Your Fire TV Stick quietly gets the upgrade you've been waiting for – new Fire TV OS finally arrives
And it brings speed with it
Quick summary
Amazon has confirmed that the new Fire TV interface is rolling out to current Fire TV Sticks and Fire TV models.
The new interface is faster and gives more space to shortcuts for apps, but comes with some drawbacks.
Amazon has confirmed that the new Fire TV experience is now available on all current Fire TV Stick models and all Amazon Ember televisions. The new interface promises faster navigation and a new layout.
The new Fire TV OS was first shown off on the Amazon Ember Artline, Amazon's take on the lifestyle TV genre, designed to show art when not being used as a TV, with a matte display and changeable frames.
Core to the new software are the 20-30% speed gains that Amazon is promising, making for faster navigation around the user interface on your existing television. That's because there's new code powering Fire TV. I've used it on a couple of TVs now, and it's definitely faster.
The redesign shifts around some of the rows that made up the user interface previously, moving major areas to the shortcuts at the top – movies, live TV and more – while there's more space for apps – up from the six that it previously showed.
The rows below the app shortcuts are mixed and don't offer a lot of customisation, with "continue watching" some way down the page. That leaves a lot of the user interface as rows of recommendations, which may or may not be useful to you.
There's no change to the adverts either, which are now a feature of just about every TV OS.
There's a new menu too, accessed via the icon top left, which is where you'll find things like inputs. As I pointed out when I first tested this user interface, you're a couple of clicks away from inputs which isn't useful for those with connected devices.
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There also isn't that much you can do to customise the layout, so while it looks cleaner, there's more that could be done to make it more personal.
Amazon hasn't listed the devices that it is available on, but has said that it's now rolling out to current Fire TV Sticks and Ember televisions. If you have a recent device that hasn't had a hardware replacement, you're probably in luck, but those with older sticks might consider buying one in the Prime Day sales if they want the new interface.
For Amazon's televisions it's also complicated: if you have one of the models that is currently on sale and has gone through the name change to be called Ember, then it will update.
I have the Mini-LED model that's now called the Ember Mini-LED and it's happily running the new interface. But I also have the older QLED model, which isn't, because it's been replaced by the Ember QLED recently.
If in doubt, head into your settings to check if there are updates, but for most people this will install in the background without you having to do anything.
Amazon has also confirmed that it's coming to Hisense Fire TV models, with plans to bring it to more brands later in this year.

Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just about every product launched, witnessed the birth of Android, the evolution of 5G, and the drive towards electric cars. You name it and Chris has written about it, driven it or reviewed it. Now working as a freelance technology expert, Chris' experience sees him covering all aspects of smartphones, smart homes and anything else connected. Chris has been published in titles as diverse as Computer Active and Autocar, and regularly appears on BBC News, BBC Radio, Sky, Monocle and Times Radio. He was once even on The Apprentice... but we don't talk about that.
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