Forem: Moses Roth

5 cool things from CES for Amazon Developers (plus 4 more!)

Moses Roth — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:23:36 +0000

CES is one of the biggest electronics shows in the world, and this year I got to go for the first time. The 2025 show just wrapped up and if you were there and stopped by Amazon’s showcase, you might have seen me or even chatted with me about Fire TV.

The show is huge. If you spent all week just checking out as many booths as you could, you still wouldn’t see everything.

So whether you were able to attend or not, here are 5 highlights for Amazon Developers (and a few other cool things too):

AI-enhanced voice search on Fire TV with Alexa

Amazon was demoing the new AI-enhanced search on Fire TV with Alexa, which will help you find a show or movie, even if you don't remember the title or don't know exactly what you want to watch.

You can try it now on your Fire TV at home, it’s already live! Here are some examples you might try:

“TV show about dragons”

“Tom Cruise sci-fi action movie”

“Movie where they say ‘life is like a box of chocolates’”

Try it out and see if you get the results you expect. I bet you’ll be impressed.

This is great news for developers, because it means customers can now find your content a lot more easily. As long as your show or movie is integrated in the Amazon catalog, it will appear in the search results.

Cars with Alexa and Fire TV integrated

Amazon is working on integrating Fire TV, AWS, and Alexa into cars and we had the Acura ZDX and the BMW X3 M50 on display. I got the chance to try it out by sitting in the car and giving Alexa commands.

Be sure to target Automotive devices, so that cars with Fire TV will be able to run your app.

Echo Show 15 and 21

One cool thing about the new, bigger Echo Shows is that they are like mini-Fire TVs. They come with a Fire TV remote and customers can play Fire TV apps and channels on them.

Don’t forget to target these devices, so you can reach a whole new audience with your app!

Fire TV 85" Omni Mini-LED and Soundbar Plus with surround sound

One of the most fun demos we did was Amazon’s 85“ Fire TV and Soundbar Plus with subwoofer and surround sound speakers. We took people into a soundproof room and played The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for them so they could feel the Dolby Atmos. Make sure your content is set up to take advantage of it, because it sounds awesome, and it will bring a whole new level of performance to your app.

AI-generated images on Fire TV

We were also showing off Fire TV’s new ability to create AI-generated images. You can try it right now on your own device. Just use your remote to say, “Alexa, generate an image of dogs jumping on the moon” or I’m sure you’ll come up with some ideas more creative than me!

4 other things...

Obviously, it wasn’t just Amazon at the show, so here are 4 other cool things I saw at CES that impressed me.

Delorean

Clarios somehow managed to get a Delorean from Back to the Future to the show. Pretty cool.

Boring Company/Tesla loop

CES is huge. To get around the 3 parts of the Las Vegas Convention Center, they offered free rides in Teslas through Boring Company tunnels. Very cool.

Holograms

Hypervsn was showing off this crazy 20 foot tall hologram. The photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but it was impressive.

Zoox robotaxis

Okay, this one is technically part of Amazon, but I had to mention it too. Zoox is currently testing its automated taxis in Las Vegas, and they were offering demo rides for those lucky enough to get one.

That was my CES experience and I’m super glad I got the chance to go. Let me know if there was anything you loved at CES that I missed, and hopefully I’ll see you there next year!

Testing the startup time for your Fire OS app

Moses Roth — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:53:47 +0000

The first time you start up an app is like the first time you meet someone. Is it love at first sight? Or do they have a stain on their shirt and bad body odor? It’s the same with an app, does it start up quickly and smoothly? Or does it have long loading times and crash? Your customers will expect your app to be fast and responsive, and the best way to demonstrate that is with a quick startup, so that your app always makes a good first impression.

The FireOS Performance Test will help you measure First Frame (Time to Initial Display) to test how fast your app will get up and running.

Set up

To get started you’ll need to:

Install Java 8 or above
Install Java Development Kit 17 or higher
Install Android Studio (with Android SDK (API Level 34))
Install Maven
- Hint: The instructions on Maven’s website can be a bit confounding, so:
  - If you’re on a Mac, use Homebrew to install it by running brew install maven in the terminal
  - If you’re on Windows, check out this blog post
Set up ADB
- Hint: If you’re on a Mac, this blog can help with the command not found: adb error

Install

Once you’ve done that, you can install the performance tester with these steps:

Clone the performance tester repository by running this command in the terminal:
```
git clone https://github.com/amazonappdev/fireos-perf-testing.git
```
Navigate to the project directory:
```
cd fireos-perf-testing
```
Build the project and create the JAR:
```
mvn clean install
```

