Appstore Blogs
Supporting the announcement of the new Amazon Fire TV family, Amazon’s App Testing Service (ATS) has been updated to work seamlessly with Fire OS 5 and Fire TV devices. In as little as 90 seconds, you can receive a detailed report of potential issues that could affect compatibility with the Amazon Appstore—including guidance on how to resolve them before publishing. ATS can also run your app on actual Amazon Fire TV devices, providing a comprehensive compatibility report (including screenshots) in as little as 15 minutes.
What Is Tested?
ATS performs a static analysis of your app’s manifest and optionally analyzes your app as it runs on actual device hardware (including the new Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote). It performs tests that fall into three major categories:
- Libraries – Identifies software libraries incompatible with the Amazon Appstore, in which case we suggest compatible alternatives
- Amazon APIs – Determines if Amazon APIs are being called incorrectly, in which case we provide documentation to help
- Device Capabilities – Looks for features that aren’t supported by certain devices, in which case we provide guidance on how to handle this
The App Testing Service combines static analysis of how your app runs on Fire OS with analysis of your app as it runs on actual device hardware. ATS will generate a report that includes test events, screenshots, CPU usage, and heap utilization during testing. You will also have access to detailed logs.
How to Submit Your App for Testing
Using ATS to check your app is fast and easy. All we need is your APK file, which you can drag and drop directly on the ATS widget located on the App Testing Service page.
Once you drop an APK file on the widget, your app will be uploaded to ATS and testing will begin.
Results of the initial analysis will be available in as little as 90 seconds.
We’ll provide specific instructions on how to resolve issues we discovered.
Device tests will also be performed, and you’ll receive links to the screenshots captured during the testing process. The analysis of those results will take longer—usually between 15 minutes and 6 hours. If you have a developer account with Amazon, you can access those results from your ATS dashboard. If not, you can provide an email address and we’ll send the results to you as soon as they are available.
Publish Your App on Amazon
Once you have tested your app, reviewed the results, and completed your updates, you’re ready to publish your app to the Amazon Appstore. Submit your app from the Developer Portal or drag and drop your APK to re-run the test; the initial results will include a big orange button to kick off the submission process.
If you don’t already have an Amazon developer account, note that you will be required to create one before you can submit your app to the Amazon Appstore. Creating a developer account is free. If you are an Amazon customer, you can even use your existing Amazon account.
Reach New Customers with Amazon Fire TV
For developers, Amazon Fire TV can help you increase your customer base by putting your app in the living room, in front of people who enjoy entertainment and may not have seen your apps before. Now is the perfect time for Android developers to get into the growing streaming device segment with their existing Android app or game. Android developers will find that developing for Amazon Fire TV is familiar, and optimizing their apps for the new controllers and TV display will not require learning a new language or new frameworks.
The new Amazon Fire TV ships with Fire OS 5, which is based on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and API 22. This is a significant upgrade to the existing Fire OS 3 (API 17) for Fire TV. The key new feature for Fire TV developers in Fire OS 5 is support for the v17 Leanback library. If you have an app that supports Android Leanback, many of those features should work as-is in Fire TV OS 5. This means that it is easy to bring an Android APK to Amazon devices, including Amazon Fire TV. Amazon Fire TV offers Android apps a potentially new set of customers to engage with – all through the same Amazon Appstore.
Bring Your Apps and Games to Amazon Fire TV Today
With Fire TV Stick, the new Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote, as well as our existing user base of Fire TV owners, it’s time to make your new game or app at home in the Amazon Appstore.
Looking for how to get started? Check out the following links:
- Register as an Amazon Developer for FREE
- Test your app and get results in 90 seconds or less
- Get the Fire OS 5 Developer Preview for Amazon Fire TV
- Learn more about Fire TV
- Purchase Amazon Fire TV
- Purchase Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote
Want Amazon Developer blogs delivered to your inbox? Stay in the loop on the latest industry best practices, Amazon promotions, and new launches by subscribing to our weekly blog summary here.
