Long time reader, first time posting.
Install requires root.
Squirrel LLC just released an android version of their app Reflector ($7). This app can be installed fairly simply on the FireTV, turning it into an airplay receiver for screen sharing and display extension, not just video or audio playing.
This requires root (instructions here) and the google play store (instructions here- they are for kindle, but work) before you can install this program.
Once you have the play store installed and you are signed in, you will be able to install apps remotely. This is much easier, as the play store is somewhat difficult to navigate on the Fire TV itself. However, Google will think the Fire TV is not compatible with Reflector.
To circumvent compatibility restrictions, download Market Helper and install on your FireTV (sideload instructions here). This will allow you to spoof your device type and install the app. I used the Nexus 7 as the device type. Make sure you've run google play services and signed into the play store before you run this, so it can read your id. The activate buttons are invisible until you are selecting them, so just press down and over until you find what you want.
After setting up your Fire TV to look like a Nexus 7, head back to the play store and set Reflector to install remotely.
From here, you can use any airplay device to broadcast to the Fire TV!
Couldn't you use snappea instead of google play?
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I wasn't able to get this to work in Extend Desktop mode with my Mac. Since there's only a 15 minute refund period, I already got the refund, so it's possible I was doing something wrong, but the Play description didn't mention Extend Desktop mode. I don't see how I was doing anything wrong though, since the only settings in the app is the Name and the Password (and I didn't set a password). I did remember to turn off AirPlay in my other AirPlay app before trying Reflector.
Prior to this, I was already using AirReceiver to handle IOS mirroring. If all you want is IOS mirroring, I believe it was less expensive. Since it was bought through the Amazon store, it shows up with an icon on main screen (in my Apps and Recent sections). I don't recall if you can buy it on the FireTV or not, but I think so. A Voice search for Air Receiver brings it up.
Thanks!
Hey Guys,
Sid from Squirrels here!
Thanks for the walkthrough and the instructions. We're glad you got everything working!
We've actually submitted Reflector to the Amazon Fire TV store. The approval process is a bit more lengthy and involved than normal Google Play submissions.
As for extended desktop from a computer. It should work alright. I'de be interested in seeing logs from this to see why it didn't work for you. You can email our support team and they'll be happy to get it working!
Thanks again for the instructions.
So why root?? Why not just side load reflector??
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
1975jamie said:
So why root?? Why not just side load reflector??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reflector is a paid app, and I have no experience sideloading paid apps / getting a signed apk out of one. I found it to be easier to root and install the play store than to bother with that. If you are aware of an easy method to get the APK out of a paid app, I'd love to hear it- I always pay for my apps, but sometimes I need to install them in a dev environment where the play store isn't available, and I'd like to know.
If you're concerned about rooting, I'd consider the advantages. Rooting is a piece of cake now thanks to Towelroot, and it gives you uped duper more functionality than you have without it, especially if you are using this device to run XBMC primarily.
sidneykeith said:
Hey Guys,
Sid from Squirrels here!
Thanks for the walkthrough and the instructions. We're glad you got everything working!
We've actually submitted Reflector to the Amazon Fire TV store. The approval process is a bit more lengthy and involved than normal Google Play submissions.
As for extended desktop from a computer. It should work alright. I'de be interested in seeing logs from this to see why it didn't work for you. You can email our support team and they'll be happy to get it working!
Thanks again for the instructions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the good customer support. I figured it was the Amazon store's lengthy submission process that was holding things up and not an actual compatibility issue, which is why I decided to hack this together.
I own no other Amazon devices (and probably won't), so it's to my advantage to keep all my purchases within one ecosystem. You may consider adding a little walkthrough on how to use the google play store to run your app on the firetv to your page, if you guys aren't fearful of the wrath of Bezos. I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who bought the firetv for the android, not the amazon.
Taige said:
I wasn't able to get this to work in Extend Desktop mode with my Mac. Since there's only a 15 minute refund period, I already got the refund, so it's possible I was doing something wrong, but the Play description didn't mention Extend Desktop mode. I don't see how I was doing anything wrong though, since the only settings in the app is the Name and the Password (and I didn't set a password). I did remember to turn off AirPlay in my other AirPlay app before trying Reflector.
