Amazon has developed a number of services and apps over the years, such as Audible, Kindle books, Amazon Prime Video, and Amazon Underground, which was released for Android in 2015.
However, customers have noted that Amazon Underground is no longer anywhere to be found and wonder if the app still exists. If you’d like to find out this answer, keep reading to see what I learned!
What Happened to Amazon Underground?
In 2017, Amazon announced that they were shutting down the Amazon Underground app in pursuit of building their own app store as a replacement for Underground’s free content. The company fully shut the app down in 2019, almost two years after it announced its departure. However, customers can still use the apps they downloaded from Underground.
If you’d like to learn more about why Amazon Underground closed, what the app was used for, whether or not it was actually free, and more, keep reading this article for more useful facts and tips!
Why Did Amazon Underground Close?
When Amazon announced that the Underground app was closing, they stated the reason as being that they intended to launch their own app store.
Amazon launching an app store removed the need for Underground, as the apps available on Underground would be accessed in Amazon’s new app store.
Additionally, Underground was met with criticism for being a comparatively small app in comparison to the Google Play store and that it was a limited utility as a single source for downloading apps and content.
Therefore, Amazon decided to cancel the Underground app, with the goal of providing an app store that carried more options for apps to download and to be met with a higher reception.
What Was Amazon Underground Used For?
Amazon Underground was a miniature app store, which was available for download through Amazon.com and only available for Android devices.
In order to have apps made available, developers could pitch their concept to Amazon, which would receive payment based on user time in their app for $0.002 a minute per individual user.
Customers could download games and other unique apps and only had to pay the upfront cost for the app. Amazon didn’t add any additional costs, and customers didn’t have to pay to play the games they downloaded.
Was Amazon Underground Actually Free?
The download for the Amazon Underground app was completely free of cost, and any apps within Underground that cost money were usually only for $1-2 upfront.
Amazon Underground was advertised as “Actually Free” because, unlike apps in other app stores, customers were not required to pay a monthly subscription or any internal app fees.
For example, customers could download a game for a couple of dollars and level up through the game without having to purchase additional vouchers or points.
Therefore, Amazon Underground received the reputation of being free, which attracted many customers to the app and resulted in a large amount of initial growth for the app upon its release!
How Did Amazon Monetize Amazon Underground?
Even though Amazon did not charge continuous fees for the use of Amazon Underground, they were able to monetize the app by providing ads every time a user downloaded an app from Underground.
As well, Amazon would occasionally feature ads when customers opened Underground, which enabled them to keep the app running and to pay their app developers.
Was Amazon Underground Popular?
Amazon Underground was met with a mixed bag of reception but was overall praised for being an affordable place to download games and other apps, in particular for children who could download apps to their devices without always requiring purchase consent from their parents.
The app was also highly praised for enabling app creators to make money upfront by paying creators every time someone used their app.
As well, Amazon Underground was known for being a place where app developers could focus more on creating engaging in-app experiences instead of spending the majority of their time stressing about monetizing their apps.
Does Amazon Underground Still Work?
When Amazon began the process of closing down the Underground app, they allowed users to utilize the service until the beginning of 2019.
Therefore, the Amazon Underground app is no longer available for customers to use.
However, customers can still use most of the apps they purchased through Underground, which were required to be made available through Google Play at the outset.
Is Amazon Bringing the Underground App Back?
Unfortunately, Amazon has expressed no plans to bring the Underground app back to Android in the future.
However, Amazon has instead made the Amazon App Store available for customers.
Customers can download the Amazon App Store to any Android device, where they can find apps and games in multiple genres and niches and can save on apps by earning Amazon Coins.
However, unlike Amazon Underground, the Amazon Appstore does require in-app purchases for some of its content.
Nevertheless, customers can still locate many enjoyable apps and save money when they earn Coins!
To find out more about Amazon, you can also read our posts on whether or not can you hide orders on Amazon, if Amazon refunds canceled orders, and if Amazon is safe to shop on.
