Although Amazon Kindle Fire tablets only come with the Amazon Appstore, you can still sideload quite a lot of Android apps that you can’t find in the Amazon Appstore (those apps that are available in the Google Play store), and it requires no rooting. You can side-load apps in Fire tablets, including the newer 2015 Fire tablets, and the earlier 2013 and 2014 Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX models.
Amazon Appstore – The Basics
The Amazon Appstore does have over hundreds of thousands of apps, and it keeps growing. Many of the apps that are popular in other App stores (like the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store) can also be found there like Angry Birds, Netflix, Subway Surfers, Temple Run, Facebook, Twitter, Minecraft PE, Candy Crush Saga, etc., can all be found in the Amazon Appstore.
You can always do a search to see if your favorite apps are there (you can get the apps to your Amazon account using your computer, and it’ll be on your Kindle Fire tablet).
If you can’t find some apps in the Appstore of Amazon, then you can try to find and sideload the app somewhere else or to make things easier for you, why not install the Google Play Store so you can install those Android apps. It’s easy, and again “no rooting” is required; you just have to allow apps from other places in the settings of your Fire tablet.
Steps to install Google Play on Amazon Fire Tablets (5th Generation)
Things you need:
- Your Amazon Fire tablet.
- A computer (A desktop or laptop running Windows Operating System).
- A USB Cable (USB Male to Micro USB Male).
For beginners, start with step 1. For techy people, proceed to step 3.
Step 1. On your computer, go to http://rootjunkysdl.com/.
Step 2. On the site, look for the Amazon Fire 5th Gen and click it. You will be presented with a drop down list of different files at the bottom.
Step 3. On the list, click and download Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store.zip. <– Click for direct download
Step 4. Once you have completely downloaded the ZIP file, make sure to unzip it or extract it.
Step 5. On your Amazon Fire tablet. Go to the device settings and tap “Device Options”.
Step 6. Once you are presented with the list of information inside the “Device Options” UI, tap the “Serial Number” a number for times as fast as you can. If you are succesful, the tablet will notify you that it is in developer mode. Below the serial number, the developer options will appear.
Step 7. Tap the “Developer Options”, then look for “Enable ADB” and make sure it is enabled.
Step 8. Now connect your Fire tablet to your computer via USB cable. Make sure the Fire tablet appears on your computer (either through my computer or file explorer).
Step 9. Go and open the extracted Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store file. Double click 1-Install-Play-Store.bat. You will be presented with a list of options via CMD command.
Step 10. On the CMD panel, follow the instruction to do the installation.
Step 11. Let the script do its job and the Google Play Store app will appear on your Fire tablet after successful installation.
The following is the installation video by RootJunky.com:
If you don’t like the method we introduced above, you can follow the steps below that are for the previous generations of Fire tablets, it works for the 5th generation Fire tablets as well.
How to install Google Play Store on Kindle Fire Tablets (3rd and 4th Generations)
If you own a 4th or 3rd generation Fire tablet like the Fire HD 6, Fire HD 7, Fire HDX 8.9, Kindle Fire HDX 7″ or Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ then the above method for installing the Google Play store will not work.
However, there’re some good workarounds. One of the easiest way is to install the 1Mobile apps on your device. There’s a good discussion on Amazon customer discussion here on this, and it mentioned some other ways of sideloading too:
http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=…
Probably the app that many people may look for is the Adobe flash player, since it no longer comes with any new tablet. You can read a discussion here on how to get Adobe Flash on the Kindle Fire tablet.
It says you do not have to root but the video link is the instructions for rooting the device? I thought it was not necessary to root to get the Google Play store please explain. I want to make sure I understand.
Thanks!
Yes, it’s true that you don’t have to root your Kindle Fire tablet. The video is from RootJunky, it has the word “root” but that video doesn’t ask you to root the device. Hope that helps.
I couldn’t be happier! Thank you so much for the absolutely perfect instructions!
Thanks for dropping us message, I’m glad that it helped :)
Excellent…..no problem….. carefull at the end when the 4 files come up…… I did select #2 and waited for the installation. Follow the instructions on this video it helped me….. it is perfect look it up on youtube ///Amazon Fire 7in 5th Gen Google Play Store Install and remove lock screen ads Tutorial………suerte
Awesome! Very nice and well done! This has really enhanced the utility of my Fire HD 6. Thanks again!
keeps telling there is a parse package error _hen trying to install chrome with I market
I am trying to load vudu so I can watch my movies
I have a fire 7 HD
System version 7.5.1