Amazon has added another new tab to the navigation menu on Fire TV devices. The new addition this time around is a “Free” tab, denoted by an icon of a checkmark in a circle. As the name implies, the new tab lists rows of content that can be streamed for free, but there is a catch.
The last time a new tab was added to the Fire TV home screen was when Amazon switched the navigation menu from displaying text tabs to icons. This shrunk the tabs and made room for adding the “My Stuff” tab. The new Free tab is joining the list, in between the search icon and the home icon.
While its placement in the navigation menu is new, the Free screen that the new tab loads isn’t new. This is the same Free page that has always existed on Fire TV devices. Previously, you accessed the Free page by selecting the “Free” tile under the search tab or by using my Free Movies & TV Shows shortcut app. Since its the same old Free page, but just now in tab form, it still has the same issues as before.
While scrolling through the various rows of free content, you still have no easy way of knowing which streaming service the recommended free content is available from. You can press the menu button to open a menu in the lower right that usually lists the service the show or movie is available from, but that quickly gets tedious. While some content listed is a quick tap away if you have the necessary app installed, other content on the page will be from apps you don’t have installed. While needing to install a new app isn’t terribly inconvenient, it gets worse. Some of the free content listed is only free because the paid-only service that offers it has a free trial available. In my opinion, that’s stretching the definition of free content too far.
It seems as though the new Free tab isn’t coming to all Fire TV models. Fire TV Smart TVs and the 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube have an extra Input icon in the navigation menu. The extra icon doesn’t seem to leave enough room to fit in the new Free tab, so owners of those devices will need to rely on the old ways of getting to the free page.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Simple question why install that icon,what s the reasoning don’t get it.
Giving quicker access to a screen that is popular is one reason. It also surfaces the free section for those that didn’t know it existed, which is good for Amazon because it’s full of Freevee content, which Amazon makes money off of.
Free free? Or ‘Free with ads’?
either, both.
I clicked it to try it and now I can’t change that
Is it coming for Fire TV Stick the normal one not the 4K, Lite or 4K MAX?
This is cool, but I wish they’d spend more time improving performance. My 2021 Toshiba 43″ is beginning to take a little over a minute to switch to ‘TV’ when i turn it on for example. It’s getting slower and slower, and storage isn’t even full.
More c*** to .jam up the already limited data on the fire stick.
I wish they would add a row of everything I have watched. Sometimes I accidentally remove it from my want to watch list. Then I have to go through everything and every Network to try to find it and I usually do not.
Just one simple row of anything I have ever watched would be great to see.
There is a row called Recently Watched on Fire TV Home. Is it missing your recently watched content?
Thanks for the info. It appears that this again just takes up space and your memory.