Run the test

You can then run the test with the following steps:

Locate the ZIP file FOSTTIDPerfTesting-distribution.zip file in the 'jar' folder
Unzip it
Navigate to FOSTTIDPerfTesting-distribution > Input > APK folder
Copy the APK file you want to test into the APK folder
Rename the APK file Input.apk
In the terminal, navigate to the new FOSTTIDPerfTesting-distribution folder
```
`cd FOSTTIDPerfTesting-distribution`
```
Decide which kind of test you want to do:
- cool
- warm
- latency (which does both cool and warm tests)
Plug your device in to your computer (if you haven’t already) and select "Allow USB Debugging" (if you haven’t already)
- Be sure that ADB has been set up correctly
Get your device serial number (if you don’t already have it on hand) by running
```
`adb devices`
```

Run the test with this command:

java -jar PerformanceKpi-jar.jar <Test Type> <Device Serial Number)>

If you decide to go with the full latency command, it should look something like this:

java -jar PerformanceKpi-jar.jar latency GCC2DM000000000S

The full latency test can take about an hour to run, so be patient!
You’ll find the test results in a folder called test-output in the FOSTTIDPerfTesting-distribution folder.

That’s all there is to it!

For more details, check out the github repo for the FireOS Performance Test. And if you want to dig even deeper into tests you can do on your app, check out the App Health Insights Dashboard, where you can test app latency, memory use, fluidity, and stability.

If you have any questions or feedback, join us in the the Amazon Appstore Community Space and let us know.

Retention Offers for Amazon Apps

Moses Roth — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 15:51:24 +0000

Developers who have released an app on Amazon Fire TV and tablets now have the option to set up Retention Offers, which offer limited-time discounts to customers who are considering unsubscribing.

The campaign configuration is simple and only takes a few minutes to set up. See the Retention Offers technical documentation for more information or visit the Promotions dashboard in the Developer Console to start setting up a Retention Offer for your app.

4 tips to update your Amazon Developer account

Moses Roth — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 16:19:43 +0000

You’re an app developer and you want to spend your time developing apps, not managing your account. That said, sometimes a little account maintenance is necessary. Maybe you need to update your name or add some new users. The good news is we’ve just added some new features to make updating your account easier and completely self-serve!

Here are four tips to make updating your Amazon Developer account as simple as possible:

1. How to update your developer name

What if you’re regretting that name you thought was cool last week, but now feels outdated, boring, or maybe a little embarrassing? As we discussed recently, having a great name is crucial to your app’s success. It’s the way customers will know who you are, learn to trust you, and find all your apps. It helps your customers easily find and recognize you and your apps.

So if you want to change your name, do you need to close your account and open a new one? No you do not! You can update it right from the Developer Console.

Updating your account name just became a whole lot easier. It’s now self-serve:

The owner of the account can sign in to the Developer Console.
On the top navigation bar, select Settings.
Select Company Profile in the sub-navigation bar.
Click Edit.
In the Developer name or company name field, enter the new company name.
Click Save.

2. How to add new users

Did somebody new join your company? Are you bringing on new collaborators for app development, marketing, or accounting? Giving them their own login can help streamline collaboration and make managing a team more efficient.

Any administrator can add a new user like this:

Sign in to the Developer Console.
Go to Settings > User Permissions.
Click Add New.
Type the user's email address and select their role.
After you finish adding users and configuring roles, click Save.

After you add a user, the Developer Console sends an email invitation to them, which they just need to accept.

3. What are user roles?

Speaking of administrators and roles, what are those?

There are four roles that each user on a company’s developer account can have — Administrator, Marketer, Developer, and Analyst — and each role has its own set of permissions.

Administrator: This role grants complete access to all sections of the developer account, including reporting and payment information. Most importantly, any account administrator has the ability to manage user permissions, including inviting or removing users from the account.
Developer: Outside of an Administrator, this is the only role that gives users the ability submit and adjust application files.
Marketer: Outside of an Administrator, this is the only role that gives users the ability to edit the content associated with apps (for example, descriptions and images) and IAPs. Like the Analyst, this role also gives access to sales reports.
Analyst: Outside of an Administrator, this is the only role that gives users the ability to view earnings reports. Like the Marketer, this role also gives users access to sales reports.

4. How to transfer ownership of your account

What if you’ve sold your company (congratulations!), or you’re moving a new role at your company, or you’re changing email addresses?

Do you need to create a new account? No you do not!

You just need to update the account owner and, just like updating your developer name, this experience is now self-serve. This ensures continuity in account management without the risk of lost customers, data, or payments, which can come with closing an account, opening a new one, or transferring an app.

