While I still use the Apple TV 4K as my main streaming device, I recently shifted some of my streaming over to Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It's a low-cost, pint-sized streaming device that, at least so far, performs great. It's not perfect, though. For example, Amazon pushes ads like crazy on Fire OS, I've run into a few instances of lag, and the controller feels like it might snap in half.

Now that I've spent a few weeks with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, I've uncovered several useful features I didn't initially know existed. Some of them are pretty obvious, like using your phone as a remote and cloud gaming, while others are for a more niche audience and remove at least some of the platform's most disruptive ads.

If your Fire TV Stick is lagging, there's a quick fix

I wish I had known about this trick earlier

Though my experience with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max has been pretty smooth, I've encountered a few instances where it lags, freezes, or gets stuck in a buffering loop when I'm trying to watch a TV show or movie. To hard reset the streamer and cycle its power, I typically briefly unplug it and then plug it back in. However, there's a much easier way to power-cycle Amazon's streamer that I recently found out about.

To perform a hard reset on your Fire TV Stick more quickly and easily, press and hold the Select and Play/Pause buttons simultaneously. To be clear, this is the center button on the remote, and the one with the play triangle and two-line pause symbol. After you've held both buttons down for roughly five seconds, your Fire TV should restart, and in theory, the freezing or stuttering issues should be gone.

Use your phone as a remote

If you can't find your Fire TV Stick's remote, this is a quick fix

If you're like me and lose your Fire TV Stick's remote all the time, setting up your smartphone to work as a backup remote for the streamer can be really useful. First, you need to download the Fire TV app on iOS or Android. Once you have the app and you've logged in to your Amazon account, you'll be given the option to connect to a nearby Fire TV Stick. As soon as you've done that, your phone instantly turns into a remote.

The UI is basically a digital version of the physical Fire TV Stick remote, including the familiar Navigation Dial, Home, Pause/Play, Rewind, and Forward buttons, so it should be easy to understand. It's even possible to launch apps on your TV directly from the Fire TV app if you're looking for a shortcut to get right into streaming.

Autoplay ads are awful, so turn them off

Muting featured content is the way

As I mentioned before, the Fire TV's biggest problem is the number of ads Amazon constantly throws at you, and the most egregious of those are the big banner auto-play advertisements that blast you as soon as you boot up the streaming stick. Thankfully, turning this awful feature off is very easy.

To stop automatic audio and video ad playback, head to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content. In this menu, select Allow Video AutoPlay and Allow Audio Autoplay, and set both features Off. By default, both settings are on. Once you've made this change, turning on your Fire TV Stick should be less jarring and annoying. Of course, you'll still see ads absolutely everywhere on Fire OS, but at least you can just scroll past them quietly now.

Turn your Fire TV Stick into a cloud gaming powerhouse

The streaming device supports Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon's Luna, and Nvidia GeForce Now

I recently used my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream games through the Xbox app on my Fire TV Stick 4K Max. While the experience isn't perfect and there's still a bit of input delay, it looks surprisingly great and performs pretty well. I also appreciate that I can connect my Xbox Elite Series 2 controller to my Fire TV Stick 4K Max over Bluetooth.

Along with Xbox Cloud Gaming ($30/month), the Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports Amazon Luna ($10/month or included with Amazon Prime at $15/month), and Nvidia GeForce Now (starts at $10/month). Of course, whether game streaming will work for you depends on the speed of your home internet connection and on whether you're using a wired or wireless connection with your Fire TV Stick.

With Xbox Cloud Gaming, the Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd-gen), the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd-gen) are supported. For Luna, the streaming platform works with pretty much every Fire TV Stick model except the first-generation base Fire TV Stick. With GeForce Now, the Fire TV Stick Plus (2nd-gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd-gen) support GeForce Now, though quality is limited to 1080p at 60fps.

If you're looking for a way to game in your living room and already have a decent gaming setup elsewhere in your house, one of the above game streaming platforms can be a great way to expand where you're able to game for not that much money, especially if you already own a compatible Fire TV Stick.