modified interface that is very different from the normal Android.
Among other limitations, the Google Play Store cannot be accessed to install applications.
To find new apps to put on Amazon Fire Stick you can go to the categories menu and press on the one you want to download.
If you want to install a game or a special app not present in the Amazon catalog, there is an important trick.
First of all, you have to go to Settings on the Fire TV, to the Device> Developer Options section and activate the Options from unknown sources and ADB Debug options
On an Android smartphone you must then install the Apps2Fire application which allows you to transfer any of the apps installed on the phone to the Fire Stick.
The initial configuration is very simple and Apps2Fire will immediately recognize the Stick which is connected to the same Wifi network as the mobile phone.
From the list of applications installed on your phone, Apps2Fire allows you to send their APK installation file on the Fire Stick and proceed with the installation without any difficulty.
In this way you can also add Kodi on Fire Stick, SkyGo, NowTV and other apps for watching videos (including Youtube).
To find out more details, you can read the guide on ways to download and install Android apps on Amazon Fire TV Stick .
6) Surf the internet on Amazon Fire Stick
The Fire Stick allows you to surf the internet from your TV as you would a computer.
Among the recommended apps and in the Web Browser category you can find and install some web browsers, among which there are currently two better than the others: Firefox and Silk .
Both work well, despite all the limitations when trying to read a site like this using a remote control without a keyboard.
7) See Youtube on Amazon Fire Stick
The removal of Youtube from Fire TV was a real spite against Google and left orphaned users of one of the most important applications for any smart TV.
Fortunately, it is still possible to access Youtube from Fire Stick using a web browser such as Firefox or Silk Browser, depending on your taste.
Since Youtube is inconvenient to use with the FireStick remote control, to make searches and browse videos the trick is to use the Youtube app on an Android smartphone or iPhone.
In fact, from the Youtube application it is possible to choose the video to be viewed and then transmit it, via the "Cast" button on another screen which may be that of Youtube on the Fire Stick.
For more details, see the guide to remote control Youtube on PC with mobile phone which also applies to the Fire Stick TV.
Alternatively, you can also install the Youtube TV app by following the procedure in point 5.
8) Watch computer videos on Amazon Fire TV
This is one of the most interesting tricks on this list, because you can make the Fire Stick like a Chromecast, or a device on which to stream video from your computer.
The app to use in this case is Plex, present in the catalog of apps highlighted on the main screen.
By installing Plex also on the PC, you can then activate the media center and stream the films we have on TV.
9) Watch videos from an Android smartphone or tablet on Fire TV
If you want to transmit videos or photos from your Android phone or tablet, there is another application that allows you to do it, available in the Amazon catalog: AllCast.
After installing AllCast on the Fire TV, you must download AllCast on Android, open it, select the FireTV among the available divisions and then choose the content from among those contained in the internal memory of the phone or tablet.
Also excellent is the Cast To TV app, which supports Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick
10) Cast your PC or Android screen to your TV with Fire Stick
This is perhaps the most interesting trick on the list, because it gives you the possibility to transmit the screen of your PC or Android phone to the TV and be able to see everything you want without using applications.
The Fire TV Stick is, in fact, a Miracast receiver, a protocol natively supported by Windows 10.
To activate Miracast reception, press and hold the Home key on the remote control until some keys appear on the screen, including one called Duplication .
Once you press on Dubbing, the Fire TV is ready to receive from another device.
On Windows 10 PC you can then open the Start menu and go to Settings> Devices .
Under Bluetooth and other devices, press on Add, let the PC detect the fire TV and establish the connection.
The desktop will immediately appear on the TV Fire screen, which will act as a secondary desktop.
You can then move the windows from the PC desktop to the right to make them appear on the TV.
In this way it is possible to stream video even from sites that have no application, also because the Miracast transmission also supports audio.
On Android, to see the mobile phone screen on the TV, you must touch the Mirror Share button in the switch bar or by going to Settings> Device connection (on Huawei it works but not all Android smartphones have this function)
11) Listen to the radio on the TV with Fire Stick
To listen to any of the Italian or world radio from the TV, simply find and install TuneIn, which works well for listening to any streaming radio broadcast.
12) See all the photos on the phone
Those who have an Amazon Prime subscription can use Amazon Prime Photos which allows you to make a cloud backup of all the photos on your phone, without limitations.
The Prime Photos app therefore becomes convenient on the Fire Stick to find all these photos and see them big on TV.
13) Listen to TV via Bluetooth headphones
You can pair the Fire TV with a pair of bluetooth headphones to listen to the audio of the movies you see on Netflix or Youtube videos.
To operate the headphones with Amazon Fire Stick you need to go to the Settings menu > Bluetooth Controllers and Devices> Other Bluetooth devices to make the connection.
14) Re-pair the remote control if it no longer works
If there is any problem with the Fire Stick remote control, if it doesn't work, it can be easily solved.
You must hold the Home key together for five seconds to make it come back connected.
15) To restart the Fire Stick by remote control
If the operations become slow, if there are performance problems or if it freezes without moving anymore, then you can restart the Fire Stick from the remote control by going to Settings> System> Restart, or, better yet, by holding down the Play and the buttons simultaneously selection button in the center of the circle on the remote control.
