There are tons of options buried in the settings menu on Fire TV Sticks and Fire TVs that you may have never noticed. Some of them can fix common frustrations, while others unlock useful features, some of which I rely on every day, like Bluetooth audio or Dialogue Boost.

But without fail, every time I set up a new Fire Stick, there’s one setting I change immediately after finishing the setup process: Featured Content Autoplay.

What it does is simple. It controls whether featured content (ads) automatically start playing videos while you’re navigating the Fire TV interface — whether you’re on the home screen or browsing tabs like Movies, TV Shows, or Live.

Personally, I find the videos that automatically start playing in the featured section slow down the Fire TV experience and are just plain annoying, especially when unexpected audio suddenly blasts through my TV’s speakers.

So, if you’re like me and want your Fire Stick to be faster and easier to use overall, disabling Featured Content Autoplay is a great place to start. And thankfully, it only takes a few seconds to do.

Brand

Amazon

Resolution

4K

Audio codecs

Dolby Atmos

RAM/storage

16 GB

How to turn off Featured Content Autoplay

There’s also a setting specifically for audio

Turning off Featured Content Autoplay on your Fire Stick is easy, and it works on Fire TV devices running both the old Fire TV user interface (UI) and the new, redesigned UI that Amazon recently launched in the US. Here’s how:

1. Press the Menu button (the three horizontal lines icon) on your Fire TV remote, then select Settings.

2. Go to Preferences.

3. Scroll down and select Featured Content.

4. Toggle off both Allow Video Autoplay and Allow Audio Autoplay.

With both Allow Video Autoplay and Allow Audio Autoplay turned off, you’ll still see ads for shows and movies as you browse your Fire TV, but they won’t start playing video or audio. This means no surprise trailers or sudden bursts of sound. Instead, you’ll see a still image when you hover over featured content. This can potentially speed up your Fire TV because it no longer needs to load these videos in the background.

Personally, even before I knew about this setting, I never watched any of the videos that play in the Featured Content section. Most of the time, when I sit down to use my Fire TV, I already know what I want to watch, so the autoplaying videos just get in the way. So, for me, this was an easy decision to turn off.

That said, this comes down to personal preference. If you don’t mind the featured content playing videos but don’t like the audio, you can leave Video Autoplay on and switch Audio Autoplay off, or vice versa. It really comes down to how quiet or animated you want the featured content on your Fire TV to be, and whether you don’t mind the potential impact on your device’s speed.

Additionally, if you’re looking for more ways to improve your Fire TV experience, I highly recommend checking out the Controllers & Bluetooth Devices settings menu, which lets you connect devices like controllers or headphones to your Fire TV, and the Display and Sounds settings menu, where you can adjust HDR and enable a handy audio setting called Dialogue Boost, which can help make it easier to hear what characters are saying in what you’re watching.