5 Amazon Fire TV Stick features you might not know about

The HDMI-based streaming service offers a ton of platforms for you to watch TV and films.

You can also use it to listen to music from the likes of Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

Here are some further features that come with the compact device you might not have been aware of.

Amazon Fire TV Sticks can stream TV, films and music among other things (Image: Getty Images)

5 Amazon Fire TV Stick features you’re going to wish you knew about sooner

Pin apps on the home screen

If you have a few commonly used apps/streaming services on the Amazon Fire TV Stick, you can pin them to the main menu.

There are usually six streaming apps pinned there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those are the ones you want to use.

You can do this by going to the home page and then ‘Applications’ (the three squares and a plus icon).

From here, you can hover over the app you want to move and press the menu button on your remote (the three lines icon).

You’ll see a side menu pop up, with the option to move the app, Pocket-Lint shares.

Select that, and then move the app into your pinned apps at the top of the screen.

Turn off navigation sounds

You might have noticed that the Amazon Fire TV Stick makes a noise when you’re moving around the pages and various apps.

If you’re finding it an annoyance, you can turn it off, though.

Just head to Settings > Display & Audio > Audio > Navigation Sounds and toggle it off.

Cloud gaming

As an additional feature alongside the TV, films and music, you can play some games through the Amazon Fire TV Stick.

You can access games on Fire TV devices running Fire OS 5 or higher.

To find them, navigate to games on the home screen, select the game that you want to play and then select ‘Get’ to download the game.

If you have Amazon Luna already, you can play through that by selecting ‘Play with Amazon Luna’ and following the on-screen prompts.

The live TV guide

If you navigate to the ‘Live’ tab and click ‘On now’, you can find the live TV guide on the Amazon Fire TV Stick.

This pulls together free live TV channels from multiple apps, including Pluto TV and Plex, instead of jumping between apps to see what’s on.

Links with the Fire TV app

You will soon be able to link your Amazon Fire TV Stick with the Amazon Fire TV app, which has a few useful features.

It will act as a free smart remote, offering voice search, keyboard entry, and navigation for Fire TV devices.

The upgrade began to be rolled out on Thursday, February 26 and should be made available for all UK customers over the coming weeks.

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In a statement, Amazon said: “Millions of customers use our Fire TV mobile app as a backup remote, but we knew it could do more.

“The redesigned app adds the ability to browse content, manage your watchlist, and play titles on your TV—all with a look and feel that matches the new Fire TV design.

“Now you can use your phone as a second screen to discover what to watch next or add a friend’s show recommendation to your watchlist when you’re away from home.”

Do you have an Amazon Fire TV Stick? Let us know in the comments.