5 Fire Stick Apps You Probably Haven’t Heard Of (But Need To Install) – BGR

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Amazon’s Fire TV Stick devices are pretty popular because of their reasonable pricing and a decent feature set. These media players also offer easy access to free TV channels and the best streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and Prime Video, which most people like to watch. However, these popular streaming options are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the selection of apps that can be found on the Amazon Appstore, which has over 40,000 apps supporting the various Fire TV models.

If you have been limiting yourself to what comes preinstalled on your Fire TV Stick or the apps that are widely known, you’re missing out. Besides the streaming services that are household names, Amazon’s Appstore houses various niche streaming options that you may find interesting. Here are five such streaming services that you probably don’t know about or didn’t realize were available on the Amazon Fire TV Stick. Keep in mind, you’ll need a subscription to access some of these streaming services.

Kanopy is one of the more interesting streaming options available on the Amazon App Store. It doesn’t require a traditional paid subscription for access; instead, you need an active library card from a participating public library or a login from a participating university. So, if you already have either of the two, you essentially get access to Kanopy for free. Kanopy hosts thousands of movies for free that you can watch using its official app for the Fire TV devices. Moreover, unlike many of the mainstream streaming services that have started including advertisements in their cheaper plans, Kanopy is completely ad-free.

You will get critically acclaimed movies, classic cinema, documentaries, award-winning international films, educational videos, and more on the service. A quick visit to Kanopy revealed the service currently streaming titles such as Parasite, Memento, The Wolf of Wall Street, Serpico, There Will Be Blood, Interstellar, Good Will Hunting, and more. It also has a special kids’ version featuring movies and shows created for kids.

Remember, unlike your typical streaming service, Kanopy limits how much content you can watch. You are given a certain number of tickets from your library or institution that you can use to rent content, and your loan period will be limited to a fixed time period. Your tickets get renewed every month. There is some content that you can watch as many times as you want without needing any tickets.

The Criterion Channel, the digital home for the Criterion Collection, is a much-loved streaming service among cinephiles, and you can access it officially on the Fire TV models. It houses an exciting mix of important classic and contemporary movies, including international cinema, arthouse flicks, independent films, and documentaries. You primarily get access to the core Criterion collection of around 1,000 titles as well as a rotating selection of licensed titles. As of December 2025, The Criterion Channel has 3,146 movies available for streaming, each of which you can find listed on its website.

Besides movies, The Criterion Channel includes supplementary content, such as interviews, commentaries, behind-the-scenes, analyses, and more, which aren’t typically included in most mainstream services. It’s also known for its thematic collections, genre spotlights, and guest-curated series. Being a paid streaming service, it costs $10.99 a month, or you can opt for the discounted annual plan costing $99.99.

If you’re a fan of British television, BritBox is the app to get on your Fire TV Stick. It features content from BBC and ITV, two of Britain’s major TV networks, and you get access to different genres of shows, such as mysteries, dramas, comedies, lifestyle, and documentaries. It also has an excellent mix of both classic TV shows, contemporary stuff, and BritBox originals. Some of the popular TV shows you can find on BritBox include The IT Crowd, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Happy Valley, Shetland, Line of Duty, Luther, Death in Paradise, and Killing Eve.

Another key feature of the service is support for same-day streaming of popular British soaps and dramas, such as EastEnders, Coronation Street, and Emmerdale. In addition to the TV shows, you also get access to live streams for major UK events, such as royal ceremonies. The subscription for BritBox starts at $10.99 a month, which offers access to full HD streams on up to two devices simultaneously. You can also go with the Premier annual plan that includes 4K streaming, support for streaming on up to four devices, early access to select content, access to BBC Select documentaries, and more.

Korean shows such as Squid Game and Extraordinary Attorney Woo have garnered massive popularity in recent times. If you too like watching South Korean content, Rakuten’s Viki streaming service is an excellent option. It has one of the largest catalogs of Korean content that you can watch in the United States on the Fire TV Stick. Some of the popular Korean shows you will find on Viki include Descendants of the Sun, Legend of the Blue Sea, and Mr. Queen. Additionally, you can watch variety shows and K-pop awards shows.

Besides Korean content, Viki also features Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Thai shows and movies. One of the highlights of Viki is the community-supplied subtitles for its content in multiple languages. While you can access some of Viki’s collection without paying, the rest of it requires a paid subscription called Viki Pass. You can choose from two Viki Pass plans, Standard and Plus, which cost $7.99 and $11.99 a month, respectively.

Dedicated to nonfiction programming, Curiosity Stream is an excellent option for anyone who loves watching documentaries and educational content. It was founded by John Hendricks, who was also the founder of the Discovery Channel. It boasts thousands of titles across different categories, such as science, history, nature, and technology. You’ll also find plenty of originals on the service, many of which are award-winning. Some of its popular titles include Secrets of the Universe, Ancient Engineering, Digits, The Life of Birds, Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places, Deep Time History, The Secret Lives of Big Cats, and many others.

Curiosity Stream is among the most affordable paid streaming services and costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. You can also choose the service’s Smart Bundles, which add access to other services, such as Tastemade, Kidstream, Curiosity University, and SOMM TV. There are no advertisements, and pretty much all of its content is in English.

While choosing the relatively less popular but excellent streaming apps to watch on the Amazon Fire TV Stick devices, we focused on niche streaming services that offer content that’s typically not found on mainstream streaming services. We also selected services that are well-liked for their content selection, have a reasonable amount of content to watch, and are available for access in the United States. Moreover, all our recommendations either have content in English or include English subtitles with foreign-language content.