The account owner is the only user on your Amazon Developer account that cannot be removed by another account administrator and it is the only user that can close the account. Every Amazon Developer account will have a single account owner. By default, this is the user that created the account.

To change the owner of the developer account, you must currently be the owner. You can only transfer ownership to another account administrator.

Just follow these steps:

Sign in to the Developer Console.
On the top navigation bar, select Settings.
Select the User Permissions in the sub-navigation bar.
Next to an administrative user, click Change ownership.
To assign a new owner, select the radio button next to a user, then click Save.

That’s just a few of the tips we’ve put together about updating your Amazon Developer account. To see the rest, go to our Amazon Developer community space and check out the appstore-account topic, which we’ve added to all our related articles.

If you have any account-related issues or question, be sure to let us know!

Related resources

My visit to Chain React 2024 (and some tips for going to conferences)

Moses Roth — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 21:25:00 +0000

My visit to Chain React 2024

I got the chance to go to Chain React for the first time this year, an annual React Native conference in Portland, Oregon. I’m a developer evangelist for Amazon Apps and Devices and it was exciting to check it out and let the dev community know that we are doubling down on RN support for Amazon devices.

The agenda featured React Native workshops and talks from devs like Meta, Microsoft, and Shopify and it was great to meet and learn from them. For those who didn’t get to go and are curious about it, or if you were there and you want to hear my perspective, here are 7 things I got to do:

1. React Native Workshop

Justin Poliachik leading the React Native Essentials workshop

I participated in the React Native Essentials workshop, where we went step-by-step building a multi-screen mobile app. Check out the github repo if you want to try it out for yourself. I also got some of my other teammates to share the githubs repos for the Intermediate and Master Native Code workshops.

Two hints for anyone thinking about attending a workshop:

Check out the repo beforehand and get your environment fully set up, it’s really easy to waste an hour or two just getting set up when you arrive.
Even if you do the beginner course, it’s never really beginner, they’re more like halfway between beginner and intermediate, so do an online course before attending. I really love CodeAcademy’s Learn React and Learn React Native, and they are not paying me to say that. I like them because they are interactive, whereas a lot of the courses you find online are more instructional (i.e. they give you an article or video and then tell you to do it yourself), and the interactive style makes it much easier to retain information (much like a workshop).

2. Some great talks

My teammate Eric Fahsl giving his talk on how to Build a React Native App for TV in 15 minutes

There were a bunch of other good talks, in addition to the one by Eric. The recordings are coming soon, right Infinite Red? Bug them, not me. I’ll update this post with some links once they go live.

Update: The recordings are now live!

If you’re interested in building a React Native app for TV, here’s a guide to help you get a Hello World app up and running in just a few minutes and a github repo React Native Multi-TV App Sample, both of which Eric used in his talk.

I also thought Chiara Mooney from Microsoft’s talk was great:

3. Product demos, including VR headsets

Meta demonstrating their Quest 3 headsets and my teammate Oscar Padilla checking out Sentry’s Session Replay demo

One of the coolest parts of these conferences is getting to play with toys like Meta’s Quest 3 headset and Apple’s Vision Pro (which Callstack had for demo). It was my first time playing Horizon Worlds on Meta’s headset, which was super fun, although it did make me a little dizzy. We’re not quite at Snow Crash level yet (maybe that's a good thing), but it’s closer than I thought.

Like Oscar (see the pic above), I also thought Sentry’s Session Replay was pretty cool. It lets you see video of what a user was doing when they encountered a bug or error, which is super helpful. Again, I promise they are not paying for this plug. Here's the video of their talk:

4. React Native panel

The React Native Panel and my boss Chris Traganos saying something unbelievably profound and brilliant

Another perk of going to a conference like this is to see a panel with reps from Meta, Microsoft, Expo, Infinite Red, and of course Amazon. We’re waiting for Infinite Red to post this one too, and I’ll update when they do.

Update: The recording is now live!

5. Chat with some other devs at the booths and around the conference

My teammates talking with the the Software Mansion and Callstack teams

One of the best parts of going to a conference in person the chance to meet and chat with other devs. That’s the main reason to get out of your chair and not just watch the talks online. You never know who you might bump into or what opportunities might come out of it.

It was great seeing Ada Gawrysiak and Michał Chudziak from Callstack again, after meeting the Callstack team at React Conf a few months ago, and meeting Paulina Macuga and Magdalena Retman-Rakoczy from Software Mansion.

A lot of people are there looking for work and it can be a great opportunity to talk to hiring managers and make an impression, so you’re not just another name in a stack of applications. Hit me up on LinkedIn if you want to connect or chat.

