Kindle fire and on board movies

[jveteran]

My Kindle Fire Tablet ~use~ to work on the Southwest Wifi to view movies but about 2 years ago it stopped working. The movie starts, but about half way into the credits is says there is a problem and locks up. Something changed in the SWA movie app I think. What can I do to watch movies on my Kindle?

[dfwskier]

Southwest's in fl;ght mvies are streamed to your device. I don't think you can "downlioad" the movies (for future use).

For instructions on making a device streaming capable or determining whether or not it is capable see elijah's  post above.

[drankin001]

Hi,

I'm pretty sure there is no way to watch the free movies with a Kindle.  I am also a Kindle user and have used my Kindle for several years to watch movies when flying southwest.  Southwest recently changed how the movies are streamed and now require a plugin (the southwest website specifically says the southwest.com app is now required to be installed on the device) that is not available to the Kindle.  Best option is to download content ahead of time or use the live TV (TV still works with Kindle, just not movies).

I'm trying to get additional detail from Southwest customer service.  I opened a support ticket but they sent me a response about iHeartRadio and closed the ticket 😞

[chgoflyer]

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@drankin001 wrote:

Hi,

I'm pretty sure there is no way to watch the free movies with a Kindle.  I am also a Kindle user and have used my Kindle for several years to watch movies when flying southwest.  Southwest recently changed how the movies are streamed and now require a plugin (the southwest website specifically says the southwest.com app is now required to be installed on the device) that is not available to the Kindle.  Best option is to download content ahead of time or use the live TV (TV still works with Kindle, just not movies).

I'm trying to get additional detail from Southwest customer service.  I opened a support ticket but they sent me a response about iHeartRadio and closed the ticket 😞

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Understood. Please do give us an update (if you get one).

As I noted earlier: Southwest says that mobile devices must have the Southwest app in order to view movies and select on-demand TV content. Laptops will work with a current operating system and browser (specs here). Unfortunately, Kindles lie somewhere in-between -- there's no supported version of the app for Kindle (although you may be able to sideload one), and the browsers available for the Fire appear to be incompatible. 😞

[MusicCityTiger · Accepted solution]

If you have a Kindle Fire Tablet made after Nov 2018, you can get the SW App to work.  You need an APK installed, but it only works on Android 6 or above.  Fire Tablets pre Nov 2018 were Android 5. 

[dfwskier]

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@MusicCityTiger wrote:

If you have a Kindle Fire Tablet made after Nov 2018, you can get the SW App to work.  You need an APK installed, but it only works on Android 6 or above.  Fire Tablets pre Nov 2018 were Android 5. 

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Thanks for sharing a solution about a topic that comes up fairly frequently.

[LindseyD]

@MusicCityTiger, thanks for the great response! Hope we get to see more from you around here!

[jonesie]

What is APK and how do you get that?

[Js1111]

I tried this option and it didnt work for me. I cant even get my hp laptop to play the movies anymore, had no problem with it up until a couple of months ago

[Yinzara]

There is a work around for this issue but you need WiFi access on board or you must do it before you depart. It requires the Chrome browser which is not available on the Amazon app store. Search Google for 'download Google chrome apk' and use a third party site to download the apk. Once downloaded, touch it in the Silk download screen to install. You may have to go into security settings for your Kindle to enable installing apps from unknown sources. Once installed, touch the three dots button and select 'desktop site'. Then browse to southwestwifi.com in Chrome and you should be able to watch any movie or live tv right in the browser.