Tech

Amazon's offline video feature has forever changed how I fly

Tim Stenovec

2015-12-21T21:57:00Z

jeffrey tambor transparent — Jeffrey Tambor in the Amazon original "Transparent." Amazon

On Saturday, I took a flight from New York to Los Angeles.

I was not looking forward to the flight — six hours crammed in the middle seat.

But it was a great chance for me to try a recent feature that Amazon added to its Android and iOS app a few months ago: the ability to download videos so you can watch them without being connected to the internet.

The feature is available to anyone in the US, UK, Germany, and Austria, who is a member of Amazon Prime, the company's $99 per year loyalty program.

Here's how it works.

Offline viewing used to be limited to people with Amazon Fire devices.

But in September Amazon said that the feature was coming to iOS and Android, meaning people with iPhones, iPads, and Android tablets and smartphones can download Prime videos to watch when they don't have WiFi or cellular connections.

This is great for when you're traveling and won't have a connection, like a long flight!

Download the Android version here and the iOS version here.

Then, sign in with your Amazon account.

You'll then see different movies and TV shows.

You can stream any of these to your device if you're connected to the internet or have service, but you'll only be able to download some of them to your device.

As a general rule, you can download any Amazon original show, like "Red Oaks," "Transparent," "Mozart in the Jungle," and "The Man in the High Castle."

You can also download previous seasons of HBO Shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Girls," "Veep," "The Wire," and plenty of other shows.

Go to whatever movie or TV show you want to watch offline, tap the "download" button, and the movie or TV show will begin to download.

Once it's done downloading, you'll be able to find it in the "downloads" tab.

They downloaded content is separated into movies and TV shows.

And you're ready to watch!

Having access to a few episodes of shows I wanted to watch, of course, made my flight a lot better. The app is intuitive and easy to use, and there's plenty of good stuff to watch on Amazon Prime.

There are a few things to think about if you plan to do this. Watching video eats battery life, so plan for that. My flight had outlets between the seats, so everything was fine. But if it didn't, I probably would only have been able to watch for about an hour and a half before my phone died.

You also have to download what you want to watch ahead of time. It's possible to download using a cellular connection, but unless you have unlimited data, you're not going to want to do this.

Finally, video also takes up a lot of space, so be sure you have enough room on your phone or tablet to download whatever it is you'd like to watch.

Now you're ready to sit back, relax, and watch.