Amazon Prime Video Windows 10 App Now Available to Download
After years of waiting, Microsoft Windows 10 users finally have a native app for Amazon Prime Video. For desktop viewers, the service was previously constrained to a web browser.
Rejoicing over desktop apps makes much more sense than it might initially seem. While it is indeed amazing what can be accomplished in modern web browsers, desktop apps with bespoke feature sets catered to one program's user experience will only become more desirable as time goes on. That's because all these services people use for entertainment on a desktop are now commonly seen on smart TVs, set-top boxes, and game consoles. For a massive percentage of subscribers to platforms like Netflix and Hulu, the app interface is the only way they've ever interacted with the service.
Now, we can add Amazon Prime Video to the list of video streaming services with dedicated Windows apps. The official application is currently listed in the Microsoft Store, free of charge. Despite the free download, the app still adheres to the Prime Video business plan, so access will cost $8.99 per month, or come free with an Amazon Prime annual subscription. It comes in at just under 38 MB, which is about standard for these kinds of apps and should run on practically any device that runs Windows 10. It's probably safe to assume if you were able to watch Prime Video in a browser on a device, you'll be able to run this app easily.
Obviously, the star of the show is the ability to watch your Amazon Prime Video content. After logging in, everything should populate the screen via an interface that'll look familiar to anyone who has used the service on other devices. Since it's not piggy-backing off of the general Amazon website, the app's search feature is much easier to use. It works exactly as it should, only surfacing video content you can watch in the app, instead of doing things like presenting a purchase page to buy a soundtrack when you search for "Frozen".
It's worth noting, however, that The Verge reports streaming appears to cap out at 720p resolution. The browser version of the service can reach 1080p, and even within the app, some videos are labeled as being in 4K. This is likely something that will be corrected in an update.
The other huge part of this app is it adds the ability to download content and view it offline. This feature did not exist in the browser version and could be what convinces people to make the switch to the app. Unfortunately, it does not appear that the app will allow users to select a download location for videos, and there's a lack of transparency about resolutions for the downloads, but these are also the kinds of things that tend to get addressed through updates.