6. Parties!

My teammates around the Amazon after-party

Somehow during a two-day conference they managed to put on three parties, don’t ask me how. There was the Thursday after-party (put on by us) and then the after-after-party and then another after-party on Friday.

7. Practice my photography skills

My teammates managed to sneak a couple of photos of me grabbing photos

I used Chain React as a chance to work on my personal hobby, photography. Of course there were official photographers around and everyone was grabbing photos with their phones, but for me, I love the chance to use my DSLR. It helps me get versatile with my photos, including the zoom length, depth of field, and aperture size.

Of course, that’s just my hobby. You have your own things you're interested in and passionate about, but you never know what opportunities are available to do something a little unique and cool at a conference.

ASO 101: App store optimization for Amazon Developers

Moses Roth — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 18:26:39 +0000

This may not be an exact quote from Field of Dreams, but it’s true.

There are literally millions of apps out there, so how can you make your app stand out? Especially if (like most of us) you don’t have millions (or even thousands) of dollars to spend on advertising.

Welcome to ASO! ASO stands for App Store Optimization and it means optimizing your app to improve its visibility and ranking in search results.

So let’s get into how you can apply ASO to your app, especially if you develop for Amazon devices.

Part 1: Getting ready to submit your app

Developer name

Before we even get to your app, let’s back up and talk about your company name. It’s not just your app title and keywords that are indexed in search, your developer name is too. So don’t just pick the first thing that comes to mind.

Try to come up with something unique, creative, and appealing. Think Mojang (Minecraft), ConcernedApe (Stardew Valley), or InnerSloth (Among Us). Take a look at list of the biggest indie games of all time. Notice that none of them are from companies called Super Best Free Games, although you’ll find thousands of developers with names just like that. It might seem like using those keywords in your name is a good idea, but it means you and your app will be unmemorable, generic, and you’ll drown in a sea of similar names. Just be sure to avoid breaking policy with IP infringement or other violations.

If you already signed up for an Amazon Developer account and you’re regretting the name you chose, don’t worry! You do not need to open a new account, just follow the guide to update it.

New App Submission

To get started submitting your app, go to the Amazon Developer Console and click “Add a New App”.

App title

Your app’s title is the first impression customers will have. It should be appealing, descriptive, and unique. If it’s a common word or phrase, it will get buried in thousands of search results.

Netflix tells you exactly what it is in a simple word combination. So does Minecraft. So does YouTube. Netflix and YouTube were small startups when they began. Minecraft was the work of an independent developer, and if it had been called something boring like Block Builder, I don’t think it would have gotten very far.

I recommend checking out Google’s guide to influencing your title links in search results.

Categories	Best Sellers	Avg. Cust Reviews
Books & Comics	🏆	⭐️
Business	🏆	⭐️
Communication	🏆	⭐️
Customization	🏆	⭐️
Education	🏆	⭐️
Finance	🏆	⭐️
Food & Drink	🏆	⭐️
Games	🏆	⭐️
Health & Fitness	🏆	⭐️
Kids	🏆	⭐️
Lifestyle	🏆	⭐️
Local	🏆	⭐️
Magazines	🏆	⭐️
Medical	🏆	⭐️
Movies & TV	🏆	⭐️
Music & Audio	🏆	⭐️
News	🏆	⭐️
Novelty	🏆	⭐️
Photo & Video	🏆	⭐️
Productivity	🏆	⭐️
Reference	🏆	⭐️
Shopping	🏆	⭐️
Social	🏆	⭐️
Sports	🏆	⭐️
Transportation	🏆	⭐️
Travel	🏆	⭐️
Utilities	🏆	⭐️
Weather	🏆	⭐️

Target audience

If you want your app to be available for all ages, or it’s aimed at children, make sure you read and follow the child-directed app policy, or it may be restricted. If you’ve made an app aimed at kids but haven’t followed policy, it won’t matter how good your ASO is, because it won’t be available for them.

Content rating

Review the Amazon Appstore Content Policy and take an extra look at the Listing and Promotion Policy, which is especially relevant for ASO. That guide will help you make sure your metadata is compliant, so it will be visible to as many people as possible.

For the User Data Privacy, select just the labels your app needs, so you build customer trust.

It may be tempting to rush through these sections and select all or nothing, but that can cause delays, violations, and ultimately hurt searchability and word-of-mouth.

From there, we move on to Step 3: Appstore Details. Choose the right price for your app and then...

Display title

The display title is the title that will appear to customers. By default it’s the same as the app title, but if you want to have a different internal title for your company, you can set the app title as your internal title, and the display title as your external title. So the display title is the one that’s important for ASO.

