Amazon Fire TV Sticks are among the more affordable streaming device options, especially when you can find them on sale. And since their inception, they’ve run on Android, which most people wouldn’t even notice if they’re just average users.
However, this small detail has been a hot topic, since it allows users to sideload apps. Again, a basic user wouldn’t really even think about this, and just use the stick as is, but there are users out there that utilize this ability to enhance the experience.
And while that’s not a bad thing most of the time, there are apps that cross the line. It’s unclear just how frequently the latter is occurring, but whatever the reason, Amazon has signaled a shift away from Android for quite some time.
Will Android really go away?
Although Amazon has stated in the past that it’s not moving away from Android, news outlet Lowpass shares new information that indicates that the brand is indeed moving away from Android on its Fire TV Sticks going forward (via 9to5Google).
Naturally, we’ll just have to wait and see how the rest of the 2026 lineup pans out, but so far, every newly released Fire TV Stick device has been running Vega OS. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this, since the experience for most people will be the same.
Vega OS first made its debut with Amazon’s Echo products, and only recently found its way to Fire TV Sticks with the 4K Select model that was released in October 2025. And just this week, Amazon released a new Fire TV Stick HD, which is also running on Vega OS.
If you’re someone who uses their Fire TV Stick with sideloaded apps, it might be a good time to pick up a few extra devices while they’re on sale to ensure you’ll have options if and when Amazon really does make all its devices run Vega OS.
Of course, you can always switch to a new brand as well. Perhaps one of the more popular and viable options comes from Walmart’s Onn brand, which has a pretty robust lineup of Google TV streaming devices that are also affordable.
- Operating System
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Fire OS 6
- Resolution
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4K
- Ports
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HDMI output, Micro-USB for power only
- Audio codecs
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Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos
- RAM/storage
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1.5GB/8GB
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K connects directly to HDMI, gets you access to thousands of streaming apps, and works with Alexa.
