Amazon has just opened the doors for HTML5 application developers to take their developments to Amazon Fire TV devices and the Fire TV stick thanks to the new support incorporated into their existing HTML5 web application publishing toolkit.
In Amazon’s opinion, this is a new opportunity to bring your developments to living rooms. In addition, developers who already have their applications published for Fire phones and tablets can take them to the targeted devices using the same workflow that they currently use.
To make this possible, Amazon has made some modifications to its WebView platform, which, among other things, has included support for remote controls of Fire TV devices, support for analog input from the Fire TV game controller and from other controllers, as well as access to the API of integrated purchases (IAP – In App Purchase) via JavaScript. To facilitate development from scratch, Amazon has made a new open source template available to developers to use when creating HTML5 media applications for Fire TV.
The idea, after all, is to enable televisions to become authentic interactive platforms, opening a world of possibilities through the availability of new HTML5 applications, allowing, among other aspects, to become high-quality gaming centers.