The official YouTube app is now available for Fire TV Stick (2nd generation) and Fire TV Stick 4K, which are currently sold in Japan. It will also be available for Fire TV (2nd and 3rd generation) and Fire TV Stick (1st generation) released before 2017 in the coming months. This time I'm testing with Fire TV Stick (2nd generation).
For those of you who haven't used Fire TV, you might be thinking, "Wow, isn't there a YouTube app for Fire TV?" As you know, Google and Amazon are rivals in hardware such as Chromecast and Fire TV, and video streaming services such as YouTube and Prime Video.
As a result, since the latter half of 2017, the elimination of competing services on each company's platform has become stronger, and as a result, the YouTube application has not been provided to Fire TV.
However, in April 2019, a settlement was announced. Google has announced that it will provide a YouTube app for Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Edition smart TVs within a few months, and this time, it's back. At the same time, Amazon has also announced that it will add Chromecast functionality to its Prime Video viewing app, which has also been realized this time.
When Fire TV Stick (2nd generation) is started, the YouTube logo appears on the home screen. It had a big logo. You can also find it from "My apps & games", but since it has just started to be provided, it will be greatly appealing on the home screen.
Selecting this logo will take you to the YouTube application download screen. The installation process is exactly the same as other apps like Netflix and Hulu.
Choose your logo and install. The installation flow is the same as other apps
When you launch the YouTube app, you can choose to log in to your account or use it without logging in. When logging in, the password will be displayed on the screen. Access the specified URL from your smartphone's browser and enter the password on the page to complete the login on the Fire TV Stick side. This method is more convenient than using the Fire TV Stick remote control to enter IDs and other information.
It is also possible to authenticate using a smartphone browser
If you are logged in to YouTube, you can use it more comfortably, for example, recommended videos are suggested according to the viewing habits of watching YouTube on a PC or smartphone. . The response is also fast, and there is no impression of sluggishness even when using it.
You can also use Amazon Alexa to search, play, fast forward, and rewind content. You can also say, “Alexa, find cooking videos on YouTube.”
When you actually use it, it's comfortable to be able to play YouTube videos with a UI that matches the TV, just like watching videos on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, etc. Recently, TVs have a YouTube playback function, but in the case of slightly older TVs, the operation may be slow. In such a case, it would be ant to use Fire TV Stick.