Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav The writing was on the wall, and now it’s on Amazon’s website. Newly released Fire Sticks will not support the sideloading of Android apps or any other software from outside Amazon’s official app store.
The proof comes from an update to Amazon’s website for developers, which currently reads:
Starting with Fire TV Stick 4K Select [which came out in October], all future Fire TV Sticks will run on Vega.
According to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the website has included that statement since at least January. But Amazon hasn’t made this declaration so outrightly to consumers, many of whom are just now learning about Amazon’s commitment to its new, proprietary operating system (OS), Vega OS. Amazon declined to comment to Lowpass this week after “multiple sources with knowledge of” Amazon’s plans reportedly told the publication that all future Fire TV sticks would launch with Vega.
Vega doesn’t support the sideloading of non-Amazon Appstore apps. One of Amazon’s prerequisites for an app to run on a Vega-powered Fire device is that it “is already published in the Amazon Appstore,” per Amazon.
Some users have reported seeing a notice on the Amazon product page for the new Fire TV Stick HD announced this week that says, “For enhanced security, this device prevents sideloading or installing apps from unknown sources. Only apps from the Amazon Appstore are available for download.”
Vega devices can still support sideloading, but only for developers who register their devices.
In November 2023, Lowpass reported that the Echo Show 5 was the first device to run Vega. The Echo Hub that Amazon released in April 2024 runs Vega, too. In October, Amazon released its first Vega-powered streaming stick, the Fire TV 4K Select.
In October, an Amazon representative said the company doesn’t have plans to update current Fire OS devices to Vega, German IT publication Heise Online reported.
Before Vega, Amazon’s Fire streaming devices all ran Fire OS, an Android fork based on the Android Open Source Project, which often meant Fire devices ran older Android software. Moving to the Linux-based Vega OS makes it easier for Amazon devices to run more modern software. Vega also gives Amazon more control over how people use Fire devices, supporting features like Alexa+, its generative AI chatbot, while limiting the use of apps that cost the company money or host illegal content.
Sideloading apps has long been a common way for people to run apps outside of Amazon’s store— especially from the Google Play Store—or to limit Amazon advertising. This has allowed enthusiasts to expand the functionality of Amazon devices—for example, using a Fire tablet as a handy smart home controller.
Perhaps more concerning to Amazon, though, has been the sideloading of apps used for watching pirated content. In the fall, Amazon started blocking apps that the Alliance for Creative and Entertainment, a global anti-piracy group, has blacklisted.
Fire Sticks have long been criticized for potentially enabling piracy. A May report from media, entertainment, and telecommunications research firm Enders Analysis, for instance, claimed that jailbroken Fire Sticks have enabled “billions of dollars’” worth of streaming piracy. Amazon has also faced pressure to crack down on piracy on its devices from various groups, including the Sky Sports UK soccer channel and the Premier League professional soccer league in England.
Many users won’t be impacted by Amazon’s move to kill consumer sideloading on Fire Sticks. But those it does affect will be eager to explore rival streaming devices or develop potential workarounds.
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