How to Set Up an Amazon Fire Tablet for Captional
Making Captions More Accessible with Fire Tablets
Providing real-time captions in churches, events, and community spaces is about more than just technology—it’s about creating a welcoming, inclusive environment where everyone can fully engage. Captional makes that possible by delivering live captions directly to mobile devices, but sometimes, not everyone has a smartphone or is comfortable downloading apps.
Fire tablets are an affordable, portable, and easy-to-use solution for making Captional captions accessible to anyone who needs them. With their larger screens, they are easier to read than a phone, and their simple interface makes them perfect for non-tech-savvy users. By setting up a few dedicated tablets for Captional, churches and organizations can offer them as a hospitality feature, ensuring that guests and members can participate without any barriers.
However, Fire tablets are designed with Amazon’s ecosystem in mind, which means they come with extra features—ads, Alexa, tracking, and unnecessary setup options—that can make them distracting and confusing when used for a single purpose like Captional. Worse, users can accidentally exit the app, leaving them unsure of how to get back in.
The solution? App Pinning.
By pinning Captional, you can lock the tablet into the app, preventing users from accidentally closing it and getting lost in the tablet’s menus. This article will walk you through setting up a Fire tablet specifically for Captional, removing unnecessary distractions, and ensuring a smooth, frustration-free experience for anyone using it.
TL;DR (Quick Setup for Tech-Savvy Users)
Create a new Amazon account – Don’t use a personal account to avoid purchase prompts.
Log into the tablet with this new account (you can use the same account on multiple tablets).
Skip unnecessary settings – No passcode, disable tracking, no Kid Mode, no Alexa.
Enable App Pinning – Go to Settings, search for “Pin,” and turn it on.
Install Captional from the Amazon App Store – Sort by price (low to high) to find it quickly.
Pin Captional – Open the app, tap the square navigation button, click the down arrow, and select “Pin.”
Set screen timeout to 30 minutes – Ensures the tablet is always ready for use.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Set Up a New Amazon Account
For a seamless experience, it’s best to create a new Amazon account instead of using a personal one.
Why? If you use a regular Amazon account, the tablet will continuously prompt you to add a payment method, purchase apps, or sync with existing Amazon services.
Solution: Register a separate email for your Captional tablets and use it for multiple devices if needed.
During setup, select your country, sign in with the new account, and proceed.
If you skip signing in, the tablet will lock you out of the app store, making it impossible to install Captional.
Step 2: Skip Unnecessary Settings
Amazon wants you to enable features that aren’t needed for Captional. Skip or disable the following:
✅ Skip passcode setup – Avoids unnecessary security barriers.
✅ Disable tracking & data collection – Improves privacy.
✅ Skip “Kid Mode” – Keeps the tablet in normal mode.
✅ Disable Alexa – Amazon will push you to enable Alexa, but you can skip it.
This keeps the tablet simple and distraction-free.
Step 3: Enable App Pinning (Important!)
App Pinning locks the tablet into Captional, preventing accidental exits.
Open Settings and search for “Pin.”
Enable the option.
Now, once Captional is running, you can enable “App Pinning” so that users won’t be able to exit it by mistake.
Step 4: Install the Captional App
Open the Amazon App Store and search for “Captional.”
Amazon doesn’t make it easy to find, so sort by price (low to high) to bring it to the top of the search results.
Download and install the app.
Step 5: Pin Captional for Hands-Free Use
Once Captional is installed, it’s time to pin it:
Open Captional.
Tap the square navigation button at the bottom of the screen.
In the dropdown menu, click the down arrow and select “Pin.”
Now, the app will remain open even if users tap the home button or try to exit.
To exit the pinned app:
Press and hold the square and triangle buttons simultaneously to unlock the tablet.
This feature is crucial for usability—without it, people may accidentally close Captional and struggle to reopen it.
Step 6: Adjust Screen Timeout (Bonus Step)
Go to Settings and set screen timeout to 30 minutes.
This ensures the tablet stays on and ready so users don’t have to hunt for the power button.
Final Thoughts
With these steps, your Fire tablets will be perfectly set up for Captional:
✅ No distractions from Amazon’s extra features
✅ Easy-to-read captions on a larger screen
✅ No accidental exits with App Pinning
✅ Tablets are always on and ready to go
By providing tablets like this, churches and event organizers can offer a seamless, accessible experience for guests who may not have a smartphone or prefer a simple, pre-configured solution.
Now, anyone who needs captions can just pick up a tablet and start reading—no setup, no stress.
