- Amazon launched Prime Video profiles in the United States and several other countries on Tuesday, years after the feature was added to Hulu and Netflix.
- Amazon Prime Video accounts can create up to six profiles, each with personalized content.
- At launch, you can create and manage Prime Video profiles on Android, iOS, and Fire TV versions of Prime Video, as well as on the web, on Fire tablets, and select living room devices.
With over 180 million subscribers and more original content than you will ever have time to watch, Netflix is the gold standard when it comes to video streaming services. Although we all have our issues with the service, from annoying user interface elements to early cancellations of shows that deserve much longer lives, you would be hard-pressed to find another service that gets more of the fundamentals right than Netflix, which was made even more clear today as Amazon announced that its Prime Video service is finally getting user profiles after all this time.
On Tuesday, Amazon started rolling out user profiles in the US and other countries after launching them in India and parts of Africa earlier this year. The feature allows users to create up to six Prime Video profiles on their account “with content personalized separately to each profile.” Amazon explains each profile has its own recommendations, watch history, season progress, and watch list based on the user’s activity within that profile.
If you want to create or manage profiles on your Prime Video account, here are the steps you need to follow:
- Go to the “Profile Picker” drop-down from Prime Video home page and click “Add new” to create a new profile.
- Click “Manage profiles” from “Profile Picker” drop-down.
- Click “Edit profile” and select the profile icon you want to manage (edit/remove).
- Click “Remove profile” to remove a profile. Or Make changes to the profile and select “Save changes.”
Amazon has also given Prime Video subscribers the ability to make Kids profiles that will be limited to age-appropriate TV shows and movies with maturity ratings of 12 and under. Any purchases are disabled in Kids profiles, plus you can enable ‘Purchase Restrictions’ under Prime Video ‘Settings’ to prevent purchasing without a Prime Video PIN. Search results and suggestions will be filtered as well, but downloads from other profiles will be available.
It’s somewhat surprising that it took Amazon so long to add such a seemingly basic feature to its service, but at least now you can avoid messing up the recommendations of your friends and family members.
For now, you can create and manage profiles on the Android, iOS, and Fire TV versions of the Prime Video app, as well as on the web, on Fire tablets (10th generation or higher), and select living room devices. Amazon is rolling out user profiles in phases, so you might not see it on your account right away.
