Amazon's Fire TV Devices Might Soon Ditch Android In Favor Of Vega
by
Bruno Ferreira
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Friday, April 18, 2025, 03:40 PM EDT
For the longest time, Amazon's tablet and TV devices used a slimmed, somewhat locked-down variant of Android called Fire OS. This was useful for end users for general familiarity and ease of use, and also for techies, who found the devices easy to hack to add functionality. All things must change and evolve though, and to that end, Amazon is purportedly readying up its first device with its in-house Vega OS.
According to the website Lowpass, Vega is a Linux-based operating system, first heard of in late 2023. Vega was apparently already in a "fairly advanced" state at the time and had been tested on Fire TV streaming adapters. The newfangled OS already powers some products in the Echo line, but not yet any streaming devices. One such bit of kit was expected to pop up somewhere in the 2024 time frame, but ultimately didn't materialize.
The Echo Show 5 and its brethren are already connected with Vega
That's reportedly changing soon, as Lowpass cites "sources familiar with the company's plans" saying there's a streaming device of some sort—probably a Fire TV, or a full TV set—powered by the shiny new software. This reveal assuages fears that Amazon may had put the kibosh on Vega, as it announced just last February that many Fire devices would be powered by a Fire OS 8, based on Android 14.
Amazon has yet to issue an official statement on this matter. We expect a photo of Katy Perry kissing the device when it eventually comes out.