Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick provide a perfect way to enjoy great shows, movies, and other TV content from diverse sources. If you are a first-time user of Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, you may easily be overwhelmed by all the options and features. But fortunately for you today we will show you some useful Amazon Firestick hidden settings. These settings will help you get the most out of your Firestick.
If you look at the settings, you’ll find a lot of handy stuff and tips to help you get the most out of your Amazon Firestick. Each setting on Amazon Fire TV Stick has a lot to offer. But you won’t know unless you go in to check what the settings do.
Here are some of the most useful Amazon Firestick hidden settings:
1. Display and Sounds Settings
You can set up your Fire TV’s video resolution from the Display Settings. It is set to auto by default. But if you want to you can still set it on high-quality resolution such as 1080p from this section.
You can also go to Calibrate Display and adjust the screen if your TV is off-center. You can do this by using the up down or left to right arrows. Toggle the adjustments until you find the perfect setting and then press Accept. But if you are not sure just press the reset button and it will go back to its original setting.
2. Audio Settings
When you click on audio, you’ll get to all the settings you need for navigation sounds. The clicking sounds that you can turn on or off and the surround sound setting, which you can always leave on Best Available. On advanced sound settings, you can turn volume leveler on or off. This is if you want to stay consistent on the same audio quality with your apps such as Netflix and other streaming apps.
There is also the Dialogue Enhancer that you can turn on to ensure that the vocals stay clear at all times. You can keep both Volume Leveler and Dialogue Enhancer off if you don’t have any issue with your apps’ audio quality.
3. Enable Display Mirroring
This feature allows you to stream everything from your Android or iPhone device to your Amazon Firestick. All you need to do is click on Enable Device Mirroring, go to the next screen and connect your device.
Once you have connected your phone to your Fire TV Stick you can do anything on the phone and have it displayed on the TV screen. You can even display the larger TV screen all your photos and videos saved on your phone. When you turn the phone to the side or in landscape view, the screen on Fire TV will also do the same.
This guide will help you learn everything you need to know about Screen Mirroring on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.
4. Application Settings
From the app store, you can turn automatic updates on or off. You can also decide to keep External Market Links and In-App Purchases on or off, especially if you have kids or other people who watch apps with in-app purchases. Turning off in-app purchases ensures that they can never make a purchase on your account without permission. You can also manage subscriptions, notifications, and either hide or keep Cloud Apps open. When you hide Cloud Apps, your apps will not be seen when people are searching on Amazon Store.
5. Amazon Photos
From this setting, you can allow or disallow Guest Connection and enable or disable Access to Amazon photos. You can also go to Manage Installed Applications to check available space for additional apps.
There’s an option to delete apps that you don’t need or use anymore from the Manage Installed Applications setting. You can clear data and force-stop apps running in the background from this setting. When you clear data the app starts afresh just like you have downloaded it again from the app store.
6. Equipment Control
This setting is set to Automatic by default. But you can set it to off or manual if you want. The setting basically gives you a lot of access to your TV and audio equipment. You will also get access to useful features such as soundbars or functions such as turning your TV on and off or if you want to switch input and much more.
There is also the Manage Equipment setting which includes the TV options such as Volume Increments which allows you to select how many levels your TV’s volume goes up or down when you ask Alexa to change the volume.
7. Power Control Options
We recommend you keep all your power control settings on default unless your TV is not responding to signals when you press the Power button or when you tell Alexa turn on the TV. The Input Change Options that describes how you prefer to change different options through Cycle Through, Navigate Up, Navigate Down, and many more. If you want Alexa to control options just leave this setting to Cycle Through.
8. Add Equipment
This is another cool feature that allows you to add new features such as Xbox, Roku TV, Game Console, Media Player, DVD Player, Apple TV, cable TV, and regular TV just to mention a few. You can specify which device you want to add from this section. This is one of the best Amazon Firestick hidden settings that you can rely on to add more devices to your Fire TV.
9. The Short Cut Menu
If you are tired of going to Settings and other menus every time you want to turn off your Fire TV, Amazon has a handy shortcut menu for quick navigation. To use the shortcut just press and hold down the home button. A pop-up menu will open with useful options such as Power, Settings, and Mirroring. It’s just as simple as that.
10. A Second Screen in Your Amazon Tablet
Do you have an HDX or an Amazon Fire HD tablet? Well, if you do then you can use the tablet as a second screen any time you are watching your favorite show or movie on Amazon Prime Instant. Or when you want to navigate through different settings in your Fire TV Stick. You can even move the content to your tablet especially when there’s another person using the TV. It is quite easy to set up and sync your tablet to your TV. Just go to Settings and turn on the Second Screen option. Remember to ensure that both your Fire tablet and device are on the same Wi-Fi network.
