Chromecast is thought by many to be the single best selling video streaming device. There’s a good reason for the popularity. It’s a low-cost device that can stream almost any video format. The one caveat is that some video streaming requires a little extra configuration. Chromecast Amazon Prime support is particularly tricky to set up. But a few simple steps will have one streaming Amazon Prime to the Chromecast fairly quickly.
Can you watch Amazon Prime on Chromecast
One of the more confusing things about the Chromecast is that it has differing levels of support for video streaming. Some streaming services offer what amounts to a one touch streaming solution. This is what people usually mean when they talk about a streaming service being available on Chromecast. These require a company to put a little work into making their content available to Chromecast users.
Amazon offers their own streaming hardware, so it’s not too surprising that they haven’t created Chromecast specific services. This has caused some misunderstandings about the relationship between Chromecast and Amazon Prime video. There’s no officially supported direct streaming option for Amazon Prime. But that doesn’t mean that Chromecasts are unable to stream video from Amazon Prime. It just means that one needs to go through a less direct route to enable Amazon Prime streaming.
Streaming Amazon Prime to Chromecast
The exact method used to stream Amazon Prime video to a Chromecast device will depend on which devices are on hand. One will either need a computer running Chrome or a mobile device running iOS or Android. Google’s made it quite easy to stream from a computer to Chromecast devices. The technology has been built right into the desktop version of Chrome for quite some time now.
One should start out by launching Chrome on a computer. Then the user will need to go to the Amazon Prime video which will be sent to the Chromecast device. From there one should press play on the video to get it started. Then pause the video again and go to Chrome’s options menu. This will be located on the right of Chrome’s URL bar and extension icons. From there the user can pick the cast command.
Selecting this option will provide the user with a choice of nearby Chromecast devices. Selecting one’s own device will then prompt the user to choose between casting a single tab or the entire desktop. Casting the desktop will allow one to watch Amazon Prime video through the Chromecast. But it also restricts the use of the computer while the video is playing. Choosing to stream a single tab will allow one to still use the computer even while the Chromecast device is playing a video.
There are a few more steps involved with doing the same in Android. The user will need to ensure that they have the Amazon app store or Amazon Underground app installed. This program is necessary to install Amazon’s video app as it’s not on Google’s Play Store. The users should also make sure they have the Google Home app installed on their Android device. This app is available from the standard Play store and provides a wide variety of different functions when using Chromecast.
In the Google Home app, one will need to first press the menu in the upper left corner of the screen. It might be necessary to first select one’s Chromecast device if Google Home isn’t aware of which one to use. From there one will pick the “cast screen / Audio” option. All that’s left is to open up the Prime Video app and start playing a video. The video played on the phone will be mirrored by the Chromecast device.
How to watch Chromecast Amazon Prime from iPhone
Watching Amazon Prime video on an iPhone is a mix of the desktop and Android methods. One should have the Google Home app installed and set up with a Chromecast device. A Mac running one of the many available Airplay servers will also be needed. On the iPhone, one will need to go to the Control Center by swiping a finger upward from the bottom of the screen. Then tap the Airplay icon to connect to the computer’s Airplay server.
The iPhone display will now be mirrored on the Mac. Now, on the Mac one will just load up Chrome and use the cast option to send out the entire desktop rather than just a tab. Then the user can go to the Amazon Prime video on his or her phone and start it up. The video will essentially go from phone to computer, to Chromecast.