As promised, the Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and Fire TV Edition televisions can now directly display live feeds from home security cameras. The feature works through Alexa, so you’ll need to use either a voice remote or the Fire TV Remote app. Just say “Show [camera name]” and a live feed of that camera will be displayed in full screen.
Amazon initially introduced support for viewing live camera feeds when they announced the Amazon Echo Show. Camera manufacturers quickly jumped on board add compatibility with Alexa and there are already dozens of supported cameras.
Nest, Arlo (which I own), and Logitech are among the larger manufacturers that support Alexa viewing, but other less expensive devices are also begining to add support, like this $39.99 camera by EZVIZ. it’s also possible to build your own compatible camera using a Raspberry Pi.
Amazon is rumored to be working on a security camera of their own. Some were expecting the camera to be announced yesterday along with the new 4K HDR Fire TV and new Echo devices, but there was no mention of a camera.
The compatible Alexa devices that can display camera feeds are the 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV, the 2nd generation Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Edition television, and the Echo Show. Amazon explicitly says the 1st generation Fire TV Stick is not compatible with camera viewing.
If you have an external Alexa device, like the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Dash Wand, linked to control your Fire TV, you can also say “Alexa, show [camera name]” to one of those devices and the camera feed will appear on your Fire TV.
See Amazon’s help page for cameras for information on how to set everything up.
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AFTVnews
It works! Very happy this feature is available. Now I just need the Silk Browser on Fire TV.
The silk browser blows! Why would you want that?!
ok go to amqzon silk now you’re all set.
Do you think FTV2 will return to stock or is it gone?
Really hard to say. My gut tells me yes, it’ll be back. Seems like they’re having remote supply issues again, possibly due to the new Fire TV 3 taking up all the supplies. I think there’s a chance that the Fire TV 2 will be packaged with the new BT remote and return after the Fire TV 3 ships.
Weighing if I’ll spend the 90.00 to get the FTV3 and the Amazon branded Ethernet adapter. I wouldn’t have the box with the adapter. From what you write, it’s sounding like it’s going to be a step up from my FTV2 and more so my FTV1.
Plenty of FTV2s available from 3rd part sellers like Staples, Best-Buy etc…
I don’t understand the Alexa requirement. Why can’t I just launch an app to view the feed? Isn’t that what Alexa does anyways, launch an app?
You should have clarified there are only FOUR (4) brands that work. “Dozens of supported cameras” is a misleading click bait type description as you failed to mention the only cameras compatible are from 4 brans, Arlo, Nest, Logitech and EzViz…
Tried it with ring stick up cam. Didn’t work.
First attempt didn’t work: Waiting for Netgear… Rebooted. Worked, pretty nice, too. Then it didn’t work on my second Arlo and didn’t on my Ring, both showed Waiting for Netgear/Ring… forever.
Activity log in the Ring phone app shows it got a live feed request even though I couldn’t view it. Ring app pulled up the video in a snap. Both Arlos responded to live feed requests in their phone app. So the smart home vendor’s device cloud can get the data to my phone, it can get the data to my FireTV once per reboot – so all the camera to device cloud to Amazon to FireTV plumbing works, but it can’t reliably get the data to my FireTV.
Stupid question, but if someone has multiple Fire TVs linked to their account (in my case 4) and you utilize an Echo to bring up the camera feed, do you need to add a quantifier to the end of the command, e.g. “Alexa, show front door on living room Fire TV”?
Or are we limited to a one-to-one link between these things?
All I found on the setup page was, “Alexa will automatically open the camera feed on the Fire TV paired to the Echo device you’re currently using.” What if someone has more than one device paired?
you better reboot your fire tv after finish setup for this to work
I use EZVIZ cameras and it works 75% of the time.
make sure to disable encryption for this to work in case your camera support that
I’ve followed all the instructions, but can’t discover my cameras. Is there something obvious I’m missing?
Thanks for the heads up! I had no idea about this feature until you wrote an article about it. I tried it, and it works with my arlo cameras, but barely. It will show 2 out of my 3 arlo cameras, but with crazy buffering and sometimes up to 2 minutes to load, if it works at all. If you want to impress people, this probably wont do the trick. Its much easier, faster, and looks better seeing the arlo cameras from your laptop or phone/tablet.
When I ask Alexa to show any of my arlo cameras she says “ok” but then never shows anything. What’s wrong?
When you connect your camera to Amazon firestick, you get support from Alexa. CCTV is one of the basic necessity needed to provide security to you and your belongings.
I have both a new Amazon fire TV and an Amazon security camera and I tried everything here but can not get the camera to link to the TV
Alexa keeps telling me to setup the Alexa app which makes no sense since Alexa is already running on the TV and every time I tell it to find the device named camera which is what I named the camera on my phone it tells me no device with that name was found and when I try to have it bring up the numbers related to the camera it tells me something else
Deaf people don’t like this…
Hi there!
I just came across the news that Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick now have the capability to display security camera feeds, and I must say, I am very impressed! As someone who is always on the lookout for ways to make my home more secure, this is definitely a feature I would love to have.
It’s great to see that Amazon is continuously improving their devices to provide more value to their customers. With this new feature, it will be even easier to keep an eye on your home, whether you’re in another room or away from home altogether.
I particularly appreciate the convenience of being able to view my security camera feeds directly on my TV, without having to switch to another device. This will definitely be a game-changer for those of us who want to keep an eye on our homes without having to constantly check our phones or computers.
Overall, I think this is a fantastic addition to the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, and I’m excited to see what other new features they have in store for us in the future.
Cheers!
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