It’s unclear how many people were clamoring for this, but here it is: Owners of Amazon‘s Fire TV streaming devices in the U.S. and Canada can watch the latest viral TikTok memes, dances and music videos on their living-room TV sets.
Fire TV is the exclusive connected-TV partner for TikTok. “No more huddling around a cell phone to see the latest TikTok videos,” Amazon said Monday in announcing the partnership’s launch in North America. “Starting today on Fire TV you can now view and discover all your favorite TikTok videos on the biggest screen in your home.”
There may or may not be any money changing hands: The companies didn’t respond to inquiries about whether there’s a revenue-sharing agreement between TikTok and Amazon.
Regardless of how many people are actually interested in streaming TikTok to their HDTVs, the fact is the ByteDance-owned short-form app has become a massive global phenomenon. In September, TikTok announced that it had surpassed 1 billion monthly active users for the app.
And Amazon, which last month began shipping its own Fire TV-powered Omni line of televisions, is looking for every incremental differentiating feature it can get its hands on to stand out in the competitive connected-TV market. “TikTok is a household staple in our home, and I’m thrilled the whole family can now enjoy their favorite TikTok videos together on the best screen in the house with TikTok on Fire TV,” said Daniel Rausch, VP of Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services, in a statement. “We can’t wait to hear how our customers are enjoying the latest dance craze or viral trends with their families.”
To watch TikTok on Fire TV, users must visit the Amazon Appstore to download the TikTok app, then sign in or create an account. In the app, you can view TikTok feeds including “For You” and “Following,” as well as some of the most popular content across the service on the Discover page. The app also offers an autoplay feature that streams a continuous content feed without interruptions between TikTok videos. You can control TikTok video playback with the Alexa Voice Remote or with the hands-free Alexa feature in the Fire TV Omni Series.
TikTok on Fire TV is available now on all Fire TV devices in the U.S. and Canada and will be coming soon to the ecommerce giant’s Echo Show devices. Initially, TikTok had rolled out to Fire TV devices in Germany, France and the U.K.
Pictured above: Image from a TikTok video of a bird on a teeny-tiny skateboard, featured in Amazon’s Fire TV video promo of the feature’s launch in the U.S. and Canada
