One of the beauties of the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick being Android based products, is they get to take advantage of the vast Android ecosystem of apps and accessories. One of those accessories that was just released is Flic, a small coin sized button that connects to an Android device and can be programmed to execute any number of actions. Each Flic button can be setup to carry out 3 actions: one when it’s clicked, one when it’s double clicked, and one when it’s held down. Flic works perfectly with the Fire TV and can make doing things like launching apps quick and easy.
The Flic app is not designed for the Fire TV, so you’ll need a mouse/touchpad to use it, but apart from that, it works surprisingly well with the Fire TV. You can download it from here and sideload it onto your device.
The simplest task for the Flic button is to launch an app. With the three types of presses, you can launch 3 different apps with one Flic button. This allows you to launch any app, even sideloaded ones like Kodi or FireStarter, from anywhere in the Fire TV interface. You could be playing a game, for example, and instantly switch to Kodi, FireStarter, Netflix, or any other app with the push of a button. Flic also integrates with IFTTT, Logitech Harmony remotes, Philips lights, and many other services to perform countless actions.
Here’s how to setup Flic to launch an app on the Fire TV:
- Sideload the Flic app on your Fire TV. You can download it from here.
- Launch the Flic app and sign up or sign in to your Flic account. You can change the app to landscape view within its settings if you’d like, but it’s unnecessary.
- On the app home screen, press the “+” button in the lower right to connect your Flic button.
- Press the Flic button once and wait for it to connect to your Fire TV.
- Once the Flic button is connected, click the icon on screen to begin programming it.
- Click the “+” symbol next to the function you want to program.
- Select “Launch Application” from the list of actions.
- Select the app you want to launch when the Flic button is pressed.
- That’s it. Pressing your Flic button will now launch the app you selected. You can now assign the other button functions if you’d like.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Bluetooth accessory or does it use network? Is it RF with a custom hub?
Cool article, thanks for scanning the horizon and seeing what fits with the f-t-“verse”.
Firetv.reddit.com
[Thought it was a FLIRC related product for a moment.]
It’s bluetooth. No hub. Just the button. You don’t even need to pair it with the Fire TV as a bluetooth device. Just launch the Flic app and it finds the device.
So they basically reverse engendered the Amazon Dash button?
Rather than spend $34 on this, why not just buy a $5 Dash button, and use one of the many hacks easily found online?
Nice tip, but on my AFT1 the Flic app won’t find my Flic device :(
$34 pfft…Almost the price of a Fire Stick. FireStarter is the BEST and it’s FREE.
My question is, why? Firestarter does that for free, no other app, no mouse pad, no extra clunky button.
I have it setup to launch Amazon home when pressing the home button once on the remote,and launching Firestarter if pressing the home button twice, and from there any sideloaded app. You can have it setup to launch any combination you want if pushing the home button once or twice. You can also have it boot to whatever app you want, like Kodi for example. It seems some are trying to RE-invent the wheel…I can’t see the advantage.
I agree there’s little reason to use a Flic button with the Fire TV. One scenario I can see it being useful is for tech-illiterate people. By pressing one big button, you can launch right into Netflix/Kodi/whatever app you want. Even the most non-techie can’t mess that up.
You can also use the Fire TV as a “hub” to make the button turn on/off lights for example, instead of using a phone. That way the button will always work since the Fire TV never leaves the living room.
When you talk about the tech-illiterate ones, must be referring to my wife!I thought her, and my father in law(the guy that always calls me on the phone,to connect through TeamViewer, and “fix” his laptop!).I taught both of them how to use FireStarter to launch Kodi and any other app on the FTV.
I can see having “other” uses, but strictly to control a FTV device, I don’t think it would be a wise investment, even for non techies.
Logitech Harmony integration means, you can use the flic app without the button? How to do that?
Have you heard of the mouse app “mouse toggle for fire tv” you press the play/pause button twice and you can then use the remote as a mouse it’s super convenient.
Still I’m unable to connect Flic with my AFTV1 :(.