Descriptions and feature bullets

Keep your descriptions snappy and, of course, descriptive. Even if your app pops up in search results, if the description is confusing or unappealing, the customer won’t download it and it won’t matter. Same thing with the bullets. These can be indexed in search results and LLMs outside of Amazon too.

Keywords

Keywords are optional, but take the option and use them! They are indexed by Amazon’s search algorithm and are super helpful for customers trying to find an app.

Try to imagine the search experience from a customer’s perspective. If you were searching for a great planner app, how would you do that? I’d type “planner app” into the search bar and then pick the one with the best ratings and reviews. I think that’s what most people would do. So if your planner app is called To Do List, make sure you put “planner” in the keywords, so it will be indexed for that search term as well.

App metadata details	Required?	Max length	Description
Display title	Required	200 chars	The title of your app, shown to customers in the Appstore
Long description	Required	4000 chars	A lengthier description of your app, for the Appstore website.
Short description	Required	1200 chars	A brief description of your app, shown on mobile devices.
Product feature bullets	Required	10 lines	Up to 10 key features of your app, one feature per line. These features will appear on the Appstore website, formatted as a bulleted list.
Add keywords (optional)	Optional		Search terms used to increase the discoverability of your app, Use a comma or white space to separate your terms.

Localization

If you're listing your app in multiple locations where they speak other languages, I recommend adding localized descriptions. Portuguese customers are probably not going to be searching for apps using English keywords, they'll use Portuguese. You can even add different display titles for different locations! Check out the guide to Distribute Your App Internationally for more info.

Images and videos

While having good images and videos doesn’t directly influence search results, it of course indirectly influences them. The better your pictures are, the more people will download your app, and the higher your app will rank in search results. Who’s going to download an app with low quality images? They’re going to assume the app is low quality as well.

All apps need to submit tablet assets (including square icons) but only Fire TV apps need to submit Fire TV assets (including 16:9 images). If you have a Fire TV app, you may be tempted to dash off some low quality tablet icons, but these are how customers will see your app on the Amazon website, so make sure these are high quality as well.

From here you can move on to Step 4: Review and Submit. Once you’ve submitted your app, it’s been reviewed, and gone live, you may be tempted to lean back, celebrate, and call it a job well done. And you should! But once you’re done celebrating, there’s a lot more work to be done, so let’s get to it.

Part 2: Your app is live, now what?

What else can you do to make your app the hit it deserves to be?

The customer search experience

What’s it like for a customer searching for an app?

On Fire tablets, customers might search for your app in the universal search bar at the top of the screen or they might search directly in the Amazon Appstore. Check out this video with examples of both kinds of search.

youtube.com

On Fire TV, they might search by typing in the title or they might use Alexa Voice Search.

They’re not always going to take the recommended approach. Customers who aren’t technically savvy are just as valuable as ones who are.

Try searching for your app with as many different approaches as you can. Does your app rank higher on one list than the other? Think about why that might be and work on making your app more searchable on all platforms.

Don’t assume that your app will maintain its ranking. Algorithms change and customers’ tastes change. You should always be working on improving your app and the same goes for the images, keywords, etc.

Ratings & reviews

Monitor the ratings & reviews your app receives. A lot of people want to argue with any negative reviews they receive. But the reviewer is just giving their honest feedback; it doesn’t matter if it’s not fair or not your fault. Think about what you can do to improve their experience! Everyone gets bad reviews now and then, the important thing is how you learn from them.

Ads & promotion

If you have a Fire TV app, you might consider promoting your app with the Fire TV Self-Service Advertising console. It’s easy for a new app to get lost in the mix. Giving it a little promotional push might be all it takes for your app to start being shared organically, via word-of-mouth and high placement in search.

Good luck! There are millions of apps out there and customers are not starved for choice, but if you make something good, people will want it. You just have put in the work to let them know about it.

Related Resources

How to get paid on the Amazon Appstore

Moses Roth — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:47:19 +0000

There’s nothing better than getting paid for your app and knowing all your hard work was worth it, and there’s nothing more frustrating than a delay in your payments. The Amazon Appstore community space has a knowledge base of articles on payments to help make sure you get paid on time every month for all app and IAP sales.

We’ve tagged all our payment-related articles with “appstore-payments”, so all you have to do to find all the related articles is search for that tag.

Here are five examples of our most useful articles about Amazon Appstore payments:

1. How will I get paid?

The first step to getting paid is registering for payments. Check out our guide and video to getting paid:

That video walks you through the process of when and how you’ll receive your payments, so be sure to give it a watch.

