Adam Birney / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Amazon will reportedly release a Vega OS-powered TV streaming device in 2025.
- The company wants to transition away from Android for its TV tech.
- It’s said Amazon has been trying to convince major publishers to bring their apps to its new platform.
While many brands use Android as the operating system for their TV hardware, Amazon wants to split away and use its own OS. This means leaving Fire OS, a forked version of Android, behind and embracing the new OS it’s been developing, internally known as Vega. We could see the company’s first TV product with Vega on board soon.
According to Janko Roettgers of Lowpass, sources familiar with the company’s plans have told him that Amazon is planning to release a TV streaming device that uses Vega as the OS. This device will reportedly launch later this year, and the company has been working on convincing major publishers to bring their apps to the new platform. Roettgers mentions that Amazon previously had plans to launch a Vega-powered streaming stick in 2024, but those plans were delayed.
Vega OS is said to be based on Linux instead of Android. Back in 2023, it was reported that the company was encouraging app developers to use React Native so that apps could run on Vega and on old hardware still running on Android. It’s believed Amazon has ambitions to one day replace Fire OS with the new software.
Although Amazon has yet to officially announce Vega, we have already had a small taste of it. Vega OS runs on the Echo Show 5, Echo Hub smart displays, and the Echo Spot.
