- Amazon has unveiled the first major Fire TV redesign in five years, which features new layouts and smarter color schemes
- As well as its redesign the Fire TV interface reduces the amount of time you spend searching for titles to watch, making it easier for you to find movies from your streaming services
- Additionally, you can now pin up to 20 different apps to the home screen and use Alexa+ across the entire interface
One of the few absent brands at CES 2026 is Amazon, but in spite of this the company hasn’t gone into hibernation, and there are some exciting new upgrades on the horizon.
After unveiling its new ‘lifestyle TV’, the Amazon Ember Artline, the company announced a huge piece of Fire TV news: a fresh interface revamp is coming after five years – and there’s no doubt it’s aimed at seriously competing with Google TV.
Launching in February on the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series in the US first, the new Fire TV look is modern with seamless animations and polished design upgrades, and promises to be easy to navigate. It also comes with a brand-new navigation bar with dedicated movie, TV shows, and other entertainment sections – but that’s just scratching the surface.
In its blog post announcing the new interface, Amazon described the redesign as “cleaner, faster, and better organized,” aiming to help you spend more time streaming and less time searching – a common issue us movie buffs run into. The new Fire TV revamp aims to cut down on this time by grouping movies, TV shows, sports, news, and live content from your streaming services into one space in the UI.
Already, it sounds like a winner in my eyes, but Amazon has promised even more handy functions including new organization tools. For years, Fire TV users have been restricted to pinning only six apps to the home screen, but now that’s increasing to a staggering 20, allowing you to keep all your subscriptions in one place, while taking away the chore of scrolling endlessly to find them.
As Amazon prepares to step into the world of lifestyle TVs with the Ember Artline, Fire TV Sticks are getting a similar treatment of their own. With the redesign, you can now use the ‘Menu’ button on the remote to launch art and images from your personal Amazon Photos account right to your TV, as well as launch games and the Ambient Experience.
Each new upgrade is one ingredient to what sounds like a delicious, multi-functional final product, but the icing on the cake is Alexa+.
Alexa, I’m in the mood for Emma Stone
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Amazon announcement without mention of Alexa+, which the company unveiled will be “available in every part of the Fire TV experience”.
Since Alexa+ was announced in February last year, Amazon has been slowly rolling its advanced AI voice assistant across its family of devices. It just launched on the web for everyone, and now it will find a new home across the Fire TV interface. You can tell it what mood you’re in, who you’re watching with, and even give examples of directors and movie stars you like for more precise results.
Needless to say, I’m quite excited to make the most of Fire TV’s next upgrade and compare its smarts to other smart TVs. But this is just the beginning of Fire TV’s next era, and following its US release in February Amazon will be expanding the interface upgrade to more countries and even more devices in the spring.
The best TVs for all budgets
TechRadar will be extensively covering this year’s CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.
And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RRbA4Riqxva3jZp9ZvNuYH-1320-80.jpg
Source link
rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
