Amazon has officially removed this Fire Stick capability forever ‣ Diverse Daily

Ever since Amazon released the Fire TV Stick 4K Select last year, the first Fire TV Stick to run Vega OS, its new Linux-based operating system, there have been questions about what this means for the future of all new Fire TV Sticks. Will Fire OS, which is Android-based and supports sideloading, be phased out across all future Fire TV Sticks in favor of Vega OS, which doesn’t support sideloading?

When the Fire TV Stick 4K Select launched in October, Amazon didn’t give a clear answer, instead insisting that it is now a “multi-OS company” with plans to support both Vega OS and Fire OS simultaneously. However, with the new Fire TV Stick HD launching soon and also running Vega OS, the company has finally confirmed its future plans.

First spotted by Ars Technica, Amazon has quietly updated its Fire TV website for developers, adding a note that states, “Starting with Fire TV Stick 4K Select, all future Fire TV Sticks will run on Vega.”

This is the first official confirmation we’ve received from Amazon about its future plans for Vega OS on new Fire TV Sticks. This means that when Amazon presumably releases new versions of the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and Fire TV Stick 4K Max in the future, they’ll run Vega OS, not Fire OS.

Sideloading on Fire Sticks will soon be a thing of the past

Amazon is trying to combat piracy using Vega OS

The biggest difference between Vega OS and Fire OS is that, since Vega OS is Linux-based, it doesn’t support sideloading Android apps. That means on any Fire TV Stick running Vega OS, such as the new Fire TV Stick HD and the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, you can only download apps from Amazon’s official Appstore.

Before Vega OS arrived last year, every Fire TV Stick ran on Fire OS, Amazon’s Android-based operating system that has powered its Fire TV lineup for well over a decade, including its streaming sticks and TVs. Because Fire OS is built on the Android Open Source Project and allows sideloading, many users took advantage of this to install third-party apps not found in Amazon’s Appstore — such as the Kodi media player or even custom launchers that completely change the look and feel of the interface.

Amazon is still selling two Android-based Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and 4K Max, and they’ll continue to receive updates until 2030…

However, Fire TV Sticks became notorious for users sideloading apps that allowed them to watch pirated content, a problem tied to Fire OS. Amazon had long been criticized for not doing enough to combat piracy, and last year it began banning sideloaded apps on Fire TV Sticks that are blacklisted by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, a global anti-piracy group. Because Vega OS supports only apps from Amazon’s Appstore, piracy isn’t an issue.

“Through an expanded program led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition fighting digital piracy, we’ll now block apps identified as providing access to pirated content, including those downloaded from outside our Appstore,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Sun last year. “Piracy is illegal, and we’ve always worked to block it from our Appstore.”

For now, Amazon is still selling two Android-based Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and 4K Max, and they’ll continue to receive updates until 2030, so if you want to sideload unblocked apps on a Fire TV Stick, there is still a way to do that. But in the not-so-distant future, Amazon’s lineup of Fire TV Sticks will all run Vega OS, where sideloading Android apps will no longer be possible.

It’s also worth noting that Amazon’s statement on Vega OS refers only to Fire TV Sticks, not to its Fire TVs, now known as Ember TVs. So while Amazon is done with Fire OS on future Fire TV Sticks forever, it could still live on its new TVs.