- Amazon’s first major Fire TV software rework in five years
- Initially for Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2023), Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED
- Rollout is currently US-only; will be expanded in the Spring
Amazon is now rolling out its most exciting Fire TV device upgrade to date, featuring the first major redesign of this software in five years, and some important under-the-hood change that promise to majorly speed up your devices.
The rollout has started in the US, and it looks like Amazon is taking it slow: it’s coming to just three devices to begin with. Those devices are the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2023, 2nd Gen), the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, and the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED TV.
The update will roll out to more countries and more devices in the Spring of 2026, with third-party Fire TV devices (such as TVs from TCL, Panasonic, Hisense, Insignia and more) getting upgraded too.
What’s new in the Amazon Fire TV upgrade?
This isn’t just a minor refresh, although everything has been tweaked to make it look better. There’s much more room for pinned apps and subscriptions, giving you 20 slots instead of the current six. There’s a new streamlined navigation bar too.
One of the key goals of the update is to reduce the amount of time you spend searching for something to watch, with improved recommendations and easier access to live content too.
The focus on watching means that less commonly used features such as games, photos, music videos and the Appstore are tucked away in a three-line hamburger menu.
Alexa+ will enable you to ask questions using natural language, ask follow-up questions and generally chat with Amazon’s digital assistant. If it’s as good as Amazon says you’ll be able to do interesting things such as ask Alexa to recommend movies that have a similar visual style. Alexa+ is included in your Prime subscription; non-subscribers can pay separately to enable the feature.
Perhaps most excitingly, Amazon says that its reworking of the underlying code makes the update “20–30%” faster – and responsiveness has always been an area where Fire TV could use a little nudge.
This also comes hot on the heels of Nvidia GeForce Now cloud gaming coming to Fire TV devices, albeit not quite in the full quality that we’d hoped for – but it’s still a great combo.
According to TechCrunch, the spring rollout will cover more countries and more Fire TV models including the latest Fire TV 4K streaming players, the Fire TV 2-Series and 4-Series, and the Omni QLED Series. You’ll also have it on the new Amazon Ember Artline TVs.
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