How to get any Android app on your Amazon Fire HD tablet, plus 8 other tips

Amazon Fire HD Tablets: Advanced Tips and Tips for Unlocking

Amazon Fire HD tablets are known for their affordable, simple and easy to use, and durable, making them ideal for watching movies, browsing the web and playing some light games. But what you may not know is that these devices also have some more advanced tips and tricks to help you make the most of them.

1. Transform tablet into Echo Show

Fire HD tablets have built-in Alexa, which is the expected feature of Amazon devices, but you can enable a special Show mode to turn the tablet into something more like the Echo Show.

If you haven't seen the Echo Show smart display, they are smart speakers with screens. Alexa can use these screens to display weather forecasts, news reports, video streams of Ring security cameras, and more.

To get this full-screen Alexa experience on Fire HD, swipe down from the top and click the Show Mode toggle switch, or "Alexa, switch to Show Mode".

2. Sideload Android app

Fire HD tablet runs Fire OS, which is based on Android but not entirely Android. This means you cannot access the Google Play Store, so there are fewer apps and games to choose from.

Sideloading (the process of installing apps that are not available in the Amazon App Store) can install almost any Android app on your device. But it is important to note that not all apps work perfectly, because they are designed for Android rather than Fire OS.

[Related: How to Sideload Android Apps and Why Do It]

To enable sideloading, click Settings on the home screen, and select Security & Privacy and Apps from unknown sources . Click Silk browser (or any other browser you have installed), and turn on Allow from this source toggle.

When sideloading the app, you must be careful that you can only install APK (app package file) from a secure source. APKMirror is a well-known and reputable resource library, so open the website in your browser, find the app you want, and download the APK file to install it.

3. Access Gmail and YouTube

Even with sideloading, you may still encounter issues with Google apps that rely on certain Android code that Fire OS does not have. Gmail and YouTube may be the two biggest missing items on Fire HD tablets, but there are some workarounds.

You can open YouTube and Gmail in Silk browser or any other browser you install. The experience is not as good as native apps, but you can log in to access all your videos and emails and you can save these sites as bookmarks for easier access to them (click on the three dots in the upper right corner and click Silk bookmark ) in the browser.

The built-in email app in Fire OS gives you another way to access Gmail messages (no Gmail interface required). You can add Gmail as one of your email accounts using the settings here.

4. Run the application side by side

If you choose one of the latest generation of Amazon tablets—we refer to the 11th-generation Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 10 Plus that will be launched in 2021—you can run two apps side by side. For example, this is very convenient when you want to take notes while reading content on web pages.

To split the screen, click the Task Switcher button on the bottom navigation bar - it is located on the square button to the right of the home button. The app you recently used will first appear, if you click on the app icon at the top and then click Split Screen, you can select another app to display side by side with it.

5. Send documents to Fire HD tablet

There are many ways to send documents to a Fire HD tablet, but you may not know that the device supports the same "send to Kindle" feature as Amazon e-readers. This is one of the easiest ways to send files to your tablet.

There are several options to use Send to Kindle, which are listed here, including browser extensions and desktop apps. We like the Email Address Method – Find your personal Kindle email address via this page and any document sent to that address will appear on your Fire HD tablet.

[Related: Your e-reader can display more than just books]

No matter which "send to Kindle" method you use, you can click on the utility , files , documents and Send to Kindle to view all sent content.

Make your tablet safe for children

Amazon has made Fire HD tablets specifically for kids, with large colored cases and one-year subscription to Amazon Kids Plus services, but you can still let your kids use your regular Amazon tablet without worrying about it what are they doing.

Select

Settings from the home screen, and then click Parent Controls . There, you can control which apps can run, how long you can use your tablet, and whether new apps can be installed.

If you're just giving your tablet a few minutes, adjusting these simple switch settings is enough, but you can add a child profile to your tablet for a more comprehensive setup. This will allow you to set an age filter for content and block specific websites - click

Family Profile under Parental Control to do this.

Protect your eyes

You don't want your eyes to be overly tired from staring at your Fire HD tablet, and the device offers you a variety of ways to prevent this. If you open Set from the home screen and then tap to display , you can turn on Adaptive Brightness so that the screen brightness changes according to the ambient light.

On the same display page, you can click blue shadow - This function reduces the amount of blue light emitted by the screen and reduces the intensity of glare. You can make manual adjustments or set up a daily change schedule.

Under > Display , you will also find the Font Size . If you have trouble reading what is on the screen, increase the text size so it's easier to view (the changes you make here will apply to all apps on your tablet).

8. Get more storage space

Don't ignore the built-in microSD card slot in every Fire HD tablet. If you have a lot of apps, movies, music and photos to store, adding a memory card can give you more storage space – search for “fire tablet memory card” on Amazon to find compatible models.

Open the Settings from the home screen, click Storage, and then click Internal Storage to view content that takes up a lot of space on your tablet. If you click on Apps and Games and then click on a specific app, you will have the option to move it to your microSD card.

[Related: How to Choose the Right Memory Card]

There is also a

FileApp on the home screen, which you can use to move files (such as documents or videos) to a memory card inserted into the tablet or to move files from the memory card.

Search screenshots on Fire HD tablets

Need to show off your high score? Trying to grab pictures from the internet? Instruct relatives to troubleshoot? Screenshots are useful for these and many other scenarios, and taking screenshots on these tablets is not difficult: Press and hold the

Volume Down and Power buttons until the screen flashes. There is a dedicated Screenshot folder in the Pictures folder on the tablet.

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