Prior to this, I was already using AirReceiver to handle IOS mirroring. If all you want is IOS mirroring, I believe it was less expensive. Since it was bought through the Amazon store, it shows up with an icon on main screen (in my Apps and Recent sections). I don't recall if you can buy it on the FireTV or not, but I think so. A Voice search for Air Receiver brings it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what happened there for you. Extended display was the default for me. That being said, the other app could have interfered, or maybe your settings in OSX weren't correct. I wish I could help you more, but Airplay is finicky enough as it is, without adding third party software. Maybe get in touch with Sid about that.
If anyone else is interested in this, my brother managed to get airsquirrel to work with reflector on the firetv, but it seemed to be more laggy than with true airplay. I'm not sure if that was the fault of his laptop or the software, so that might be worth looking into if you're a diehard windows user like I used to be.
hotterpop said:
Reflector is a paid app, and I have no experience sideloading paid apps / getting a signed apk out of one. I found it to be easier to root and install the play store than to bother with that. If you are aware of an easy method to get the APK out of a paid app, I'd love to hear it- I always pay for my apps, but sometimes I need to install them in a dev environment where the play store isn't available, and I'd like to know.
If you're concerned about rooting, I'd consider the advantages. Rooting is a piece of cake now thanks to Towelroot, and it gives you uped duper more functionality than you have without it, especially if you are using this device to run XBMC primarily.
Thanks for the good customer support. I figured it was the Amazon store's lengthy submission process that was holding things up and not an actual compatibility issue, which is why I decided to hack this together.
I own no other Amazon devices (and probably won't), so it's to my advantage to keep all my purchases within one ecosystem. You may consider adding a little walkthrough on how to use the google play store to run your app on the firetv to your page, if you guys aren't fearful of the wrath of Bezos. I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who bought the firetv for the android, not the amazon.
I'm not sure what happened there for you. Extended display was the default for me. That being said, the other app could have interfered, or maybe your settings in OSX weren't correct. I wish I could help you more, but Airplay is finicky enough as it is, without adding third party software. Maybe get in touch with Sid about that.
If anyone else is interested in this, my brother managed to get airsquirrel to work with reflector on the firetv, but it seemed to be more laggy than with true airplay. I'm not sure if that was the fault of his laptop or the software, so that might be worth looking into if you're a diehard windows user like I used to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an android phone that I download the google play app to and then use Es file explorer to back up the app. Then sideload it to the firetv.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Hello Fire Folk,
I decided to go ahead take the plunge and let my 2017 Fire HD tablets do their thing and update to 5.6.2.0. Well, the too-good-to-be-true advertising lulled me in anyway ("Show Mode!? You mean I can finally use my Fire Tablet for multi-room audio? And I can stop calling half the Alexa devices in the house "Alexa" while I call the others "Computer" and we can all live as one big happy, desegregated family?! And I can play Spotify on any of the devices and make drop in calls until my heart's content!??" Well, we're not quite there yet...
Anyway, the purpose of my post... Is anyone else noticing the annoying "Ghost" notifications (where it's just a blank white bar at the top, popping up regularly, but if you tap on it/long-touch it enough it eventually reveals its true self) appearing more frequently now? I have three HD 8s and one HD 10 and the background app is running rampant on all of them, resulting in super-frustrating and function-impairing crumminess. Fortunately, the 10 has root and on that tablet I can put this resource-gobbling ghost in its place. However, I'm at a loss on the Fire 8s. In the past I've tried various "no root" app freezing applications but I've never really found one that truly is capable of doing what it claims to be able to accomplish. Does anyone have any tips? I know for a while we could run that one script and make magic happen but can no longer use that trick. :-/
The background ghost app is "Tachyon Calling App" and I gather it's part of the messaging system that is supposed to make the Fire, post 5.6.2.0 update, more "Show"-like. But it runs wiiiild. I'll grabbed a few screenshots which tell a little more about this background pest and will include them below. If you've upgraded to the latest OS and haven't noticed this yet, I hope you never do, but I'd be surprised should you not soon become well-acquainted.
Oh also, my tablets all have Play Store et al. installed and I'm using Action Launcher, if that might have any impact on why I'm experiencing this conflict.
Thanks all! I've been lurking in the Fire section for a long time now and decided to finally make a profile, interact, etc. I am very appreciative to many people here for sharing the awesome findings/discoveries/techniques you've brought forward. I am still holding out hope - some day - even if it's 2046 and these tablets are beyond obsolete/somehow still manage to exist in physical form somewhere in the world, that we will get root access on HD 8! ??????
