For the past few months, I’ve been using both a Google TV Streamer and a Fire TV Stick 4K Max with my TV. While the 4K Max is typically my go-to streaming device, Amazon’s decision to use Vega OS, its new Linux-based operating system, on all future Fire TV Sticks instead of Android-based Fire OS got me wanting to experiment with Google TV again. The last time I used anything close to it was years ago with a Chromecast with Google TV.

So far, I’ve really enjoyed my experience with the Google TV Streamer. It’s fast, has all the same Android apps I use on my 4K Max, and the more powerful hardware it packs as a set-top streamer is certainly nice to have, notably its 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and incredibly fast Gigabit Ethernet port.

But what really struck me was how much I actually liked the Google TV experience compared to Fire TV. In particular, the home screen impressed me the most. And while Amazon has tried to improve its home screen with its redesigned Fire TV experience, there are still a couple of lessons it could learn from Google TV that could make Fire TV much better to use.

The Google TV home screen is easier on the eyes

It’s better organized, and your apps are more prominent

One of the first things that really stood out to me about the Google TV home screen was how much less cluttered it feels compared to Fire TV. While it still has ads and recommendations, just like Fire TV, there are fewer of them, and the way Google organizes everything just looks a lot cleaner. It doesn’t feel like an explosion of content across the screen the way Fire TV sometimes can.

I also much prefer how apps are presented. On the Google TV home screen, they’re big circles, while on the Fire TV home screen, they’re tiny rectangles. I’ll give Amazon credit for expanding the number of apps you can pin to the home screen from six to 20 with its Fire TV redesign, but I still think apps should have a much larger presence on the home screen than they currently do. That’s something I think Google TV gets right, and I find it just makes it easier to jump into your favorite apps much quicker.

Another thing Google TV lets you do that Fire TV doesn’t is fine-tune the recommendations you actually see on the home screen. So, if you want to see more content from Netflix or Apple TV, for example, you can go to All Settings > Account & Profiles, select your account, then choose Content Preferences and select the services you want to see more recommendations from. That means you’re not constantly getting recommendations from streaming services you might not even use.

Additionally, as someone who spends a fair bit of time watching YouTube, I really like how the Google TV home screen recommends videos from channels I’m subscribed to. It’s a small thing, but it’s another way Google TV makes the home screen feel more useful to me instead of just filling it with whatever new TV shows or movies it wants to show me.

But hands down, the best feature Google TV has that Fire TV doesn’t is a simple feature called Apps only mode.

Apps only mode makes Google TV so much better

Fire TV needs its own version of this

Just as the name implies, Apps only mode on Google TV makes the home screen focus almost entirely on your apps. Gone are the tabs for browsing shows and movies and Gemini, leaving you with a screen that shows all your apps in a grid, along with a single carousel of movies and recommendations at the top (as you can see in the image above).

So, if you don’t like being overloaded with ads and recommendations on your home screen, Apps only mode lets you keep it as streamlined as possible. Your apps become the main focus, so you can scroll through them and open whichever one you want swiftly. If you’re using Google TV and want to try it out, you can enable it by going to All Settings > Accounts & Profile, selecting your profile, and toggling on Apps only mode.

While I don’t mind having some recommendations on my home screen, I have to admit I’ve really enjoyed using Apps only mode on my Google TV Streamer, especially since I usually know which app I want to use before I even turn on my TV. It’s made the process of sitting on the couch after a long day and jumping into streaming that much more convenient.

Apps only mode is something Fire TV doesn’t have at all, and it’s a feature that gives Google TV a real edge when it comes to home screen customization.

I really wish Amazon would add its own version of Apps only mode to Fire TV, but given how much it cuts down on ads and recommendations, I don’t know if it’s something Amazon would ever actually do, which sucks. But hey, prove me wrong, Amazon.

All in all, while I still love my Fire TV Stick 4K Max, using Google TV alongside it for the past few months has made the flaws in Fire TV’s home screen much more obvious to me. Hopefully, Amazon will continue refining the experience and, one day, even add an Apps only mode of its own.