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How to Add Google Play to the Amazon Fire Phone (video)

fire-phone-with-play[1]Amazon’s first smartphone hasn’t proven terribly popular, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad phone. With a 4.7″ screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2GB RAM, a 13MP camera, and 32GB of storage onboard, it’s not a bad phone if you can pick it up for the $199 sale price.

And thanks to a new hack, it’s going to get a little better.

Gadgets Xray has posted a how to video which explains the steps required to install Google Play on an unlocked Fire Phone. According to early user reports on XDA Forums, his trick won’t work with a unit locked to a network, but the narrator in the video does mention that it works with an unroooted phone.

As you can see in the video, the process is fairly straightforward and works pretty much like the back Google Play hacks I have posted in the past for budget Android tablets.

If you would like to try this yourself, you’ll need to download a set of files and install them. And apparently since Silk renames the APK install files to ZIP files, the first step will be to install a file manager which will enable you to rename the files back to APK files.

Just install the four Google files mentioned in the video in the order shown in the video and you should be able to install Play Store apps on the Fire Phone.

I plan to go try it myself (my Fire Phone is charging), and I am deeply curious about how well it will work.

Similar hacks are available for Amazon’s Fire tablets, but they don’t work very well. Amazon’s tablets are missing key parts of Android that Google’s apps expect to find. It’s kinda like a watch missing gears, with the resulting app on the Fire tablet being equally functional.

Let me know if you get to it before me. I’d like to hear what you think.

Liliputing

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Comments


Robert December 26, 2014 um 6:46 pm

I downloaded and installed the 4 .apk’s (in the instructions) on my unlocked Fire Phone. On first try the a Google Play Store stopped running each time I opened the app. But after reinstalling just the Google Play Store executable, it seems to be working fine. I’ve installed Mantano a Reader for example, something which you can’t do from the Amazon App Store. I anticipate Google Play may crash now and again, but it is worthwhile to install this and no root required.

Thanks for the tip Nate!

Hassan January 18, 2015 um 2:37 am

Hi, Thanks to your help I also did solve the same issue using your provided solution, re-installing the Google Play Store app. Thanks Robert!


Rob Siders December 27, 2014 um 6:36 pm

FWIW, Amazon hobbles these on the HDX. I think it requires the phone signal to operate.


Amazon Puts the Fire Phone on Sale Again ⋆ Ink, Bits, & Pixels February 12, 2015 um 10:52 am

[…] a 13MP camera, $199 is a reasonable price for the phone. And when you add in the fact that you can sideload Google Play and other Google services, the phone is quite appealing to Amazon's existing […]


Tom March 10, 2015 um 3:32 pm

The video skipped a part at 1:30. How did he get to that OneDrive Kindle Fire HDX thing?!?!? So frustrating

Tom March 10, 2015 um 4:43 pm

never mind figured it out but now mine is crashing too. guess i’ll try the reinstall


Gary April 19, 2015 um 1:38 am

Useless. It doesn’t work. I constantly encounter the error "Google Play Services has stopped." Google Play Store does not actually connect.

I’ve tried downloading the latest .apk files of Play Store and Play services, but it has not worked either.

Running Fire OS 3.6.5


Julian April 20, 2015 um 1:46 pm

Mine was working great for a few months, but now I just get the constant "Google Play Services has stopped." message. I wonder what caused this.

Nate Hoffelder April 20, 2015 um 2:32 pm

Amazon probably pushed out an update which broke the hack.


Tam April 21, 2015 um 12:32 pm

I was able to run and install google services via the instruction without rooting since last December, but this morning, I too, start to get the ' Google Play services has stopped' message every few seconds, and Google Play is not functioning anymore. Likely something lamazon did to disable google services. Hope there is a solution soon.


Vijay April 21, 2015 um 12:39 pm

i am using playstore in fire phone past 2 months, from today morning onwards constantly getting Google Play Services has stopped message


Vijay April 21, 2015 um 12:52 pm

i reinstalled again its working again

JLMendez April 21, 2015 um 2:16 pm

And Vijay, did you reinstalled it the same way, just like the first time? Like in this tutorial?

Mahesh Lal April 21, 2015 um 2:46 pm

Hey Vijay

Did you install the same way as earlier and the same version of play store?

Vijay April 21, 2015 um 3:02 pm

Yes, i uninstalled, restarted and installed, it works, but after sometime, i did update the apps in google store, it stopped working.


Mixed User Reports Suggest Google Play No Longer Functional on the Fire Phone | Ink, Bits, & Pixels April 21, 2015 um 1:50 pm

[…] Amazon's year-old smartphone doesn't have many features which would justify its original high price tag, but at least its owners can content themselves with the knowledge that they could use a hack to install Google Play. […]


Jimmy April 21, 2015 um 3:10 pm

Same here, I think there was either a Amazon or google update that broke it


Kane April 30, 2015 um 4:04 pm

i’ve tried like 4 times, uninstalling and re installing this way, but each time it comes up saying 'Google Play Services have stopped' and when i click on Google Play it comes up as if i’ve swiped to the left for setting and says no connection.
Is there anything i can do?

Nate Hoffelder April 30, 2015 um 4:27 pm

Read this. The comment section is full of comments from people with the same issue.


Curtis May 6, 2015 um 11:50 am

Similar to everyone else. constant error msg. until removing the "services" piece.
The good news that the apps I installed when the play store was working are still working. Google voice, Google music, and a specialty app for my company are working, but I wasn’t able to get gmail or G+ to work. Hoping that someone can figure out a new "hack". 😉


Kendricx May 6, 2015 um 9:45 pm

So I was doing some digging and it seems like Google buried google play services in favor of something new called Google play games…essentially it’s Xbox live for your phone’s and tablets…so until someone fingers out a new work around were all stuck


rmpbklyn May 25, 2015 um 7:10 pm

in the mean time I use aptoide and 1mobile


Cheap cellphone reading? Fire phone just $60 after Prime credit TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics July 8, 2015 um 1:04 pm

[…] I own one, and some months ago—I normally go with other phones, because of the plans I have in place—it was not just able to run Amazon apps. It could also run Moon+ Reader Pro and other favorites from the Google Play Store after I made a certain tweak. […]


CyanogenMod Frees Your Fire Phone From Amazon's Chains | The Digital Reader July 14, 2015 um 3:10 pm

[…] an excess of cameras, and a 4.7" screen, the Fire Phone has almost everything you could want (even Google Play).  But it's still tied to Amazon and runs a proprietary version of Android. For those of us who […]


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