Amazon doesn’t want Fire TV to play nice with content discovery apps
Withso many streaming services jostling for your attention, it makes sense to centralize your watchlist with a service like Plex Discover to make keeping track of your shows more convenient. Even TV operating systems likeGoogle TVandFire TVhave started offering their own solutions for recommendations and watchlist management. But Amazon is going a little overboard with promoting its own alternative aggressively by thwarting third-party content discovery apps.
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For content discovery apps like JustWatch andPlex Discover, the integration of deep links to various streaming services is a must-have feature. It saves you from using the dreaded TV keyboard for looking up movies and TV series within each app. But Plex’s VP of marketing Scott Hancock recently alleged that Amazon is barring them from offering such direct links on Fire TV devices (viaTechHive).
This change gravely affects Plex Discover’s core feature that allows users to directly jump to a streaming service. However, the executive notes that you may still use the Plex app on your Fire TV to find where your favorite show is available and manage your cross-service watchlist. The only thing that won’t work anymore is the handy direct links to movies and TV series.
Amazon Fire TVs didn’t always prohibit deep linking via third-party apps. WhenPlex started beta testing its Discover feature last year, Amazon was open to such universal discovery apps. Hancock revealed in an interview that Amazon basically asked them to remove the linking feature after a recent policy change. TechHive further points out that Plex never launched Discover on Roku in the first place because the platform has for long prohibited deep links, but Amazon’s sudden move came as a surprise for Plex and other similar services.
When we reviewedAmazon’s highest-end Fire TV Stick 4K Max, we did appreciate how fluid the interface feels. But at the same time, the UI is riddled with ads and the recommendations naturally lean more towards Prime Video since the tech giant owns both the platform and the streaming service.
Amazon makes some ofthe best streaming devices to smarten up your TV, but it has also been tightening its control over the Fire TV platform lately.Last year it blocked third-party launchers, and this time, it’s severely limiting content discovery apps. It’s a bummer for many of us who rely on services like JustWatch and Plex Discover to find new content and sensibly manage our ever-growing watchlist. If you have a Fire TV device hooked to your TV set, you’re out of luck, unfortunately, at least for now.
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