Amazon Is Bringing Freetime Unlimited Service to Third-Party Android Devices
Amazon is casting a wider net for Freetime Unlimited, curated its media subscription service for kids: The company is now allowing users of Android phones and tablets not made by Amazon to install the Freetime Unlimited Android app, which offers access to kids-appropriate e-books and TV shows.
FreeTime Unlimited is a paid subscription service that promises parents peace-of-mind by curating some 13,000 age-appropriate TV shows episodes, e-books, games and more. The service costs around $5 a month, or $3 a month for Prime members, with discounts for yearly subscriptions, and additional fees for families that want to maintain separate profiles for multiple children.
Parents can also use the service to define usage time limits and monitor their kids media consumption through a detailed dashboard and even read up on the books and shows the little ones have been consuming via reviews that suggest questions to talk about lessons learned — a new feature Amazon launched just last month.
Freetime Unlimited was previously limited to Amazon devices like Kindle Fire tablets and Fire TVs. Bringing it to Android phones and tablets manufactured by other companies makes a lot of sense for Amazon, but it also comes with a bit of a caveat: On Fire tablets, kids can also use Freetime to install and play a limited and curated number of games and other apps.
Google doesn’t allow other companies to run their own app stores on official Android devices, which is why the Android version of Freetime Unlimited only works with apps already installed on the device.
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