Since late 2011, the Kindle Fire has been one of the hottest tablets outside of the iPad and at $200, it was the first one that almost anyone can afford. This is technically a guide to the best Kindle Fire apps, but really, it’s a guide to our favorite apps on Amazon’s Appstore for Android as well.
Below are our favorite apps and games for the Kindle Fire.
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Publisher: TuneIn With access to over 70,000 radio stations there is simply no better radio app out there than TuneIn. It’s the ideal pick for sports fans who want to listen to the big game, but you’ll also find talk radio, news, podcasts, and all the music you can handle. The app has an intuitive interface, it works smoothly, and it’s completely free, which makes it an essential download for your Kindle Fire. You can also save your favorites and search for specific content with ease. If you want to be able to record content then the pro version only costs a buck. |
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Publisher: Snazzy Software If you need a little help in the kitchen then download this app onto your Kindle Fire and you’ll have access to thousands of recipes. The app basically aggregates recipes from top food websites so you can compare notes to find the right blend for you. You can also use it to store your own favorite recipes, generate shopping lists, and stay organized in the kitchen. Transform your Kindle Fire into a kitchen helper and you’ll always know what’s for dinner. |
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Publisher: MicroMacro Mobile Inc. It’s nice to be able to download YouTube videos for viewing later when you don’t have a Wi-Fi connection and this app allows you to do just that on your Kindle Fire. If you’re going on a car trip or you know you’ll be out of range then you can find the videos you want and save them for later. It’s great for grabbing your favorite music videos. The free app is ad supported. |
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Publisher: Netflix, Inc. Most people are no doubt familiar with what Netflix offers, but we often forget the true power of it. The beauty of Netflix is any time you have the urge to watch pretty much everything, you can. That beauty just gets better on your Amazon Kindle Fire HD, thanks to the pretty picture it provides. Gorgeous streams of high definition video content flow from this app. From the archives of your favorite TV show to an odd Russian documentary about baby ducks, Netflix has everything that’s worth watching. |
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Publisher: ES Mobile The Kindle Fire lacks a good file management app so if you want to be able to explore your device and find all of your files then this app is a great choice. It’s very easy to use, but always exercise caution because you can delete any file you like with this app – if in doubt leave it alone. You can also use this app to sideload other apps and games from outside the Amazon App Store, but again, be careful about what you install. |
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Publisher: Pinterest, Inc. Whenever you come across something that you want to remember later, you mentally put a pin in it. Thanks to the social media site Pinterest, you can do your pin-placing digitally with your web browsing experience. Dive through the depths of the world wide web, grabbing recipes, interests, and inspiration for later. This app is full of vibrant images that you’ll want to see in all their splendor. Whether you’re browsing your latest finds or taking a look at a friends board for mutually appealing ideas, make sure to pin it up in Pinterest. |
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Publisher: MetaMoJi The Kindle Fire accomplishes a unique task by allowing readers to cram tons of books into one device, effectively eliminating the need for the paper page. It does the same thing for writers, but you don’t have to lose those beloved swoops and swipes of the writing motion thanks to Smart Writing Tool. This app turns your tablet into a digital note pad, allowing you to write with your fingers and watch it turn into typed fonts. You can then turn your scribbles into legible documents that are readable on a plethora of platforms. |
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Publisher: HBO Few channels have the collection of content that HBO has. With great original shows, excellent in-house films, and tons of talent, why mess with it? Put it all together in a package and let people enjoy it. That’s exactly what HBO Go does. By allowing cable subscribers to log in to their account and access HBO’s stream of content. Watch all of your favorite HBO shows and movies on your Kindle Fire, or Fire HD so you can watch in spectacular 1080p glory. |
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Publisher: Spotify What’s life without a soundtrack? Technically still life, but a far less interesting one. Whether you need a little background music or you want to totally jam out with total disregard for what any onlooker might think, Spotify has you covered. This completely ad-free music service has millions of songs housed within its massive database of music that you can access anytime, anywhere with a Spotify account. The Kindle Fire is a treat to your eyes–why not let your ears share in that joy? |
