Amazon Prime is best known for three services: fast free shipping and the use of Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Prime Video. However, Prime customers have access to even more services and content. TECHBOOK presents the little-known services of Amazon Prime.
Prime costs EUR 69 per year, or EUR 7.99 per month. Membership is slightly cheaper for students. In addition to free shipping and the use of Amazon’s streaming offers, Prime offers other advantages. We present six little-known ones below.
1.) Share Prime benefits with the guest option
And when it comes to membership, we come to the first point that many Prime users don’t even know – the guest option. Because a Prime customer can extend their membership to another person living in their household, who can then use the shipping benefits at no additional cost. Those customers who signed up for Prime before November 8, 2017 can even add up to four people as guests on their account. The persons registered in this way must be over 18 years old and can be changed or removed from the account at any time.
Also read: Create user profiles on Amazon Prime Video in 5 steps
2.) Amazon Family – discounts for families
For families, Amazon offers a savings option and regularly changing coupons specifically for the product group. Prime members receive a discount of 20 percent when purchasing diapers and baby food with a saver subscription. However, infant formula is excluded from the offer. Likewise, Prime customers must receive at least five savings subscriptions in one delivery to the same address in the same month.
The savings subscription works as follows: Goods that customers need regularly can be ordered a little cheaper with a subscription. Outside of the Amazon Family option, the savings are usually 5 to 15 percent, depending on the quantity ordered. Delivery takes place at various selectable intervals from monthly to half-yearly, with shipping always being free. Practical: The savings subscription can be adjusted or canceled at any time.
Also read: 6 tips to always find the best price on Amazon
3.) Prime Gaming, formerly Twitch Prime
Until mid-August, Amazon operated Twitch Prime, a community platform on which gamers can exchange ideas with each other and watch each other play live via stream. However, the online retailer has now changed its gaming range. Prime Gaming is the name of the new service included in Prime membership, behind which there is a subscription for games. With it, Prime customers have access to a games library with over 20 titles (mainly for the PC) that they can download and play for free. According to Amazon, new titles are added every month, some of which replace the old ones. The best thing about Prime Gaming: Prime customers can keep the downloaded games forever – even if Amazon changes the game selection in the subscription or customers cancel their Prime subscription.
Customers who want to use Prime Gaming do not have to link their Amazon account to Twitch – this was necessary with the previous offer. In addition to changing games, Prime Gaming also offers in-game accessories, skins and functions that Prime customers can access free of charge. These can be used across platforms. If the title is also available for the PS4 or Xbox, the in-game content can also be used there.
By the way, Twitch Prime hasn’t completely disappeared. Prime customers can continue to link their Twitch account to Amazon for access to Crown Chat and select special features. Subscribing to popular gaming channels is also free through Twitch Prime.
Also read: The best gaming accessories for your smartphone
4.) Discount on Booking.com
The hotel booking platform Booking.com works with Amazon and grants Prime customers a special discount. Sign in with your Amazon account via the promotion page booking.com/amazonprime you will receive 10 percent of the booking amount back as a voucher about three weeks after your stay. This can then be offset against the costs for the next booking. In addition, the Genius status is automatically activated for one year, which normally requires a few bookings. Genius status brings additional benefits such as a further 10 percent discount from many hotel providers, a better room category or similar.
5.) Prime Reading for free reading material
Amazon also markets its own devices and has partially integrated them into the Prime universe. For example, Prime customers can read books, comics or magazines for free. The best way to do this is via the Kindle app on a smartphone, a Fire tablet or the Kindle e-readers. That includes several hundred titles free range from Prime Reading. Great works like “Harry Potter” and the like are not included, but the selection changes regularly.
There is no loan period for borrowed books and magazines. However, Amazon limits online lending to a maximum of 10 books. According to Amazon, reading is still possible even if the titles have actually been removed from the library or replaced.
Also read: E-book reader Amazon Kindle and Tolino in comparison
6.) Amazon Photos with unlimited cloud storage
iPhone users usually store their photos in iCloud, Android owners use Google Photos. Both offer free but limited storage space in the respective cloud. If it is full, users can book more storage for a monthly fee. With Amazon Photos, however, Prime customers have an alternative – free of charge and without storage space limitations. Here the photos are stored in the full quality of the Amazon cloud and can be accessed from different devices. Amazon allows access via PC, but also via apps for Android, iOS and Mac. There is also direct access to Fire tablets and Fire TV. An additional 5 gigabytes are available for videos.
Watch the video to see what a huge Amazon warehouse looks like from the inside:
Users can manage and share their images and videos uploaded to Amazon Photo. Keywords, places or the like can be added to each image in order to be able to find them more easily later. The internal organization tool also recognizes images of the same person or environment and groups them together if desired. Prime customers can invite up to five friends or family members to Photos, who can then also use the cloud storage.