Amazon Fire TV YouTube Player Integration Issues - Service Missing Error

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1

I’m trying to build a video streaming app for Amazon Fire TV that can play YouTube content. I decided to use the YouTube Android Player API but I’m running into problems.

package com.myapp.firetv.video;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.Toast;

import com.google.android.youtube.player.YouTubeBaseActivity;
import com.google.android.youtube.player.YouTubeInitializationResult;
import com.google.android.youtube.player.YouTubePlayer;
import com.google.android.youtube.player.YouTubePlayerView;

public class VideoStreamActivity extends YouTubeBaseActivity implements YouTubePlayer.OnInitializedListener {
    private static final int ERROR_RECOVERY = 100;
    public static final String API_KEY = "-----YOUR_API_KEY----------";
    private YouTubePlayerView playerView;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.video_player_layout);

        playerView = (YouTubePlayerView) findViewById(R.id.video_player);
        playerView.initialize(API_KEY, this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onInitializationSuccess(YouTubePlayer.Provider provider, YouTubePlayer ytPlayer, boolean restored) {
        if (!restored) {
            ytPlayer.cueVideo("dQw4w9WgXcQ");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onInitializationFailure(YouTubePlayer.Provider provider, YouTubeInitializationResult error) {
        if (error.isUserRecoverableError()) {
            error.getErrorDialog(this, ERROR_RECOVERY).show();
        } else {
            Toast.makeText(this, "Failed to load video player", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        if (requestCode == ERROR_RECOVERY) {
            getPlayerProvider().initialize(API_KEY, this);
        }
    }

    protected YouTubePlayer.Provider getPlayerProvider() {
        return playerView;
    }
}

video_player_layout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <com.google.android.youtube.player.YouTubePlayerView
        android:id="@+id/video_player"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />

</LinearLayout>

The problem is that when I run this on Fire TV, I get a dialog asking me to install YouTube, but clicking the button doesn’t work. In the onInitializationFailure callback, I’m getting SERVICE_MISSING error. The YouTube app is already installed on the Fire TV device.

Has anyone successfully implemented YouTube playback on Amazon Fire TV? What’s the best approach to handle this SERVICE_MISSING error?

2

yeah the youtube api is basically dead on fire tv. i had same issue few months back and webview was only thing that worked decent. just make sure you enable javascript and set the user agent string properly or videos wont load right on fire tv browser.

3

The YouTube Android Player API has been deprecated since 2018 and doesn’t work reliably on Fire TV devices anymore. Google Play Services aren’t available on Amazon’s platform which causes the SERVICE_MISSING error you’re encountering. I ran into this exact issue when developing for Fire TV last year and had to pivot completely. The most reliable solution now is using WebView to load YouTube videos through the embedded player iframe API. You’ll need to construct URLs like https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID and handle the WebView configuration properly for Fire TV’s interface. Another approach is using ExoPlayer with YouTube’s data API to extract video metadata, though this requires more backend work. The embedded iframe approach worked well for my Fire TV app and provides decent playback quality without the service dependency issues.

4

I faced this exact problem when porting my streaming app to Fire TV devices. The SERVICE_MISSING error occurs because Fire TV runs Fire OS which doesn’t include Google Play Services that the YouTube Android Player API depends on. Even though YouTube app exists on Fire TV, it’s Amazon’s version, not Google’s implementation.

After spending weeks troubleshooting this, I ended up implementing a hybrid solution. For Fire TV devices specifically, I detect the platform and fall back to using a WebView with YouTube’s iframe embed API. You can check if you’re running on Fire TV by examining the system properties or device model. The key is handling the platform detection gracefully and providing different playback mechanisms.

One thing to watch out for with the WebView approach is that you need to properly handle the focus management since Fire TV uses D-pad navigation instead of touch. Make sure your WebView can receive focus and responds to remote control inputs correctly.