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Publisher: Alphonso Labs, Inc. If the one thing keeping you from reading the newspaper is that the black text on gray paper just doesn’t draw your attention, then download Pulse News and get yourself up-to-date. Pulse scours your favorite websites and social networks for articles that interest you, then delivers it in a streamlined interface that makes even the most mundane local interest piece look sexy. With new stories popping up as they go live and links filtered in from your informed friends, Pulse News is the best way to stay in the know. |
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Publisher: AccuWeather While the Kindle Fire is a great little device, occasionally you have to set it down to go outside. But before you set it down to venture into the great outdoors, you might want to make sure a sudden rain storm isn’t going to ruin your day. Check in with AccuWeather for Android and get all the weather-related information you could want. Radar overlays on Google Maps, hour-by-hour forecasts, and severe weather notices makes this app as good for amateur meteorologists as it is for simply checking the weather. |
Pocket (Formerly Read It Later)
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Publisher: Read It Later, Inc. Pocket allows you to save websites, articles, and any other online material you may be browsing and save them for offline reading. It’s the perfect tool for when you just have enough time to browse or if you’re storing up reading material for a commute. It’s the Kindle Fire’s equivalent of what the DVR is for television. Even better, you can mark a site on your desktop while logged into Pocket and read it later on your tablet. The handy app will even mark your scroll location so you can pick up on the very last word you left off on. |
Fandango Movies, Times & Tickets
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Publisher: Fandango, Inc. Fandango Movies – Times & Tickets app proves its worth. The app gives instant access to film details and show times so you can find what sounds like it’s worth a watch and make sure you won’t miss a minute of it. You can even by your tickets in advance, a feature available for over 16,000 movie screens. It’s the next best thing to the app ordering you a projector screen and theater quality surround sound–and far cheaper, too. |
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Publisher: farproc Sometimes it’s difficult to find the best available wireless connection, especially when out in public. WiFi Analyzer is the only tool you’ll need to decide where to connect. This app analyzes WiFi signals–as you’d expect–that are available within your vicinity. It then spits out detailed information and graphical views, directing you as to which will provide you the best network connection. It’s great for those who use their tablets in public places, or even for deciphering any issues with home networks. |
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Publisher: EverNote Corp. Some of the best ideas are ones that got away because they popped up at times when writing them down wasn’t an option. That problem is non-existant for Evernote users. This powerful tool serves as the ultimate thoughts and ideas journal, allowing users to save everything from notes to snapshots to web pages–anything that may hold inspiration for later. Organize it all with keywords and tagging and it’ll be easy to access later from any device that has Evernote installed. Even if you get home and realize the idea you have is terrible, at least you’ll have a chance to remember it. |
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Publisher: Intuit Mint.com Personal Finance is a free app that will actually end up making you money. The app comes with an intricate budgetary planning and monitoring tool, breakdowns of spending habits, bank account management options, and payment and balance alerts. All of this assures you’ll never be worried about over-spending, over-drafting, or missing bill deadlines again. It’ll get your finances in order, and you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll find you can save with the help of Mint.com. It won’t organize your wallet for you, though. That will probably still be a mess. |
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Publisher: Rdio Rdio is the perfect app for those days when life requires a soundtrack. Search though the service’s over 12 million songs and play to your heart’s content. You can even favorite tracks and come back to them later. Rdio also offers a social aspect, allowing users to create and publish playlists which can then be shared among friends, followers, and influencers. If you’d like to see what’s getting the most spins among your network, there is Rdio’s Heavy Rotation feature. Do be aware, it requires a subscription fee of $9.99 a month, but can be well worth it if you don’t want to load up your Kindle Fire’s hard drive with music files. |
