Fire OS 8 is based on Android 11, while Fire OS 7 was built with Android 9
How much do you about which version of Android your devices are running? If you consider yourself a smartphone enthusiast, you’re probably aware of the software that’s on your phone right now, but what about all the other devices in your life? Have you checked which version of Android TV powers your living room set? Keeping track gets even more complicated when we’re talking about Android forks, like Amazon’s heavily tweaked Fire OS. Now with the upcoming release of the new 2022 Fire 7 tablet, Amazon is delivering a big update, introducing the Android 11-based Fire OS 8.
When Amazon announced the refreshed Fire 7 earlier this week, the big thing we were paying attention to was the hardware — and specifically, the long-overdue move to USB-C connectivity. But in addition to upgrades like that, the tablet will be the first to arrive running Fire OS 8 (via Liliputing).
While Fire OS 8 won’t include all the functionality you might expect from Android 11 (stuff like File Based Encryption isn’t present), it does pick up a lot of important changes from both 11 and 10 alike (the existing Fire OS 7 is based on Android 9 Pie). That means a system-wide dark mode, improved permissions, and of course the latest security tweaks. In its developer documentation, Amazon goes into further detail about exactly to expect.
This sounds like great news for the new Fire 7, but what about the rest of Amazon’s existing tablet lineup? That’s a much less clear situation (per The Verge), and so far the company has yet to publicly commit to any sort of update plans for older hardware.
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