People who love watching TV shows from a variety of streaming services have always been aware of the shortcomings packaged in their boxes, especially for folks that use Android TV set-top boxes or Fire TV by Amazon. This is because the two tech corporations had in the past been entangled in a brawl that saw each party limit some of its services on its platform. Mainly, this has been the case of apps such as Prime Video that has been unavailable for the lion’s share of Android-powered boxes and Android TVs, as well as lack of access to YouTube app on Fire TV.
A couple of months ago, the two companies struck an agreement to end the unnecessary rivalry, probably because they understood that customers were suffering, including yours truly. The developments of the deal have borne fruits as of today: people who use Fire TV can now access the YouTube app that was pulled down from the platform in the past. The app is said to support Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, and can also be downloaded from the platform’s store, Amazon Appstore.
And now, the good news is here for a lot of people: those running any kind of Android TV STB can now access Prime Video and stream their favourtite movies and shows without sideloading the app through hacks that have demonstrated their unreliability. This means that you can now get to watch Two and A Half Men, among other Prime exclusives like Bosch as I have wanted to do, but couldn’t because of the previous limitations.
It is worth noting that the Prime Video app may not appear in Google Play at the moment, but word from the search giant says the app is spreading to more areas. I have already set up mine, and it works flawlessly. I have the Mi Box 3 by Xiaomi that, through no fault of its own, has never played well with the streaming app. Now, it functions as I want it to, and as you have probably seen it work on certified boxes like the Nvidia Shield and other platforms such as Tizen and WebOS.
This development has also given me a reason to keep the Box around for some time amid plans to ditch it for something that supports all popular streaming services. The update shows how settling business rivalries for essentials while eschewing frivolities can pay off, especially when a product such as Prime Video is popular and has the economies of scale for its users.