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Publisher: imo.im Whether you’re browsing the web and see something you just have to share or hit a moment of a book that you can’t wait to talk about, it’s always nice to have the ability to chat. Now you can on your Kindle Fire with imo Instant Messenger. You can sign into imo with your existing accounts for chat services like Skype, Facebook, MSN, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and others and immediately start talking with your friends over multiple platforms. Pass along text messages, voice chats, and multimedia attachments, making it the ideal all-in-one app for communication. |
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Publisher: GSam Labs It’s easy to get lost in a good read, addicting game, or fascinating film. But if you get too lost, you might end up killing off your Kindle Fire by draining its battery. Watch your usage and make sure you’re getting good charges with the help of Badass Battery Monitor. The app puts a battery meter right on the status bar to make checking how much life is left in your device as easy as taking a quick glance. If you’re noticing that your battery seems to be draining far too fast, this app will tell you exactly what is using your battery and just how much of a burden it’s putting on it. |
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Publisher: Toodoroo, Inc. Most of us can’t afford a personal assistant. But if you have Astrid Task/To-Do List on your Kindle Fire, you won’t need one. Astrid is loaded with great features that will help you get your life back in order. Set reminders and never miss a deadline again. Create tasks and subtasks to make sure no detail is forgotten. You can even share your schedule for collaborative projects and common tasks so you won’t have to do all the work alone. It’s a great alternative for those who can’t afford to keep an old British guy in a suit around the house. |
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Publisher: Splashtop, Inc. The Kindle Fire is undoubtably packs a lot into a nice, portable package. Sometimes it doesn’t have everything you need, though–especially if you operate on multiple devices. That’s where Splashtop Remote Desktop steps in. Forget a file on your desktop? Want to tap into some of the tunes you keep stashed on the home hard drive? This app has you covered. By allowing you to tap into your other computers remotely, you can easily access anything that you couldn’t bring with you. |
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Publisher: HootSuite Media, Inc. Social networking has become a full time job. With tons of networks for different purposes and unique friends spread across all of those networks, it can be difficult keeping up to date with everyone. HootSuite brings back that “it’s a small world” feeling to the ever-expanding web of connectivity by putting all your social accounts in one place. With support for Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, and LinkedIn, there won’t be a status update or comment missed. Plus, you can share across all the platforms, so none of your friends or followers will miss out on that hilarious cat video you found. |
Looking for a calendar and address book app that will interface with my Microsoft Outlook on my laptop.
Amazon seems to drastically limit what is available in their ‘store’, prompting many to root their device. I don’t want to do that, if possible. So – in the interest of useful programs, not requiring rooting:
I would like to see ‘handyCalc’ (sp?), probably the best Android calculator out there. Sci funcs, graphs, etc.
Also, some really useful travel apps are not allowed: ‘Flight Aware’ – very good. I also like ‘Fly Delta’, ‘Alaska Airlines’; Also United Airlines, if they ever get a ‘tablet’ version.
‘Kayak’, which is in the store, is not bad but a bit under-par.
A’zon keeps trying to push its version of Accuweather to my Fire. This program is fundamentally nonfunctional. I live in a well-known area; Accuwx is completely unable to find any weather here.
marco
Appcurl is the best app discovery app on Kindle. You have covered all popular app genres in this list, but missed out the app discovery or app search. Kindle’s native search sucks, without appcurl its hard to browse through its (limited) app list.
Yes, I have an app suggestion – TEMPLE RUN. I know there is a long list of people waiting for this app as well for the Kindle Fire.
Is this out yet? I cannot find it on the Android Market or Kindle Fire store.
I nominate Battleheart as the best game. It’s a lot of fun on a tablet.
Love Battleheart. I recently added it to our Best Android Games article.
There are significantly more games worthy of the honor, unless you are excluding iOS. The developer finally got around to fixing the many, many problems the game had. Then again, I’d expect nothing more from that con artist. So, now it is a good game, but far from the best tablet game. If it is the best android game, that’s kind of depressing.
Pulse is showing as incompatible with the Kindle Fire.
So many useful apps for my Kindle Fire, saved.
VoX Mobile VoIP App now available in Amazon App Store for all Kindle Fire Devices. Adds FREE Video Calling & Users Get a FREE 60 Minutes to Call 60 Countries (select free 60/60 plan)
Use Promo code: TWFREE60
Also Available for Android Devices on Google Play and Samsung App Store (select countries)
My favorite applications are Dolphin browser, Angry Birds and ArkMC.