Linear TV Integration Guide Overview
The intention of this guide is to get you up and running quickly. It does not include the detail necessary for most implementations.
This guide helps you add your linear TV app to Amazon's Fire TV. For more of an introduction to linear TV, see the Introduction to Linear Television. Begin by getting familiar with the basics and then continue step-by-step through this guide.
Android development basics
Before you start integrating your content for Fire TV, familiarize yourself with the Android development basics. These high-level concepts and common terms can make implementing this integration guide go more smoothly.
- Activity - A class. It provides the window where your apps UI is drawn. One app calls another by invoking an activity. It's where an app interacts with the user.
- Intent filter - Launches an activity based on not only explicit, but also implicit requests. Explicit: "Start a Send Email activity using the Yorma app." Implicit: "Start a Send Email screen in any activity that can do the job."
- Service - Background operations. It has no user interface. It can run even after the user has switched to another program. Ex: play music, perform file I/O, or interact with a content provider.
- Foreground service - A service that is noticeable to the user. Example: playing an audio track. You hear it, but the work is being done in the background.
- Background service - A service that isn't noticed by the user. Example: compacting storage in the background without your knowledge.
- Broadcast - When an event of interest occurs. Example: when a system boots up or a device starts charging. This is wrapped in an intent object. Make sure you follow the security best practices for this.
- ContentProvider - An interface to connect data in a process to code in another process. This is useful for sharing data. It also adds abstraction so you can change app data without affecting other apps.
Android TV Input Framework is the interface between your app and Fire OS for linear metadata and video playback.
Next steps
The process for performing the app-only integration involves the following steps.
Last updated: May 05, 2025