Share Your App

After you publish your app, you can help increase its visibility by sharing it with others. Amazon Creator provides several ways to share interactive previews and download links to your app on social media channels.

First Wait Until Your App Is Live

The Share button will be disabled until your app is live. So first, wait until your app gets approved by the Appstore team and is live in the Appstore.

Share button is disabled until your app is live
Share button is disabled until your app is live

After your app is live, you can share links with others that lets them preview and download your app.

Share Your App on Social Media

To share your app, click Manage Apps in the upper-right corner, and then click the Share button for your app:

Share options for Amazon Creator
Share options for Amazon Creator

When you click Share, several sharing options are available:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Email
  • Embed
  • Copy

These options are explained below.

Twitter, Facebook, Email

If you click Twitter, Facebook, or Email, Amazon Creator creates a snippet containing your app's name and a link to your app's Shareable Preview page (rather than your Appstore App Details page). For example, here's the share text for Twitter:

Shareable preview link for Twitter
Shareable preview link for Twitter.

The share text is similar for Facebook and email as well. When users click the link, it takes them to your app's Shareable Preview page. Here's an example of a Shareable Preview page:

Shareable Preview page
Shareable Preview page. The preview page is similar to the one you can access by going to Manage Apps and clicking the link next to Test.

On your Shareable Preview page, users can check out your app first and preview some video content before deciding to send it to their Fire TV. Web apps are fully functional in the browser, but users must interact with your app through the virtual remote. Here's how you use the virtual remote:

If users like the preview, they can click the red here text (at the top) to go to your Appstore App Details page. On your Appstore App Details page, a Deliver to feature (highlighted below) lets users install the app directly on their Fire TV:

Deliver to Fire TV
The "Deliver to" selector shows all Fire TV devices that users can deliver the app to.

After a user selects the desired Fire TV device and clicks Get App, Fire TV automatically downloads the app and shows it on the user's home screen when they start Fire TV.

YouTube

YouTube is a bit different from the Twitter, Facebook, or Email sharing option. If you click YouTube, Amazon Creator generates a snippet with your app's name and a link to your Appstore App Details page.

Youtube channel description text
Youtube channel description text

You can paste this snippet into your YouTube channel's description. Promoting your Amazon Creator app in your YouTube channel lets your YouTube audience know about more ways to consume your content.

To update your Youtube description:

  1. Go to youtube.com.
  2. Click your profile in the upper-right corner and select My Channel.
  3. Click Customize Channel.
  4. Click the About tab.
  5. If you don't already have a description, click Channel description. If you do already have a description, move your mouse over the Description text and click the pencil icon on the right.
  6. Paste in (and customize) your snippet text. Then click Done.
Updating your YouTube channel description
Updating your YouTube channel description

For more details on updating your YouTube channel description, see Change your channel details.

Copy, Embed

You can also point users to your app's Shareable Preview page by clicking Copy or Embed links in the Share options. Copy gives you a link that you can use to send others to your Shareable Preview page. Embed gives you code to copy and paste your app on your website. Both options are highlighted below.

Share options for Amazon Creator
Copy and Embed options for Amazon Creator

If you click Embed, you see an iframe snippet to copy and a preview of the embedded video:

Embedding a video
Embedding a video

When you paste this code into the HTML of your web page, the preview appears directly in the page. By default, iframe is full size (1920 x 1080px). You can adjust the size of the iframe by adding height and width attributes. For example:

<iframe src="https://creator.amazon.com/r/ZJnBV4Pn6V/?live_url=true" "frameborder="0" width=800 height=600></iframe>

You might need to experiment with the right settings for the space you're fitting the iframe into. In general, roughly follow a 16:9 aspect ratio.

You can also try more advanced CSS to auto-resize the iframe based on the available space, such as this:

<iframe src="https://creator.amazon.com/r/ZJnBV4Pn6V/?live_url=true" frameborder="0" style=" height: 100%; width: 100%; transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: 0 0; position: fixed;"></iframe>

Practically speaking, the iframe should probably be included on its own full page to allow for as large a size as possible (rather than embedded it within a sidebar or other tightly constrained space).

You will likely need to add some instructions for users below the iframe embed. You might include something like this:

The video here is a preview of my Fire TV app. Because you're viewing it on a web page, you need to use your keyboard (instead of a Fire TV remote control) to navigate the app. Use the following controls:

  • To advanced through the videos, use your left and right arrow keys.
  • To select a video, press Enter or Return return.
  • To exit out of a playing video, press Escape esc.
  • To open the navigation drop-down list, press your Up arrow key and then press Return return. Then use your Down arrow key to move through the list.