Amazon Fire Tablet - email needed?

Sunshine_and_Roses

I have just ordered the Fire HD 10 for my Mum, she has never had a tablet or computer before.  I chose this as I think it is the most simple to learn to use.

Will I have to set up an email address for her to be able to use it?  If so is there any particular one I would need or would a Hotmail be ok?  I will monitor incoming emails so that she would not need to be bothered with them.

Neil_Jones

You don't need one as such but Amazon content is locked to the Amazon store so if you want to use it for extra apps you'll need an Amazon account.  Which you need an email address for

Sunshine_and_Roses

Neil_Jones said:

You don't need one as such but Amazon content is locked to the Amazon store so if you want to use it for extra apps you'll need an Amazon account.  Which you need an email address for

Thanks for your reply.  It will be for facetime, WhatsApp, photos and general browsing.  Will it be ok without an email? 

Neil_Jones

As I say you need access to the Amazon Store for those.  Which you need an Amazon account for.  Which you need an email address for, and I'm pretty sure Facetime will also need an Apple account as well, which itself needs an email.

AFAIK Whatsapp is not officially available on Fire Tablets, though you should be able to use the Web version through the web browser.

flaneurs_lobster

AFAIK Facetime is only available on Apple devices but you can join a facetime chat when you respond to an invite on a Fire tablet (or any other device).

Vitor

IMHO iPads are much superior for accessibility features and options to configure for simplified access for noob/elderly users.

Undervalued

Neil_Jones said:

As I say you need access to the Amazon Store for those.  Which you need an Amazon account for.  Which you need an email address for, and I'm pretty sure Facetime will also need an Apple account as well, which itself needs an email.

AFAIK Whatsapp is not officially available on Fire Tablets, though you should be able to use the Web version through the web browser.

Yes, Facetime is Apple only.

I have the WhatsApp on my Fire 8 tablet which works OK (ish) but it may have been "side loaded" from the Google App store.

I assume the OP realises that his mother must have WhatsApp on a mobile phone (as it relies on a phone number to work)? Only then can the same account be accessed on a tablet or computer (up to five devices) which have to authenticated from time to time by scanning a QR code with the phone.

Frankly I hate the Fire 8 for all kinds of reasons and certainly wouldn't buy another. Maybe the Fire 10 is better?

Sunshine_and_Roses

Thanks everyone for replies.  I have unboxed the tablet, set up an email and Amazon account and also a YouTube account.  Mum has Whatsapp on her mobile so I should be able to link it to the web version.

My next task is to put some photos onto the tablet and sort into albums for her to look at. I have loads on my phone and laptop, either on Google photos and Amazon photos, also lots from the family Whatsapp groups.  Is there an easy way to send photos over to Mums tablet so they are set up ready for her to view?

PHK

If you can get Google Photos on the fire tablet then it’s as simple as creating a shared album in your Google Photos , this will then appear in your mums Google Photos and you can both save photos to it and both see the photos. 

Otherwise you’ll need to email them and save. Or save them to a memory card that you put in the fire tablet. 

Sunshine_and_Roses

PHK said:

If you can get Google Photos on the fire tablet then it’s as simple as creating a shared album in your Google Photos , this will then appear in your mums Google Photos and you can both save photos to it and both see the photos. 

Otherwise you’ll need to email them and save. Or save them to a memory card that you put in the fire tablet. 

Thanks for your reply.  I cannot get Google Photos on the Fire tablet, only Amazon photos.  I didn't think of a memory card, it has a slot for one so might have to give this is go.

flaneurs_lobster

It's not hard to use Amazon Photos in the same way as Google Photos. You can have both running on your (eg) phone and both will back up to their respective clouds. 

You can run Amazon photos on your laptop (browser or Windows app) and load up a shared folder that you can access on your Mum's Fire.