The line between the Amazon Echo Show 15 and a Fire TV is blurring, with the former getting the experience of the latter starting today with a software update.
It won’t quite turn your Echo Show 15 into a Fire TV 15, per se. But it’ll give it full access to the Amazon Appstore, and that means you should have all the apps available to essentially turn it into a wall-mounted streaming powerhouse (provided that everything’s square when it comes to APIs and app updates, but we have a feeling Amazon and the developers will have that figured out in short order, if things aren’t already working as expected).
And because the Echo Show 15 is still an Echo device, you’ll continue to have all the hands-free voice control you did before — you’ll find on the Fire TV Cube — so you can just tell it what to play and where to play it. That includes linear streaming services like YouTube TV, or on-demand services like Disney+ or Netflix.
The Fire TV experience update also is enabling support for the Alexa Voice Remote . If you don’t already have an extra one laying around, current Echo Show 15 owners will be able to get one for just $10, redeemable directly from their Echo Show 15 (that’s $20 off the usual price). And if you’re buying things anew, you can grab an Echo Show 15 and the remote for $195.
If you don’t have a remote and don’t want to get one, apps that aren’t touch-enabled will be able to make use of an on-screen virtual remote control, or you can use the Fire TV remote on your phone.
The audio experience also is improving with this update. Amazon says it’s taking advantage of the spatial audio processing it brought to the Echo Studio and implementing it in the Echo Show 15, mirroring “the performance of a wide stereo system, creating a more immersive sound experience for the listener.”
The free update will be available today, and will automatically install itself on first setup of a new Echo Show 15.
