Peacock, the new streaming service from NBC, is not yet available in the official Amazon Appstore. That’s a shame because, while the service has a paid premium subscription, there is actually quite a bit of free content available. Thankfully, sideloading the official app works fine on Fire TVs, so here is a quick guide on how to install Peacock on any Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, or Fire TV Edition television.
- Install the Downloader app, available from the Amazon Appstore, onto your Fire TV.
- Enable Apps from Unknown Sources by navigating to Settings > My Fire TV > Developer Options.
- Launch Downloader and enter
bit.ly/firepck into the URL field. If this is your first time using Downloader, I suggest you follow this more detailed sideloading guide.
- When the browser loads, click the big green download button and follow the prompts to install the Peacock app. If you have any trouble or run into errors, use the more detailed sideloading guide.
- Once the app is installed, you’ll find it at the end of your apps list. You can get to the app grid page on your Fire TV by holding down the Home button for a few seconds and then selecting “Apps.” The app is a bit buggy, so after you launch it and login/signup, you may need to force quit the app or restart your Fire TV for video to play correctly.
@AFTVnews
FYI: When I first tried to play something, I only heard audio but didn’t see any video. After force quitting the app once, under Settings > Applications > Manage Installed Applications, video started working fine.
Thank you! I had that problem too but your trick fixed it
That happened to me, too. Going to settings and choosing force top under Peacock app, the picture appeared.
Still, no close captioning! So far it doesn’t work.
Actually I found CC did work with Brave New World. Why not news?
In the Player in the bottom left corner is the text symbol. Click it and it will give you CC options.
Yes thank you for sharing that trick as that helped me too. Much appreciate all this information :-)
can not get it to work, I at first got the sound and no video, tried your trick of forced shut down, that did not work. Now all I can do is get Peacock homepage, browse, select a show, to watch and it does not open, just replays the option to open and watch it, push Watch now, and screen goes blank for a minute and then back to same thing, Option to watch it. Any suggestions? I also did a Restart of the Firestik from apps, but have not unplugged it, could that reset it, ??
Have you monitored the traffic from the device since installing Peacock? I recall some video apps (I think Sling) causing issues for other apps because it seemed to be sampling the video periodically even when it wasn’t in the foreground.
When I try to download it just sends me to a covid news feed.
If it does that, press the back button and wait for the download to start. Unfortunately, it’s an ad on that file host site that is redirecting you. Pressing back should take you back to the file host site. I’m going to try to detect and prevent this in the next Downloader update.
Hi, yeah I’m getting the same thing. Then when i hit the back button i get a status error.
In the past Android TV users had to search for Fire TV apks for installation and most cases they didn’t work because of Fire TV specific libraries.
Times are changing it seems.
How so? Fire TV users, as always, can sideload Android TV apps. Android TV users as always, can’t sideload Fire OS apps. Apple TV+ is a good example of that.
I am talking about now Android TV getting apps first and not Fire TV.
First? Here you have Peacock, same day on both. What about Apple TV+ app? Android TV has less than 10% of the American market, versus 70% of Roku and Amazon, Android TV is just an afterthought for developers.
There’s no Peacock nor HBO Max app on Amazon Appstore.
What’s available is not official and may stop working at anytime.
You mean officially, yes that may be so. Reality is a bit different, the same day the apps are released for Android TV, they are available for Fire TV devices, while the opposite doesn’t happen. All this months later and no sign of Apple TV+ ever being available for Android TV. Which is not surprising due to the irrelevance of Android TV on the tv box streaming market.
Android TV apps won’t work on Fire TV devices if they require Google Play Services.
I know of Android apps that need Google Play Services. Can’t remember any Android TV app that does.
using the url that is on here and following all other steps, I get An unknown error has occurred. CHeck your URL and connection
Add an s to the end of the http in the bit dot ly link that is posted in the screenshot.
I installed on my MiBox within minutes of availability on the Google Play Store. NBC has publicly stated that all android users will receive Peacock Premium Free for 3 months which I got. I wonder if logging into the same account on FTV will this offer extend to the Amazon OS as well?
I will install on my FTV tonight to test.
***UPDATE 7/16/20***
Cannot get app to play video on FTV 1st Gen. Tried all the tricks , clear cache , force stop, restart…no go.
Oh well that’s why I use a combo of FTV and Android TV in my home. (works quite well on MiBox)
Agreed , same problem , it loads fine , but when u play show it returns back to main menu.
Same here
same here
I have experienced the same issue on a 1st Gen. FTV. Works fine on my FTV stick 4K. If anyone finds a solution, please post.
Turn your VPN off. Doesn’t work with one. Please tell again why I just subscribed to one?
doesnt seem to work on my gen2 firestick.
I was able to install the app but I can’t get it to work right. It starts to play and then immediately freezes. I’ve tried restarting the Firestick and doing the force stop for the app. Anything I’m missing?
I had already installed on my Shield TV in the family room, and entered the code to get the 3 free months. The Fire TV install in my home office went quickly thanks to your help Elias. I’ll be doing this on the other other Fire TVs we have.
Doesn’t work with vpn blocked by the app
Same problem but I just changed my location and it works great now.
Thanks so much!!!! It worked great. Exactly like you said, force stopping and all lol.
install was very easy. Just a heads up, it does NOT like a VPN so you need to turn it off to use
Doesn’t work in my are, i.e. UK, nor does it work with a VPN.
Doesn’t work in the UK or with a VPN.
This installs it, but as with other sideloaded apps (such as HBO max) it’s not integrated, and searching for content in Fire won’t find anything in Peacock. So you need to poke around in Peacock if you can’t find something elsewhere, and want to guess that it might be on Peacock.
It will be a big pita if you have to search each app separately to find a specific program or movie. Amazon needs native support.
Isn’t it on JustWatch or Reelgood?
installed, launched, added credentials, tried to play, only audio, force stopped from settings, relaunched, it plays fine. thanks Elias!
I was able to snag a year of this for 30 bucks on the 14th so glad I can use it on the firestick.
After looking thru my VPN, I found a way to make it work without having to turn it off. In IPVanish there is a “Scramble” option in settings. You may find something similar in your VPN.
I checked this and now it will play even with VPN on!!
I installed this per the directions, and it works exactly as advertised — many thanks! I did have one problem initially: the audio was garbled and unintelligible. However, I simply quit and restarted the app, and it’s worked perfectly since.
First, I could only find the Downloader app by using the audio button, and saying, “Open the downloader app.”
After figuring out how to allow the download itself, it loaded.
And… it works perfectly! (so far)
immediately crashes on 1st gen rbox’s Prerooted image (black screen -> back to FTV menu)
I installed the app and said it was installed but when I go to my apps it’s not there.
Hello,
It works like the article says. I had to force close the first time for it to work. I am using it on the Fire Cube.