What you need to know
- Amazon is ditching Android on Fire TV and is in the process of developing its own operating system, as revealed by a recent job listing.
- The job posting was for a Fire TV Experience Software Development Engineer, suggesting a major overhaul of Fire TV’s OS.
- The potential hire is expected to implement features during the transition from FOS/Android to native/Rust and React Native, with Rust likely being the backbone of the future Amazon Fire TV OS.
A recent job listing has revealed that Amazon is ditching Android on Fire TV and working on a fresh operating system.
The job listing, which has since been taken down, was for a Fire TV Experience Software Development Engineer, as spotted by AFTVNews. The job details strongly hint that the recruit will be overhauling Fire TV’s OS, swapping out Android for a new in-house operating system.
According to the listing, the potential hire will “implement and deliver features on the Fire TV client codebase as it transitions from FOS/Android to native/Rust and React Native.” FOS is short for Fire OS, and it’s a safe bet that Rust will be the backbone of whatever native OS powers future Amazon Fire TV devices.
We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment, but the company wasn’t immediately available as of this writing.
Towards the end of last year, news dropped that Amazon plans to kick Android to the curb on its smart displays, TVs, and other smart home devices. Instead, the company was supposedly cooking up a Linux-based software called “Vega OS.”
The main beef with Android was that Amazon was stuck with the AOSP version, which trails behind the mainstream version you find on most smartphones these days.
It looks like the online retail giant is finally making the jump from Android to its very own operating system for its Fire devices.
For many years, Amazon has built its products on the Android foundation, running Fire OS on Fire TV, Fire Tablets, and smart displays. It’s an open-source Android, missing the native Google apps and services. But Amazon’s version is a forked one that still has a bit of a Google connection.
Meanwhile, the fresh platform requires building all-new apps. Even though Amazon pulled the job listing in a flash, it’s basically a nod to its grand plan of bidding farewell to Android.
