Prime Video's smart new X-Ray feature is finally a good reason to add AI to streaming

The Prime Video app playing a show with a summary of text in front of it

Forgot what happened in the first three episodes of Upload season 2? This great new Prime Video feature will get you up to speed. (Image credit: Amazon)

Prime Video is testing a new AI feature that recaps movies and shows
X-Ray Recaps develops personalized episode and season summaries
The new feature is limited to Amazon Fire TV customers in the US

Prime Video subscribers might soon get a great new feature that will create personalized summaries of episodes and seasons you've watched of a movie or show.

X-Ray Recaps is a new feature that's being rolled out in beta to customers in the US who own Amazon Fire TVs only, such as the best TV for those on a budget, the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED. However, Amazon has said that support for more devices will come by the end of the year.

The new feature is part of Amazon's generative AI suite of X-Ray tools that it started adding in 2022 and is designed to help catch you up on anything you've missed from one of the best Prime Video shows or best Prime Video movies.

Instead of searching online for recaps that might contain spoilers or rewatching parts of an episode you've already seen, X-Ray Recaps will allow you to be able to get a useful summary of a show you're watching, no matter where you stopped streaming.

An Amazon Fire TV with a new AI settings feature displayed — When you launch X-Ray Recaps during a show, you'll be able to choose from different types of episode or season recaps. (Image credit: Amazon)

As someone that struggles to keep up with what happened at the end of a show that's been on a year-long break, I'm very excited to try out this new feature (well, if all goes well with the testing period and X-Ray Recaps makes its way outside of the US).

The fact that it's personalized to where you stopped watching a title will likely be very useful too. I'll admit, I've definitely been known to sometimes fall asleep during some movies and shows, and trying to find where I last remembered can be a pain.

I'm not alone either, as Amazon's vice president of the product Adam Gray has said that the tool was built to address "common problems customers face when streaming content". Forgetting where you left off is one we're all used to after all.

How can you use X-Ray Recaps?

The Prime Video app with an episode of Upload playing with settings open to the side

If you own an Amazon Fire TV and live in the US, then you can test out the X-Ray Recap feature by launching it from the homepage of Prime Video or going to a title and clicking on the dotted circular arrow symbol to open a side panel.

This panel will show you various recap options to choose from, depending on how far back you need to go. This includes summaries for the current or last episode you're watching, the previous season or the season so far.

You'll be able to use the feature on all Prime Video Original series at launch, including The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power season 2, Daisy Jones and the Six, The Boys season 4 and Mrs and Mrs Smith.

Amelia became the Senior Editor for Home Entertainment at TechRadar in the UK in April 2023. With a background of more than eight years in tech and finance publishing, she's now leading our coverage to bring you a fresh perspective on everything to do with TV and audio. When she's not tinkering with the latest gadgets and gizmos in the ever-evolving world of home entertainment, you’ll find her watching movies, taking pictures and travelling.