2. How to get the correct tax withholding rate

Every developer who monetizes their apps will need to submit tax forms. Depending on your location, you may be able to claim a reduced tax withholding rate.

Be sure to read our guide to Set Up Tax Forms for Your Account and get the best possible rate you’re eligible for.

3. Two-step verification

If you want to register your payment info, you will need to set up a two-step verification method. But this can be a confusing process. How can you change your verification method? What if you don’t have a mobile number? What if you’re already using your mobile phone number for your shopping account, can you reuse it for your dev account?

Our Two-Step Verification FAQ will tell you how to change your verification method, use an authenticator app, reuse a mobile number on multiple accounts, and more.

4. How can I access my tax documents online?

We will mail your 1099-MISC (if you’re a US-based developer) or your 1042-S (if you’re a non-US dev) each year to you, but if you want to access any available forms online, check out our guide to accessing your tax docs.

If you’re a US-developer, the 1099-MISC will be sent out on or before February 1, or if you’re a non-US dev the 1042-S will be sent on or before March 15, and then they will be available in the console after that.

5. What kind of payment reports does Amazon provide?

Amazon provides sales reports, earnings reports, payment reports, and rating/review reports. We also offer a Download Center, where you can receive spreadsheets with more in-depth information.

The video explains how each of these reports work and be sure to check out our Reporting guidefor more info.

Check out the rest of our Knowledge Base to see all of the articles currently available. If you have questions about anything not covered there or an idea for another article, let us know!

4 ways to make money on the Amazon Appstore

Moses Roth — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 18:17:29 +0000

You’ve made an incredible app — now what? How do you take all those hours of hard work make them pay off, or rather make them pay you?

Here are four ways you can monetize your app on the Amazon Appstore:

1. Charge for your app

The simplest way to make money from your app is to charge customers to purchase and download it. As part of the app submission process, you can choose whether your app is free or paid during Step 3: Add Appstore Details.

By default, your app is set to Free. To charge for your app, select Paid. After you select Paid, enter a base list price and currency from the drop-down menu. You can allow Amazon to calculate other countries’ list prices or set your own.

2. In-App Purchasing

The In-App Purchasing (IAP) API allows your app to present, process, and fulfill purchases of digital content and subscriptions within your app. Amazon supports an IAP API for Android Apps and Web Apps.

Here are 4 ways you can use IAP your app:

A "freemium" model, where the app is free, but you charge for advanced services or functionality.
Sell items to enhance your game, such as currency, extra moves, or lives.
Sell bonus levels or mini-games.
Enable subscriptions to content available within your app.

Check out Anisha Malde’s guide to walk you step-by-step through implementing the IAP API in your app.

3. Ads in your app

You can add in-app advertisements in your Fire tablet apps via third-party Ad SDKs. Check out our list of supported ad SDKs. With those SDKs, you can display any of the following ad types on your Fire tablet app:

Banner - Rectangular ads that appear at the top or bottom of the device screen. Banner ads stay on screen while users are interacting with the app and can refresh automatically after a certain period of time.
Interstitial - Full-screen ads that cover the interface of an app until it is closed by the user.
Rewarded - Ads that reward users for watching short videos and interacting with playable ads and surveys.
Native - Customizable ads that match the look and feel of your app.

Amazon Publisher Services (APS) also offers advertising solutions for mobile app developers and streaming TV publishers. Check out those links to learn more and apply.

4. Product Advertising API

The Product Advertising API (PA API) allows qualified developers to sell items and provide features such as customer reviews, top sellers, new releases, and more, to increase your earnings.

Mobile app developers will need to apply for approval to use the PA API in their app. Check out the PA API Mobile App Getting Started and Basics guide to learn the requirements and apply. If you need any help you can reach out to the Amazon Associates team.

The Amazon Appstore community space has a knowledge base of articles on monetization and many other topics. We’ve tagged all our monetization-related articles with “appstore-monetize”, so all you have to do to is search for that tag.

If you have questions, let us know!

How to promote your Fire TV app

Moses Roth — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 23:39:45 +0000

The Fire TV Self-Service Advertising console allows you to create and manage ad campaigns on Fire TV.

By promoting your app, you can reach a large base of engaged customers– to date, there have been more than 200 million Fire TV devices sold around the world. Your ads can appear in the “Sponsored: Apps and Games” tile on the home screen and as a screensaver on Fire TV. Enhanced targeting features will ensure your ads reach the right audiences.

Fire TV Self-Service Advertising is cost-per-click, so you pay only when customers click your ads, and there is no minimum amount you need to spend. Choose your own bids and budget, and pause or start your campaign at any time to align with your spending goals.

