Prime Video could soon get one of YouTube TV’s best features

Key Takeaways

• Prime Video is gearing up to enhance its live sports streaming capabilities with a potential multiview feature.
• While specific details about the multiview feature are still emerging, code found in the app’s latest build suggests traditional playback controls like pause, rewind, and fast-forward may not be available during multiview usage.
• It is unclear if multiview support will be limited to Prime Video’s expensive ad-less tiers.

Amazon is making significant strides with Prime Video, with it only lagging behind Netflix when it comes to total subscribers. This makes sense, especially when you consider how Prime Video is bundled with Amazon’s primary one-day shipping Prime subscription, alongside other benefits like access to Amazon Music, Prime Reading, Prime Gaming, Amazon Photos, and more.

The platform recently rolled out support for an AI-generated feature that helps you recall TV show details with concise summaries of plot points, cliffhangers, character arcs, and more — similar to the Google TV Streamer’s AI-generated summaries. Now, in a subsequent update, it looks like the streaming giant might be ready to borrow one of YouTube TV’s best features.

Prime Video, beginning with the 2025-26 NBA season, will offer exclusive global coverage for 66 regular-season NBA games, while it already streams Thursday Night Football and some soccer games. For instances where multiple games are taking place simultaneously, Prime Video wants you to be able to catch all of them — and YouTube TV-like multiview support is likely the answer.

As highlighted by Android Authority, Prime Video’s version 3.0.389 build offers hints at upcoming multiview functionality.

Code strings make it clear that multiview is coming, but specifics are currently unknown

<string name=”AV_ANDROID_PLAYER_EXIT_MULTIVIEW_TEXT”>Do you want to exit multiview?</string>

<string name=”AV_ANDROID_PLAYER_FAST_FORWARD_UNAVAILABLE”>Fast forward unavailable during multiview</string>

<string name=”AV_ANDROID_PLAYER_PAUSE_UNAVAILABLE”>Pause unavailable during multiview</string>

<string name=”AV_ANDROID_PLAYER_REWIND_UNAVAILABLE”>Rewind unavailable during multiview</string>

<string name=”AV_ANDROID_PLAYER_SETUP_MULTIVIEW_TEXT”>Set up your multiview</string>

<string name=”AV_MOBILE_ANDROID_PLAYER_MULTI_VIEW”>Multiview</string>

<string name=”fable_icon_multiview”></string>

<string name=”multiview_error_message”>There was an error playing this stream. Please remove and try again</string>

Strings of code found in the build suggest that multiview will indeed land on the app soon, though traditional playback controls like fast-forward, pause, or rewind wouldn’t be available when in multiview mode. Similar to YouTube TV’s implementation, Prime too would likely let users split their screen into two to four sections, complete with an option to select the audio source from one of the streams.

Additionally, YouTube TV’s multiview implementation is available on smart TVs, streaming media players, Android phones, and on iOS phones and tablets. However, when the feature was first launched, it was limited to smart TVs and streaming devices. It is currently unclear if Prime Video’s multiview will have similar limitations at the onset.

Also worth noting is that Prime Video’s base subscription now has ads, with ad-free viewing costing subscribers an extra $3 monthly. It is unclear if multiview support, if and when it does come to fruition, will be limited to the expensive ad-less tiers.