11. Enabling Parental Control for Kids’ Safety
Amazon cares for your kids. This is why they give you the option to set Parental Controls on your Amazon Prime Instant apps or account connected to your Fire TV device. This setting helps prevent your children from accessing inappropriate content.
The setting also ensures that you don’t get surprise payments. The Device-level setting for Parenting Controls works for all Amazon content on your device. But you still need to set it for other apps including Netflix.
12. Extra Storage for Games and Apps
Amazon TV gives you internal storage of 8GB as standard. The 8GB may be sufficient for most things you store on your Fire TV. But if you are a serious user, the storage will fill up pretty quickly.
Fortunately, with the latest update on Fire TV set-top boxes, you can now plug in a USB stick. This way, you can access your apps and games straight on your TV. However, this is not possible with the 2018 Fire TV dongle or Fire TV Stick but works perfectly with older devices.
You will also need to ensure that you are using a USB 3 stick that has been formatted to FAT32 if you want to increase your TV’s storage. Just plug in the USB stick and go to Settings>Applications>Manage Installed Applications. Then start transferring the USB stick content.
13. Connect Your Bluetooth Headphones to Your Fire TV
Fire TV does indeed support Bluetooth headphones. What’s more, it is really easy to set up this function. You only need to set your headphones to Pair then on your Fire TV go to Settings>Controllers and Bluetooth Devices>Other Devices. The Fire TV will automatically detect and pair up with your headphones set.
14. A Clutter-Free Home Screen
You want your home screen looking neat and tidy? You can do it simply by removing featured apps from the recently used tab on your Fire TV screen. To do this, go to the item that you want to remove and under its name or icon you’ll see the More Info option. This includes the option to “Remove from Recent.”
When you click on this option, the app will be removed from your recently used apps until you use it again. This is one of the handiest Amazon Firestick hidden settings that you can use to keep your home screen clutter-free.
15. Personalize Your Screensaver
Do you want to give your Fire TV a more personal style? You can easily do this by uploading your own images to an Amazon Cloud Drive connected to the same account as your Fire TV.
You’ll also get 5GB of free space when you set it up. You can use this storage space to upload your favorite images and set them up as screensavers. To get to the images, go to the Photos tab on Fire TV, browse through the uploaded photos and select the ones you want to use as screen savers. It is quite easy to give your Fire TV a personalized look and style.
16. Install Apps Straight from Amazon’s Website
It is sometimes annoyingly difficult to navigate your way through Amazon’s App Store on Fire TV. The good news is that you can actually install apps straight from the Amazon’s website.
You can do this by going through Amazon’s online catalogue or by simply going to the app you want directly. After purchasing an app, you can simply push it to your Fire TV as long as the device is connected to the Amazon account that you used to buy the app.
17. Add a Gamepad
Some games don’t really work as well as you would want them to when using Fire TV’s remote. The remote is actually too basic for console-style games. Fortunately, you can still your favorite console games by using a Fire TV gamepad.
The game pad supports some of the most popular games including GTA San Andreas, Minecraft Pocket edition, RipTide GP2, The Bard’s Tale, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and many more. Some of the games mentioned here may require a gamepad.
18. Sideload Apps
When you start using Fire TV, the first thing you’ll notice is how limited its library of apps really is. The app library is even more limited if you have the Fire TV Stick, which is smaller than the Fire TV. Fortunately, you can easily sideload apps to get a wider range of choices. Sideloading apps can only be done manually but it is quite easy.
All you need to do is go to Settings. Then to System, Developer Options, and enable the option ADB Debugging and Apps from Unknown Sources. You’ll then download Apps2Fire on your phone, which will allow you to install APK files from your phone to your Fire TV. This is one of the best Amazon Firestick hidden settings that you can use to enhance your Fire TV with more apps.
19. You Can Use Your Phone as a Fire TV Remote
Have you lost or misplaced your Fire TV’s remote? Don’t worry. One of the coolest features of Fire TV is its official phone app. The app allows you to use your smartphone as an alternative remote.
Remotes, including Fire TV remote, have an annoying habit of disappearing under the sofa, in the kitchen, or even in the kids’ bedroom. The Fire TV app can be a lifesaver when the remote goes missing. It is available free of charge and even allows you to talk to your Fire TV via your phone’s microphone.
Check this guide and learn how to use your phone as a Firestick remote.
Conclusion
There are many more Amazon Firestick hidden settings that you can use to enhance your TV’s performance, add more apps to your Fire TV, and quickly do some of the little things that normally take a long time to achieve when using your Fire TV.
Do you have more Amazon Firestick hidden settings that you would want to add to our list? Please let us know in the comments below!