Fire TV Self-Service Advertising is based on cost-per-click (CPC), there is no minimum amount you need to spend so you pay only when customers click your ads. Choose your own bids and budget, and pause or start your campaign at any time to align with your spending goals.

The only requirements are:

Have a live Fire TV app on the Amazon Appstore
Register your payment information on your account
Make sure you have administrator status (the owner of the account automatically has this)

To access the console, an administrator of your account should go to Apps & Services > Promotions.

Then go down to the Promote your app on Fire TV widget (below the Price Drop widget).

Click Get started.

You will be taken to your advertising account. Click Create Campaign.

Enter the required ad campaign info, including the campaign name, start and end dates, and daily budget.

Choose which app you’d like to advertise.

For the ad format, you can choose either Sponsored Tiles or Sponsored Screensaver.

Sponsored tiles are ad placements within a row which allow promotion of content titles and apps in Fire TV. Viewers can scroll down to the sponsored row using the remote on Fire TV.

For sponsored tiles, you can use the default images or customize your own.

Sponsored screensaver is a full-screen ad placement integrated with the original landscape image screensaver experience on Fire TV. After a period of inactivity, Fire TV shows a screensaver that is led by full screen promotional images. Each image shows for 30 seconds. Customers can view more details of the ad by pressing the Play or Pause button on their remote controls.

For screensaver, you’ll need to upload your background image, choose the content title style, and your provider.

Next you’ll provide your bid amount (CPC for sponsored tiles or Cost Per Thousand (CPM) for screensaver) and targeting (if available in your region). The default bid amount is determined by your marketplace.

Click Submit for review and your campaign should be reviewed within 24 business hours.

That’s all there is to it! Whether this is your first campaign for your first app or you’ve done this a hundred times, it’s an exciting moment and we can’t wait to see your app get the attention it deserves.

Click here to get started with your ad campaign and let us know if you have any questions on the Amazon Appstore community space.

Related Resources

4 ways to optimize your app for Fire TV

Moses Roth — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:38:44 +0000

Fire TV comes with its own features and requirements that make creating an app a little different than making one for tablets or phones. The Amazon Appstore community space has a knowledge base of articles of common inquiries, including the most popular questions about developing and submitting Fire TV apps.

Here are four articles about how to optimize your apps for Fire TV:

1. How do I make my app available on Fire TV?

Fire TVs have different compatibility requirements than Fire tablets & Android phones because they use a remote control instead of a touch interface. Check out this guide to learn how to make your app compatible with Fire TV in addition to tablets and phones.

2. How to add voice support to Fire TV apps and content

Fire TV users can access Alexa with the push of a button on the remote. Check out this guide to integrate voice support.

3. Handling system initiated video pauses on Fire TV

Video playback pauses when the microphone (voice search) button or Home button is pressed on the remote. Use this guide to ensure your app will handle these inputs correctly.

4. What images and videos are needed for Fire TV apps?

Fire TV apps need to be submitted with icons and screenshots that meet specific requirements. Check out this guide for the details on exactly what you need.

Check out the rest of our Knowledge Base for more developer tips and guides. If you have additional technical questions about Fire TV or the Amazon Appstore, let us know!

5 best practices to build apps for the Amazon Appstore

Moses Roth — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:29:55 +0000

Did you know that in addition to our developer documentation, there’s over 80 knowledge base articles to help solve technical questions for your apps on the Amazon Appstore and Fire TV?

Within the Amazon Appstore community space, we manage several popular categories: a Q&A section to ask questions, a dedicated space for announcements, and our knowledge base for commonly searched topics and FAQs.

Here are five popular knowledge base articles that highlight best practices when building apps for the Amazon Appstore:

1. How do I test my app?

It’s crucial to test your app thoroughly prior to starting the Appstore submission steps. Read this guide to learn about virtual Amazon devices, Live App Testing, and how to use the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

2. Use version targeting to support Android APIs

Make sure your app functions correctly on all Fire and Android devices. Check out this guide to learn make sure it only calls compatible APIs on each type of device.

3. Obfuscate your app code with ProGuard

To protect your app from piracy and infringement, obfuscate your app’s code so it's difficult for a human to understand. Use this guide to learn how to obfuscate the code with ProGuard.

4. How do I update the devices my app is compatible with?

When you submit an Android app to the Amazon Appstore, the attributes in your app manifest and build.gradle files determine which devices your app can be installed on. Check out this article to learn how to make your app compatible on as many Amazon devices as possible.

