New OS: What's Changed for Amazon's TV Sticks

Amazon repeatedly tried to open up new areas of business for itself. Initially, tablets were developed as a showcase for online offerings. This was followed by inexpensive TV sticks that brought smart functions to numerous televisions. Finally, with the Echo series, the entity unveiled devices to control the smart home.

All these different formats have one thing in common: they ran on the same operating system. With Fire OS, Amazon relies on a so-called Android fork. This is a version of the platform originating from Google that is exclusively based on the open-source components of Android.

Less Google at Amazon

However, the company increasingly seems to want to free itself from its dependence on Google. As part of the presentation of the new TV stick and new Echo devices, Amazon announced that these will no longer run on Fire OS, but on a new operating system known as Vega OS instead. This is apparently a new development on the current platform.

The Amazon developers will use Linux as the base for the new software platform. However, this will not replace Fire OS completely: According to the available information so far, the tablets will continue to ship with the Android-based Fire OS. The same appears to apply to the new Fire TVs, whose specifications still list the previous operating system. The Fire TV Stick 4K Select, on the other hand, will run on Vega OS in the future.

No Limitations for Users

Buyers of the Fire TV Stick 4K Select or the new Echo devices need not fear any limitations in moving forward. The user interfaces of the two Amazon operating systems are almost identical. The streaming services offered to date will also remain available. In the future, it will even be possible to stream games—in addition to the company's own Luna platform, support for Xbox Cloud Gaming services is also planned.

Users can also look forward to better performance: Vega OS has been specially adapted to the limited computing power of devices such as Fire TV sticks.

Things Get More Confusing for Developers

For developers, on the other hand, the situation is becoming more complex: with Vega Developer Tools, Amazon is providing a new set of tools that can be used to develop apps for the new platform. It should also be possible to transfer existing Fire OS applications without any problems. Amazon continues to rely heavily on the concept of web apps, which should enable simple scaling. With the help of so-called WebViews—a method to integrate web content that Amazon calls Vega WebViews—the apps can be expanded to include functions that originate directly from websites.

However, the Vega Developer Tools cannot be used to develop Echo apps. The Alexa Developer Kit is still required for this.