Sideloading apps onto your Amazon Fire TV unlocks a world of possibilities. Because the Amazon Fire TV's operating system is based on Android, it's possible to put Android apps onto the Fire TV, greatly increasing the amount of apps you can enjoy on the device.

So what should you sideload on your Fire TV? If your mind jumped right to web browsers, you're not alone. The Fire TV can do a lot out of the box, but one thing it can't do is browse the Internet. And that's a shame, because surfing the web from your couch is super convenient. Sideloading a browser onto your Fire TV would go a long way towards filling this need – but it won't necessarily work.

That's because sideloading isn't a perfect solution. While the Fire TV OS is based on Android, it isn't exactly the same, which means that you can sometimes encounter problems with your sideloaded apps. And native Android apps are made for touchscreen devices, like the phones and tablets that normally use the Android OS, so they can sometimes be difficult to navigate on the Fire TV.

You know that you can sideload a browser to Fire TV, but should you? Will it work? We set out to find out by testing three popular browsers on a Fire TV

Testing the Browsers

We tried out three browsers for this project: Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. They aren't the only browsers available on Android, but they're by far the most popular. We tried them each out two ways: once with just the Fire TV remote, and once with a USB keyboard and mouse plugged in. Here are the results!

Chrome

With the remote:

Chrome was quasi-functional when using just the remote. We were able to navigate to the address bar, and Amazon Fire TV's on-screen keyboard allowed us to enter a web address. Scrolling worked fine too, and the menu button even allowed us to mark bookmarks and alter Chrome's settings. But the one thing we couldn't do might have been the most important: we couldn't click links! The directional buttons only scrolled the pages on most sites.

With peripherals: Adding a mouse saved Chrome. With the mouse there to help you click on links, the whole thing becomes pretty functional. We used a USB splitter and added a keyboard, too, and things came together pretty well. There was one annoying quirk, though: Chrome's on-screen keyboard still comes up even when you're using a physical keyboard. You can still use the physical keyboard, but when you're done typing the cursor will stay rested on the last letter, and hitting “enter” will just enter that letter again. We found ourselves typing “cordcutting.comm” a lot before remembering to use the arrow keys to navigate to the enter button.

Firefox

With the remote: Like Chrome, Firefox was usable with the remote, but only barely. You could navigate to the address bar, type out your destination on Amazon Fire TV's notoriously annoying on-screen keyboard, and then scroll a bit once you got there – but that's it.

With the keyboard: Again like Chrome, Firefox was vastly improved by the addition of a keyboard and a mouse. The scrolling seemed a little quirkier on Firefox, but it lacked the annoying on-screen keyboard quirk of Chrome, which was nice. With the mouse there to click the links, Firefox functioned perfectly well as a browser.

Opera

With the remote: This didn't go well. We couldn't even get past the tutorial using the remote. We reached for the mouse and keyboard right away.

With peripherals: Nothing doing, we're afraid. Even with a keyboard or mouse plugged into the Fire TV's USB port, we weren't able to get past Opera's tutorial screen. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that Opera is a good option for sideloaders.

Our Conclusions

So, should you sideload browsers to Fire TV?

The answer to that depends on what you're looking for. The decision to add a browser to your Fire TV really comes down to convenience. If you have a Fire TV in a room with no other way to put a browser on the big screen, and you don't mind plugging a USB mouse into your device, we'd recommend downloading Firefox (with Chrome as a close second) and sideloading it onto your Fire TV. If you think plugging in a USB mouse is a deal-breaker, or if you already have a Chromecast (with its convenient tab-casting option), we'd suggest skipping this project.

How to Sideload Browsers to Fire TV

If you've decided to try this project out, we suggest going with the ADB sideloading method. It's the first of several methods we cover in our full article on sideloading, and it works by downloading the APK file for your desired program, connecting to your Fire TV through the Android Debugging Bridge, and installing the program through your Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows).

Here are links to download the APK files for each of the browsers we discussed above. Again, we liked Firefox the best (by a hair) and Opera the least (by far).

Firefox (the download link is in the parenthetical below the bullet list)

Chrome

Opera (the download link is in the small text below the Google Play button)

Of course, there are other browsers out there. If you prefer to sideload Dolphin or another more obscure browser, let us know why in the comments!