How to add Google Play to the Fire 7, Fire HD 8, and new Fire HD 10 Skip to content Search for: Search Blog on ebooks, publishing, libraries, tech, and related topics About Tech Writing & Publishing Amazon Libraries Reviews Legal & Gov Amazon, E-reading tech: Gadgets & Apps How to add Google Play to the Fire 7, Fire HD 8, and new Fire HD 10 The Google Play Store on the Fire HD 8 and Fire 7 Date: October 14, 2017Author: Chris Meadows 44 Comments UPDATE: As of 3/16/2018, Google had blocked uncertified devices from accessing the Play Store. See this post for an effective workaround to allow Google Play to run on your Fire. With the new $150 Fire HD 10 tablet finally shipping, the first reviews of it are starting to pop up all over the place—and almost without exception, every review says that it’s a great tablet, but will unfortunately only let you install apps from Amazon’s store. It makes me wonder just how much research any of those review writers ever bothered to do, given that restriction hasn’t actually been in effect for months now. As I noted in a previous post, it’s not only possible but easy to install the Play Store and Google’s applications to any tablet running a modern version of the Fire operating system. You don’t have to root it, you don’t have to hack it in any way. You have to change just one setting, then download some packages through the web browser. Granted, the Fire doesn’t come from Amazon with the Google stuff pre-installed, but you would have thought that these reviewers could have spared a sentence or two to note that it can be added afterward with the greatest of ease. That could make a considerable difference in whether or not someone decides to buy the thing, after all. So, just to make it perfectly clear, I’m going to run through the instructions one more time. These steps will work for the Fire 7, Fire HD 8, and Fire HD 10. Allow Apps from Unknown Sources The first step is to go into “Settings,” either by using the “Settings” icon on the Fire’s home screen, or by swiping down from the top and tapping on “Settings” there. In “Settings,” scroll down and tap on “Security.” When this screen opens up, switch the “Apps from Unknown Sources” to “on,” as shown here. This will cause a warning message to pop up, which you can safely disregard (as long as you limit your non-Amazon downloads to the generally-trustworthy Play Store, at least). Install the Google Packages Now, open the Silk browser, and navigate to this article. Click the following links to download and install the following four software packages in this order: Google Account Manager Google Services Framework Google Play Services Google Play Store If the page says there’s a newer version of the package available, don’t worry too much about it. If the newer version is compatible with your Fire, then your Fire will update to it on its own once you get the Play Store’s automatic update function going. If you want to check the newer versions anyway and see if one of them is compatible, scroll down to the list of packages at the bottom of the download page. But bear in mind, you need to make sure that the version you download is listed as being compatible with Android 5.1 Lollipop or earlier. Otherwise, it won’t work. David Rothman, TeleRead’s owner, found that he had to stick to the older versions of the package—the one featured—to get the Google apps working. Restart and Launch Google Play Now all you need to do is power your Fire off, wait for a few seconds after it shuts down, and then restart it. Once it finishes booting up, launch the Google Play Store and follow the instructions there for logging into your Google account. Note that you will need to have registered your Fire device with Google as per the workaround linked from the start of this article for it to work. Not every app will be available in a Fire compatible version, and of those that are, not all of them will run properly (most notably, Gmail and Inbox don’t work right). But a surprising number of Android-only apps that aren’t available from Amazon will launch and run just fine. And this makes any size of Fire a lot more than just a storefront on Amazon limited to only those apps Amazon wants to give you. You may still have to put up with the lock-screen ads (unless you pay Amazon or ask Amazon support to remove them), and won’t have access to some of the cool features from later versions of Amazon like screen splitting, but you’ll have an inexpensive tablet that is useful out of all proportion to its price for watching media, reading books, and doing other general Internet tasks. Share this: Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Reddit More Print Tumblr Pinterest Pocket WhatsApp Telegram Skype Like this: Like Loading... AmazonAndroidFireFire 7Fire HD 10Fire HD 8GoogleGoogle PlayTablet Published by Chris Meadows TeleRead Editor and Senior Writer Chris Meadows has been writing for TeleRead--except for a brief interruption--since 2006. Son of two librarians, he has worked on a third-party help line for Best Buy and holds degrees in computer science and communications. He clearly personifies TeleRead's motto: "For geeks who love books--and book-lovers who love gadgets." Chris lives in Indianapolis and is active in the gamer community. View all posts by Chris Meadows Post navigation Previous Previous post: Review: NTONPOWER multi USB charging station Next Next post: Amazon’s one-day sale on SanDisk flash products, Monday 10/16 only 44 thoughts on “How to add Google Play to the Fire 7, Fire HD 