Tap the Prime Day banner to see a list of Prime Day events and promotions, including pre–Prime Day sale items. A tutorial is also available.

During the event on July 15 and 16, you can use the app to track your favorites as you shop and keep an eye out for Lightning Deals available for preview. Lightning Deals are available every day on Amazon, but they're especially abundant on Prime Day. They differ from standard deals in that they're designed to last for only a set amount of time (usually a few hours) or until stock runs out, whichever happens first. Once you claim a deal, you have a limited amount of time to pull the trigger and complete the purchase before your claim expires. Turn on push notifications in the Amazon app to increase your chances of grabbing a Lightning Deal on an item you're watching before it goes out of stock.

Once you tap the three horizontal lines at the top-left corner of the app, you go to your account's main menu. From here you can go to Settings then Notifications to make sure you receive alerts if any of your "Watched & Waitlisted" items end up as Lightning Deals. You can also accept notifications on items Amazon recommends for you.

This year, we're already seeing promotions similar to those we saw last year, but to take advantage of them, you need to be willing to try the camera features within the app. Prime members who use the "search with camera," "view in room," and "scan barcode" features can earn 20% off select items for a few more days—though the promo is oddly time limited, available only to app users between 6 a.m. and noon Pacific Time each day through July 14. This year also features a promotion for Prime users who install the Amazon Assistant browser extension, saving them $10 on an eligible order of $50 or more (the promo unfortunately extends only to new Amazon Assistant users). Even if you can't take advantage of the promotion, the browser extension also allows you to get alerts in your browser for items you've watchlisted on the app, a nice feature if you're switching between your phone and computer.

Do you absolutely need the Amazon app? No, of course not. But it can be a real help in ensuring that you snatch up the best deals on Prime Day.