Amazon Working With Streamers Like Pluto TV, Sling TV, STARZ to Make Casting on Fire TV Devices Easier
Amazon announced its Matter Casting feature at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Amazon wants to expand the ability of users of its gadgets to cast content straight to their Fire TV devices. Appearing at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Amazon has announced that its Matter Casting feature is either available or coming to users of Amazon Fire TV and Echo Show 15 devices.
- Matter Casting is a new way to allow users to cast content from their phone to their Fire TV device.
- The feature is compatible with both Android and iOS devices.
- Matter Casting works with Prime Video content now, and Plex, Pluto TV, Sling TV, and STARZ support is coming soon.
What Is Matter Casting?
Matter Casting is the new screen casting feature that will allow customers with Echo Show 15 devices to cast Prime Video titles from their phone to their Echo seamlessly. Fire TV devices can already mirror content from Android mobile devices, but because they did not natively support Apple AirPlay, customers with iOS devices formerly had to rely on third-party apps to cast from their iPhone to their Fire TV player. Now, supported iOS devices can cast just like their Android counterparts.
“Amazon is a long-time supporter of using open technology standards to give customers more choice over the devices and services they use in their homes,” the company wrote in a blog post. “That’s also why Amazon is a founding member and key contributor to the Matter Standard. At CES, Amazon announced Matter Casting, which enables customers to cast content to Fire TV and Echo Show 15 devices directly from supported streaming apps on iOS and Android.”
At the moment, Matter Casting is only available for Echo Show 15 users who want to cast content from Prime Video onto their devices. However, Matter Casting will be available on compatible Fire TV devices in the coming months, including Panasonic smart TVs that use the Fire TV operating system. Plex, Pluto TV, Sling TV, and STARZ are all in talks with Amazon about bringing Matter Casting ability to their apps in the near future, as well.
“We are excited to work with Amazon to bring Matter Casting to the STARZ app,” STARZ executive Alison Hoffman said. “Matter has been easy to integrate and will provide even more options for customers to enjoy our extensive collection of original series and popular films on their device of choice.”
What Other Updates Has Fire TV Introduced Recently?
The Fire TV user interface has seen plenty of upgrades in the past few months. For example, the operating system now has a Continue Watching feature that works with select streaming apps to show users the title they were watching last and allow them to return to that title more quickly.
Amazon also introduced a feature to help customers improve performance and free up storage by automatically uninstalling apps which have gone unused for a long time. The company’s desire to upgrade its user interface on its streaming devices could be a sign that it’s trying to figure out what works best for users now ahead of the launch of a new Fire TV operating system that will be created by Amazon, as opposed to being based on the Android TV OS as the current Fire TV interface is.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.