Fire TV Distribution

Fire TV distribution reuses your Android build. Fire OS is Android-based, so the platform produces the same signed app bundle as the Android platform, using the same signing keystore and the same application ID — there is no separate signing setup.

The difference is publishing: the Amazon Appstore has no automated publishing API, so you download the build artifact and upload it yourself in the Amazon Developer Console.

Before starting, make sure you’ve completed the shared Prerequisites in App Configuration.

Caution

Fire OS devices only — not Vega OS.

Amazon has begun shipping a new operating system, Vega OS, on newer Fire TV hardware — starting with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and continuing on future Sticks. Vega is not Android-based and cannot run Android app bundles at all.

The build produced here targets Fire OS devices: Fire TV Stick 4K, 4K Max, Fire TV Cube, and Fire TV Edition televisions. These are not being migrated to Vega, so this build stays valid for them.

If you need to reach Vega devices, look into Amazon’s Cloud App Program, which streams an existing Fire OS app to Vega hardware without a code change. It requires an already-published Fire OS app and is available only to apps Amazon selects.

1. Create an Amazon Developer Account

Register at developer.amazon.com. Developer accounts are free — there is no registration fee.

2. Create Your App in the Amazon Developer Console

1. Go to the Amazon Developer Console

2. Click Add a new app and choose Android as the app type

3. Enter your app title and select the appropriate category

4. Save the draft — you’ll return to it in step 6 to upload your build

3. Set Your Application ID

Fire TV uses the same application ID as Android, because it ships the same signed bundle. You set it once, on the Android tab.

1. Open App Studio → Distribution → Android

2. Set the Application ID (for example com.yourcompany.yourapp) if you haven’t already

3. Return to the FireTV tab — the Application ID is shown there read-only, so you can confirm what will be built

Note

There is deliberately no separate Application ID field on the FireTV tab. Two independently editable values could drift apart, producing a bundle whose package name doesn’t match the keystore it was signed with.

4. Branding Assets

There are two separate sets of images, and it is worth being clear about which is which — they go to different places.

Assets the build uses

These live in App Studio → Distribution → FireTV. They are baked into the app itself — launcher icon, TV tile, splash screen.

Asset	Size	Transparency
Round logo	192 × 192	Required
App icon	512 × 512	Required
TV banner	1280 × 720	Not allowed
Splash logo	1800 × 1800	Required

Like every other platform, these are generated automatically from the App Logo Source you upload in App Configuration. Upload one here only if you want to override the generated version for Fire TV.

Caution

The 512 × 512 icon differs from Google Play’s. Amazon requires it to have a transparent background; Google Play rejects transparency on the same-sized asset. This is why Fire TV has its own asset slots rather than sharing the Android ones — reusing your Google Play icon here will fail Amazon’s asset check.

Assets the Amazon store listing needs

These are uploaded in the Amazon Developer Console, not in Vidori, because the Appstore has no publishing API. Amazon requires all of them:

Asset	Size	Format	Transparency
Small icon	114 × 114	PNG	Required
Large icon	512 × 512	PNG	Required
Fire TV app icon	1280 × 720	PNG	Not allowed
Background image	1920 × 1080	JPG or 24-bit PNG	Not allowed
Screenshots (3–10)	1920 × 1080	JPG or 24-bit PNG	Not allowed

Optional extras: a 1024 × 500 promotional image, a 640 × 260 featured-content logo, a 1920 × 720 featured-content background, and up to five videos.

The 512 × 512 and 1280 × 720 are the same images you can upload in Vidori, so you can reuse those files. The rest are listing-only.

Tip

Amazon applies a default creative treatment if the Fire TV assets are missing, so a submission will not be rejected outright for them — but the result is generic and worth avoiding. See Amazon’s Appstore details guide for the authoritative list.

5. Build

Click Build on the FireTV tab. The build runs the same pipeline as Android and produces a signed .aab bundle.

A build typically takes 20 minutes or more. The status banner shows a spinner while it runs.

Note

Fire TV builds are available on the Enterprise plan.

6. Upload to the Amazon Appstore

Unlike Google Play, the Amazon Appstore has no publishing API, so this step is manual.

1. When the build finishes, click Download Build in the status banner to get the .aab file

2. Go to your app in the Amazon Developer Console

3. Open the Upload your app file section and upload the .aab

4. Complete the store listing: description, category, and 3–10 screenshots, plus a 512 × 512 icon with transparency

5. Fill in the Privacy Labels and provide a link to your privacy policy

6. Submit for review

Tip

Amazon accepts both .aab and .apk. The Vidori build produces an .aab, which Amazon converts to optimised APKs on upload.

7. Set the Store URL

Once your app is live, paste its Amazon listing URL into the Store URL field on the FireTV tab (for example https://www.amazon.com/dp/<asin>). This is what Fire TV users are pointed at from within the app.

Caution

Do not paste a Google Play URL here. Fire OS devices cannot install from Google Play. If the Fire TV store URL is left blank the app falls back to the Android listing, which is the safer default but still the wrong store for these devices.

Memberships are not sold on Fire TV

The Fire TV build hides all pricing and purchase prompts. Users sign in to a membership they already have; they cannot buy one inside the Fire TV app.

This is deliberate. Amazon requires its own In-App Purchasing API for anything sold inside an app distributed through the Appstore, and Vidori has not yet integrated it. Until then the Fire TV build stays outside that requirement by not offering anything for sale.

What is unaffected:

• Anonymous browsing and free content play exactly as on other platforms
• Sign-in and sign-up still work (sign-up completes on your phone via a QR code)
• Existing members get full access to their entitled content

Every other platform is unchanged — pricing and purchase flows behave as before.

Passing Amazon’s review

Amazon tests every submission against its App Testing criteria. The points most often missed by TV apps:

• Remote navigation — the D-pad must move focus in the direction pressed, and the focused element must be clearly highlighted
• Back button — must step back through screens without trapping the user or force-closing the app
• Media keys — Fast Forward, Rewind and Play/Pause must behave as expected during playback
• No touch affordances — nothing in the UI should imply tapping
• Readable at 10 feet — designed for 1080p viewed from across a room
• Performance — sustained 25 fps or better, no crashes, exits within 2 seconds of pressing Home
• Playback pauses on HDMI disconnect

Tip

Supply test credentials with your submission. Amazon’s reviewers need an account that can reach your paid content — they cannot buy a membership inside the app. Without one, a catalogue that is mostly members-only will look broken to a reviewer. Check that some free content is reachable without signing in, too.

Troubleshooting

”The resulting pipeline would have been empty”

The build job for Fire TV is not present on the app repository’s default branch. This is a platform-side issue rather than something in your configuration — contact support.

The build fails with “Application ID is required”

Set the Application ID on the Android tab (see step 3). Fire TV inherits it, so an empty Android value blocks Fire TV builds too.

The build fails with “not a valid Android package name”

The Application ID must be dot-separated segments, each starting with a letter — for example com.example.myapp. Fix it on the Android tab.

My app doesn’t appear on a new Fire TV Stick

Newer Fire TV Sticks run Vega OS, which cannot run this build. See the note at the top of this page.