Prime Video is getting a great free upgrade

(Image credit: Amazon)

last updated 22 July 2022

As much as I like Amazon Prime Video, I don't really like the interface. It feels very dated compared to the likes of Apple TV+, so I'm pleased to see that Amazon is giving it a much-needed makeover. The new Prime Video interface is coming to streaming devices, Android phones and the best smart TVs, too.

The main difference is that the navigation menu has changed. Prime Video's existing interface is clearly based on Amazon-style website navigation, but this new version works better on non-computer devices. There's an icon-based navigation bar down the left hand side, making it much easier to access the different sections such as Find, Home, the Prime Video Store, Live TV and then My Stuff, which is where your lists of purchases and your watch lists live.

A better look for Prime Video on all your kit

If you have a Fire TV stick the new interface is going to look very familiar, because it's clearly following the same handbook as the recently updated Fire TV interface. And if you don't, you should get the new interface this week as it rolls out on Android, with iOS and the web interface following shortly afterwards.

The other main change to the Prime Video interface is its carousels. There's now a large banner carousel with options for All, Movies, TV and Sports, categories the interface should have had years ago. There's also a larger carousel for Prime Originals and for the top 10 shows and movies in your area. New filters (for smart TVs; the app already has them) enable you to filter by category, genre or 4K quality – great if you've got one of the best 4K TVs.

I think this is a vast improvement: the existing Prime Video interface feels ancient but this update makes it much fresher – and more importantly, much more viewer-friendly.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).