5. How to deeplink into apps with ASINs and Product IDs

If you have multiple apps, you can promote them by providing a link directly to the Amazon Appstore or Amazon retail website from within your app. This guide will show you how to do that!

Check out the rest of our Knowledge Base to see all of the articles currently available. If you have questions about anything not covered there or an idea for another article, let us know!

How to get developer support for the Amazon Appstore

Moses Roth — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 14:56:42 +0000

While developing and submitting apps for the Amazon Appstore, at some point you may hit a snag and need some help. When that happens, here are the best ways to find answers and get developer support:

1. Documentation

The first thing to do is check the documentation. Our docs are the best place to find a solution to your issue. Most likely somebody else has had the same question you have, and if that's the case, we've probably documented an answer to it.

The Amazon Developer Portal has a search bar at the top-middle of every page, and you can also browse the sections on porting your app, submitting your app, and in-app purchasing (IAP) (to name just a few).

2. Community Space

If you can't find your issue in the docs, the next place to check is the Amazon Appstore community space, where app developers discuss topics and we have our Knowledge Base with over 80 articles.

Just like the Developer Portal, there's a search bar at the top-center of every page and you're probably not the first person to see your issue. Check if anyone else has asked a similar question or if there's a Knowledge Base article.

If you can't find a related post, go ahead and ask the community!

3. Stack Overflow

Another place to ask your question is Stack Overflow. Look for questions under "amazon-appstore" and be sure to use that tag when you ask your question, so other Amazon Appstore devs will be able to find answers as well.

4. YouTube Channel

You can also check out our YouTube channel, where we post tutorials, tech talks, announcements, and more.

There are nearly 500 videos on there and over 20,000 subscribers, so you'll find a video on any topic you're looking for and plenty of other devs to comment and discuss with.

5. Contact Us

Finally, if you still haven't found the answer to your question, sign into the Developer Console and use the Contact Us form. Our Dev Advocates will look into your issue and get back to you within a couple days.

Summary

For any issue that might pop up, we have a bunch of ways for you to find the info and get the support you need:

Check the documentation
Search for/post a topic in the community space
Look for/ask a question on Stack Overflow
Check the Amazon Appstore YouTube channel for related videos
Use the Contact Us form to get in touch with our Dev Advocates

Forem: Moses Roth

5 cool things from CES for Amazon Developers (plus 4 more!)

AI-enhanced voice search on Fire TV with Alexa

Cars with Alexa and Fire TV integrated

Echo Show 15 and 21

Fire TV 85" Omni Mini-LED and Soundbar Plus with surround sound

AI-generated images on Fire TV

4 other things...

Delorean

Boring Company/Tesla loop

Holograms

Zoox robotaxis

Testing the startup time for your Fire OS app

Set up

Install

Run the test

Retention Offers for Amazon Apps

4 tips to update your Amazon Developer account

1. How to update your developer name

2. How to add new users

3. What are user roles?

4. How to transfer ownership of your account

Related resources

My visit to Chain React 2024 (and some tips for going to conferences)

My visit to Chain React 2024

1. React Native Workshop

2. Some great talks

3. Product demos, including VR headsets

4. React Native panel

5. Chat with some other devs at the booths and around the conference

6. Parties!

7. Practice my photography skills

ASO 101: App store optimization for Amazon Developers

Part 1: Getting ready to submit your app

Developer name

New App Submission

App title

Category

Target audience

Content rating

Display title

Descriptions and feature bullets

Keywords

Localization

Images and videos

Part 2: Your app is live, now what?

The customer search experience

Ratings & reviews

Ads & promotion

Related Resources

How to get paid on the Amazon Appstore

1. How will I get paid?

2. How to get the correct tax withholding rate

3. Two-step verification

4. How can I access my tax documents online?

5. What kind of payment reports does Amazon provide?

4 ways to make money on the Amazon Appstore

1. Charge for your app

2. In-App Purchasing

3. Ads in your app

4. Product Advertising API

How to promote your Fire TV app

Related Resources

4 ways to optimize your app for Fire TV

1. How do I make my app available on Fire TV?

2. How to add voice support to Fire TV apps and content

3. Handling system initiated video pauses on Fire TV

4. What images and videos are needed for Fire TV apps?

5 best practices to build apps for the Amazon Appstore

1. How do I test my app?

2. Use version targeting to support Android APIs

3. Obfuscate your app code with ProGuard

4. How do I update the devices my app is compatible with?

5. How to deeplink into apps with ASINs and Product IDs

How to get developer support for the Amazon Appstore

1. Documentation

2. Community Space

3. Stack Overflow

4. YouTube Channel

5. Contact Us