Amazon’s replacement of Android on the Fire TV platform is underway and, well, customers aren’t very happy about it. Amid backlash over the removal of sideloading on new Fire TV Stick, Amazon has been caught censoring reviews, and also had to rebrand one of its other devices to prevent confusion.
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Earlier this week, Amazon held its annual fall hardware event, unveiling its next-gen lineup of smart speakers, smart displays, and streaming devices. Alongside the launch of a new $40 Fire TV Stick Select, the company took this opportunity to finally unveil Vega OS, a long-in-the-works move away from its Android-based Fire OS platform. If you’ve been wondering how Amazon managed to score deals with every major platform publisher for streaming apps, however, the company’s solution might make you raise an eyebrow.
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After years of rumors and reports, Amazon has officially announced Vega OS, its replacement for Android on Fire TV hardware, and it’s going to make some big changes.
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It’s finally time. After years of rumors, reports, and plenty of evidence, Amazon is reportedly gearing up to announce “Vega OS” as its replacement for Android on Fire TV next week.
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It’s been expected for a while now, but according to a new report, Amazon is set to do away with the Android foundation for its Fire TV streaming devices, with the replacement launching later this year.
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It was reported that Amazon would be shifting its Fire TV lineup away from an Android base, but it seems that’s at least being put off for a while longer as the company has hinted at a new Android 14-based build.
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A new update is now rolling out to Amazon Fire TV devices which removes a useful homescreen feature that would allow users to hide apps.
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An update to the YouTube app on Amazon Fire TV has been released to fix issues with sign-in that many users were running into.
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Microsoft has announced that Amazon Fire TV is getting support for an Xbox Cloud Gaming app in the first expansion in quite some time.
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Amazon’s Fire TV platform has never really been light on ads, but it seems the company has been trying to find more locations to slip advertisements in as of late. Now, some Fire TV users have noticed that Amazon seems to be replacing the screensaver with more ads.
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Late last year Amazon added fullscreen, autoplay video ads on Fire TV devices and, now, the company is toning those down just a little bit.
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Voice search is a key aspect of any smart TV platform, but how capable it is varies wildly from platform to platform. This week, Amazon has announced that it will use AI to enhance Fire TV voice search, but all of the examples are things that Google TV can already do.
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Late last year a report came out that Amazon would ditch Android for its own operating system, and if that report wasn’t enough, a job listing is making it pretty clear what’s going on.
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At CES 2024 Amazon is introducing “Matter Casting,” a new standard for casting content from apps on your phone to Amazon Fire TV and Amazon smart displays, similar to Google’s Chromecast and Apple’s AirPlay.
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Almost every smart TV platform is, at this point, a billboard for ads with your apps sprinkled in, but where the line is drawn for many is automatically playing videos. Now, Amazon Fire TV is showing fullscreen video ads to users, and there’s no way to avoid it.
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Amazon has been using “forked” versions of Android to power its products for years now, but the company is apparently planning to swap that out with a new web-forward “Vega” OS starting with new Fire TV devices.
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Amazon is reportedly working with partners on a new Fire TV feature that will show content you’ve been watching in a dedicated homescreen row, much like Google TV.
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Amazon appears to be imposing a ban on apps that allow users to remap the buttons on Fire TV remotes, and it’s not the first time the company has made this move.
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As content keeps moving around between various streaming services, Google TV has turned out to be a lifeboat of sorts in making it easy to figure out what content is available on which service. Some third-party apps have since found ways to replicate that, but Amazon is blocking that “guide” functionality on its Fire TV platform.
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As it continues to face intense scrutiny for its practices with Android partners, Google has just struck a new deal with Amazon that will allow Android partners to produce Amazon Fire TVs.
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When YouTube TV brought surround sound to Google/Android TV and Roku earlier this month, Google said it was working to expand availability, and 5.1 audio is now available on some Amazon Fire TV devices.
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Today Xiaomi announced its very first set of Amazon Fire TV smart TVs, with a trio of options hitting the market. It’s now the second Google partner for Android TV OS to adopt the Fire TV platform in under a month.
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Google’s Android TV has long been competing for its place in the market, and in the United States it primarily goes against Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV. Most Android TV and Google TV partners also sell Roku models, but they’ve never mixed in with Fire TV. That changes now, as Hisense has launched its first Amazon Fire TV model.
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Amazon’s Fire TV platform is built on top of Android, just like the company’s tablets – this adds a lot of flexibility to the platform, but with its latest update, Amazon seems to be going out of its way to block Android launchers on Fire TV.
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