Amazon announced the evolution of the Fire TV devices with the new Vega OS experience. It’s time to say goodbye to the Android operating system on the Amazon Smart TV sticks. Vega OS is a proprietary OS from Amazon. It’s a faster, more efficient platform for a customized experience in your Smart TV that comes with certain sacrifices.
The first Fire TV devices with Vega OS are already a reality. They include Alexa+ integration to make the most out of the Artificial Intelligence assistant from Amazon. However, abandoning Android also has drawbacks. For example, the loss of the sideloading feature for Fire TV devices.
New Vega OS Fire TV and the changes they bring
Amazon wants to offer a faster and customizable experience for the new Fire TV with Vega OS models. The full integration of Alexa+ allows for petitions using natural language and voice. The system also makes recommendations and suggestions taking the user preference as basis.
For example, if the user asks Alexa+ to recommend a series after watching Dune: The Prophecy first season, the system can recommend another program with similar characteristics. Then you can ask Alexa+ for a customized search by saying something like “No, I want something fun for all the family”. The AI will learn about your preferences but you can also interact with natural language to ask for specific things.
The full integration with the Amazon ecosystem also allows asking the TV to turn off the lights of the room when watching TV, for example. Alexa was able to do this already but now you can do it all in one order. “Play an episode and turn off the lights”.
Changes with Vega OS Fire TV and compatible apps
According to Amazon the Vega OS experience is faster and more efficient than Android. It also runs with less resources because it only asks for 1 GB of RAM. It’s compatible with the most popular streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube, HBO Max and many more.
What happened with the sideloading feature?
The sideloading feature allowed for the installation of apps from external sources like other Android devices. Vega OS won’t have sideloading enabled but the Amazon operating system is more fluent. This is not good news because there are several unofficial apps that you could enjoy from the Fire TV Android models.
At the moment, Amazon launched only one Fire TV model with Vega OS. It is the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and it costs 40 dollars in the United States of America market. It will reach Spain but the date is still unknown. On the other hand, Amazon will introduce more Vega OS devices in the near future. The idea of the company is to bring a new user experience that won’t require Android to run. It’s a new step for the Amazon technological environment in separating itself from Google and the Android ecosystem. Time will tell if the decision is right or wrong and what the community wants.