8, and new Fire HD 10” Add Comment David H. Rothman says: October 14, 2017 at 9:55 pm @Chris: Yes, works fine on my 2017 Fire HD 10. I’ll see about updates of the Google Play Store and the apps there. I might need to mess with “allow apps from unknown sources” again. The new 10 is a great value for the money, by the way. I very much agree with the raves. LikeLike Reply Betty says: December 12, 2017 at 9:50 pm I have been trying to help my friend install the Google play app on her new fire HD 10. When we get as far as clicking get on download other sources it will not go to the OK screen! So fusterating! LikeLike Reply Suz says: October 15, 2017 at 6:31 am Thank you for the instructions. My Fire 8 HD had been sitting in a drawer unused until I saw your post and decided to try it. It was easy to do and I am now really enjoying being able to have my Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Google Play books on the one device. I do not like traveling with my iPad but for the price have no worries tossing the Fire into my handbag. Thank you again. LikeLike Reply DaveMich says: October 15, 2017 at 10:49 am Our favorite GP only app is plants vs zombies v2, and now I have it working just fine, thank you, on my Kindle Fire 6 that I picked up off Woot for $30. Thanks. LikeLike Reply Michael Gallagher says: October 15, 2017 at 9:22 pm I am one of those reviewers….. If we put the “how” in our review, or even recognize in the review there is a way to do it manually, Amazon will delete the entire review – right now, they are pre-reviewing all of the new HD10 reviews prior to letting them post vs. the normal automatic post. Your instructions are concise and easy to follow for all Fire users, thanks for posting! LikeLike Reply Chris Meadows says: October 15, 2017 at 11:36 pm I’m talking about reviews on other websites, not on Amazon’s listing for the product. LikeLike Reply Moto Crayz says: October 24, 2017 at 11:10 am There is a problem parsing this package LikeLike Reply Chris Meadows says: October 24, 2017 at 11:12 am Then try an earlier version from the download page. LikeLike Reply David Rothman says: October 24, 2017 at 11:31 am I own a Fire 10. Yes, the earlier version from the download page will work on the 10 and, if need be, other Fires. Try Chris’s suggestion. Amazonized Android is behind times in Android terms. On the plus side, the newer stuff on the download page might bail us out when Amazon updates the OS. LikeLike Nelson says: October 29, 2017 at 5:03 pm Great article, It is good to know that the Amazon fire 8 has an easier way to install the google play store. This Amazon product is price, at a good price and the convenience of being able to load the google play store and services just made it, even more, valuable to shopping consumers. Achieving all desired function and features top line tablets have to offer. LikeLike Reply Kathy Takayama says: November 4, 2017 at 12:05 am I have a Fire7. After downloading #1 Google Account Manager, I am able to open and scroll to “Next”, but when I click on “Install”, nothing happens. Any suggestions? LikeLike Reply Kathy Takayama says: November 22, 2017 at 5:46 am Thank you David Rothman for the workarounds! https://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/new-amazon-fire-tablet-os-update-stops-you-from-sideloading-apps I used Option #1 -when you get to the greyed out install page, put your Fire to sleep, then re-login. After installing all packages,I was able to launch the Google Play Store. Yeah!!! LikeLike Reply annmariegarlington says: November 4, 2017 at 5:21 pm For me the install button is not clickable , i have the allow app from unknown sources set up up and developer options enabled. LikeLike Reply Andrew John says: November 10, 2017 at 8:54 am I was able to install this on my Fire HD 8 2 weeks ago, but now I’m also running into a grayed out ‘install’ button. This is on a brand new Fire HD 10 as well. Did you ever figure it out? What am I doing wrong? LikeLike Reply Joseph says: November 19, 2017 at 9:29 pm I have the same problem. LikeLike David Rothman says: November 21, 2017 at 7:39 am Sorry about your problem, Andrew, and apologies to you and others for this late reply. I’ve alerted Chris Meadows to see if there’s a solution. Meanwhile I assume that the second time around, you installed the existing version of the package rather than following the update links. I myself installed the upgrade successfully on both my new Fire 8 and a new Fire 10. I’d hope that Amazon wouldn’t have changed anything and created an extra hassle. If so, one solution might be to try the updated upgrade package. Update, 8:49 a.m. EST: Amazon apparently has created a new hassle, getting in the way of sideloaded apps. But this could be a possible workaround: https://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/new-amazon-fire-tablet-os-update-stops-you-from-sideloading-apps Let us know if this works. Thanks, David LikeLiked by 1 person annmariegarlington says: November 4, 2017 at 5:22 pm btw I have a fire 10 with Alexa hands free LikeLike Reply JT says: November 26, 2017 at 9:15 am Loved finding this work around. The sleep option worked great for me. LikeLike Reply HarlowGold says: November 30, 2017 at 4:13 pm Reblogged this on Crawfordgold's Blog. LikeLike Reply Yao says: December 18, 2017 at 11:32 pm I am able to install Google play and apps from GP, but apps icon doesn’t show on home screen, any work around? LikeLike Reply Catriona says: January 3, 2018 at 12:24 pm I am having the same