Screenshots w. additional details:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/album.php?albumid=15035
Having this same problem on a Fire 8 that's got the Play Store loaded. Also my model doesn't even have a sim card, does yours?
This is a new one. Never heard of or seen this app in any Amazon tablet I own (and I own several from the Fire 7 all the way to 10). Just from doing a general search, it appears it belongs to tachyon Mobility. At least that's the most likely culprit. For whatever reason it's on a device I have no idea unless you own a Samsung phone or tablet. I've seen other Samsung apps and Hardware configurations on Motorola devices but never on an Amazon device. If you don't mind uploading a copy of the APK, I can decompile it and take a look inside and see what it actually does or at least try. For now disable it by changing the file name to: appname.apk_ because some system apps like that may become useful in the future. By the way if you are rooted on the HD 10 Google 'rooted activity launcher'. Download the APK from the GitHub source. You can use that activity launcher to launch almost every system app that has a user interface. If this application does you can launch it with rooted activity launcher and see what it does.
So after my grandchildren signed me up to Amazon Prime without my knowledge on my kindle fire, I decided to use the kindle toolbox on their brand new fire HD 10 tablets (11th generation).
I completely debloat all the Amazon software (after enabling dev options menu), install google play services, waited a minimum of 10 mins as advised before trying google play and I also installed evie launcher – all of this was done using the toolbox v27.
The problem is when I try to log my kids into their new tablets using their own gmail accounts, I keep getting the ‘something went wrong’ screen and all I can do is try again, but it keeps on failing.
I’ve tried not removing amazon software and then adding google play, but that doesn’t work.
The only thing that does work is if I login to play store using my account.
My thinking is this must be a family link / permissions thing because they’re all under 8 years old.
The really confusing thing is when I did this same thing on my kids Huawei T30 tablets, it worked fine, no problems???
So, it’s either some security setting in the fire tablet, or because these fire tablets have a newer version of android than the old and no longer working Huawei tablets (Android v6).
Anyone got any ideas how I can login my kids into their own play store on their own fire hd 10 tablets using their own google accounts, without creating child profiles and without leaving my account logged in on their tablets for them?
The only thing I can come up with is to change their d.o.b. in their google accounts, log them in, then change it back, but I suspect this won’t work long term.
I really need to understand what’s causing the problem first.
A few hours ago I've bought Minecraft from the play store via my phone so that my nephew could play.
Now I've opened the play store on my Fire Toolboxed HD 10 plus but Minecraft does not show up as owned. Instead of all gives me the price of 6,99€ to be able to install it.
Is Minecraft the first App on the play store that needs to be payed for multiple times depending on how many devices you want to install it on?
Just these days I've bought two tool apps on the play store via my phone and was instantly able to install them in the tablet as well.
If anyone has a clue what's going on and could help me out, that would be great.
Edit:
As an update for anyone reading... When I went to "My Apps & Games" on the play store and there to "Library" it was displayed as the first of 15 apps under recommended and I could simply install it from there.
Even though the issue is basically solved, I'd still be curious about what's up with that.
Sounds like amazon just making it harder and harder for world domination. I just realised how many amazon things I've now got. Scary
mojospur said:
Sounds like amazon just making it harder and harder for world domination. I just realised how many amazon things I've now got. Scary
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In retrospect I want to believe that the play store just needed a 'little' more time to update things...
The HD tablet is the only Amazon device I own and with it toolboxed, it doesn't even phone home. I also don't use any other assistants and cortana on PC is switched off as well. And finally I use script blocker extensions in my pc browser, so that's that. I get why they want the data they can get, but no reason to help them by using devices that are not really necessary. Widgets on the phone and e.g. tasker can do the same (for those who can't do without)
Hello everyone! I'm sure this has been discussed in part in other threads, but I want to see what the best way to do this is (if it's possible), and how to do it.
I have a stock Amazon HD 8 (10th generation) tablet running 7.3.26 (November 1th 2022). I can get the Amazon Fire Toolbox to run fine on it, and it enables me to download and run an app from the Google App store that isn't available on the Fire store. My issue is I'm going to be giving hand this tablet (and a couple others like it) off to other people where I want them to be able to only open this app, and not access anything else on the tablet. Is there a way to set up a "child" profile or something like that on this tablet so only the one app could be accessed? Does it involve rooting? If someone can point me in the right direction (and hopefully link instructions) as well, I would greatly appreciate it.