problem. Apps are downloaded but I need to search for them on the search bar. When I click on them in the recently used section O am given the option remove from home or uninstall. However they are not appearing on the home screen. LikeLike Reply Mike says: January 5, 2018 at 4:40 pm Try this, Settings > Apps & games > Manage all apps > Select “Running” then the three dots at the top right. “SHow cached processes” Then Home Pages, hit Stop See if that fixes it for you. This is what worked for me. I have the newest HD10 LikeLike kevakava says: January 14, 2018 at 7:08 am Same here, all worked great, but can’t see any way to get the app icons yo appear on the homepage… LikeLike Rene Williams says: December 23, 2017 at 2:57 pm Everything downloaded great. Google Play appears on home screen but will not open. When clicked the home screen briefly flashed gray then returns to normal. Any thoughts? Fire 8 2017. LikeLike Reply Rene Williams says: December 23, 2017 at 4:36 pm I figured it out. Although the default version of Play Services installed correctly, I had to keep backing down until I got to version 11.7.45 before Play Store opened. It works great now! LikeLike Reply Francis says: February 23, 2020 at 8:16 am Please how do you do it because in trying to download play store on my Amazon tab but not say please help me out LikeLike Reply Toni Hickie says: January 21, 2018 at 8:09 am Excellent article. Struggled to download the fist 2 components until your tip about using an older version. When I did this the downloads and installation worked first time. Thank you. LikeLike Reply Vona Allen says: May 5, 2018 at 11:31 am I am trying to follow these instructions for my new Fire HD 8. I got this warning message. “com.google.adroid.gsf.login_5.1-1743759-22_minAPI21(n0dpi)_apkmirror.com.apk will damage your device”. Is that true? Any other options? LikeLike Reply Chris Meadows says: May 5, 2018 at 11:32 am Not sure. I never got that warning. Did you try an older version? LikeLike Reply Ryan says: May 22, 2018 at 2:18 am Don’t worry… Just make sure apps from unknown sources isn’t activated LikeLike Reply Ali says: June 17, 2018 at 11:17 am Google play says war dragons is not compatible. Any suggestions? I tried side loading with success too. I have Fire 7(7th gen) Fire OS 5.6 LikeLike Reply Ali says: June 17, 2018 at 11:18 am With no success* sorry LikeLike Reply Kate says: September 25, 2018 at 5:46 pm I have tried the whole process on my sons fire HD 8 several times and still get ‘pending’ on everything I try to download. Please can anyone suggest anything apart from clearing the cache to stop this happening? LikeLike Reply ken kjer says: November 15, 2018 at 3:16 pm Took me less than 5 minutes, everything works great. LikeLike Reply Melissa Scherr says: December 23, 2018 at 7:40 pm Great article. One of the main reasons I traded my 2nd gen Kindle Fire for the Fire HD 10 was the fact that I read how easy it is to add the Play Store. Your step by step instructions worked flawlessly. All of the apps I’ve installed work, including Chrome browser. Thanks you for sharing this info! LikeLike Reply Fireamazonfan says: March 15, 2019 at 5:37 pm Just want to say THANK YOU! Did what you all said and now I’ve got Google Play on the Amazon Fire. I was so surprised that it’s designed by default not to allow access to the Play store. I was thinking of returning the tablet, but I thought I would check to see if it’s possible to have access to Google Play apps, and your site guided me on exactly what to do. You’ve made it easy to install all the apps I want. Awesome! LikeLike Reply Chris Meadows says: March 15, 2019 at 5:47 pm Really glad I could help! Don’t forget, you can also use a launcher hijack app to install a regular Android launcher to replace the default Fire launcher, too! LikeLike Reply Sandip Ghimire says: March 26, 2019 at 6:58 am Thank you, it’s working on my Fire HD 10. LikeLike Reply M says: May 31, 2019 at 5:51 pm DONE! Thanks Pal!! I’ve been trying to get the Pay Store App on my KINDLE7 FIRE HDX 3rd Gen but it just wasn’t happening. I read & followed several how-to’s but success eluded me. In those how to’s most stated ‘Your outta luck with the Kindle7 Fire 2017’. I really wanted the app on my 2017 anyway & sure enough, you made it happen. I was just about to chuck them both in the trash & go buy a genuine ANDROID tablet. but, you saved the day. thanX Again!!! Mack Del Norte County, California ! LikeLike Reply Chris Meadows says: May 31, 2019 at 5:53 pm You’re very welcome, Mack. Glad we could help. LikeLike Reply Allen S says: July 30, 2019 at 10:06 am Any ideas on how to get Hangouts to run in the background so users get notifications that they have received a message when they are not looking at the app? LikeLike Reply Chris Meadows says: July 30, 2019 at 12:27 pm It should just do that already, like it would on any Android device. LikeLike Reply Caitlen says: September 19, 2019 at 7:18 am so it all downloads and I can log in but as soon as I try to download it just says downloading constantly? LikeLike Reply Mary says: October 30, 2019 at 12:44 pm i am so confused. allowed apps from unknown souces is ok. but when i go to the links you say to go to there is (first way to many ads) a huge list of things to download. how do i know which one/s to pick. perhaps a step by step video would be better so we don’t get confused. especially us old folks LikeLike Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. 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