Amazon Fire TV devices expected to ditch Android for Linux in 2025

After the posting—and apparent editing—of a job opening spotted this week, it's expected that Amazon will bring its homegrown operating system to Fire TV devices this year.

Most of Amazon’s Fire-branded devices, which include tablets, currently run some version of Fire OS, which is an Android fork based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). For years, Fire OS’s reliance on AOSP has resulted in Amazon devices coming out with older software, such as 2024’s Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet, which came out with Fire OS 8, which is based on 2020’s Android 11.

Some devices already run Amazon’s proprietary software, reportedly codenamed Vega OS. The current Echo Hub smart home control panel, Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen) smart home display, and Echo Spot smart speaker all run an OS based on the Linux 5.16 kernel, per details in Amazon’s source code notice for Alexa devices. However, Amazon has never publicly acknowledged that the OS exists.

A new job listing, as seen by Lowpass’ Janko Roettgers, however, points to the OS coming to Fire TV devices this year. In an archived version of the job listing that Lowpass shared from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, Amazon seeks a software development manager for the “Prime Video Fire TV" team who will have “full responsibility for the Vega OS experience.” The job listing continues:

The team is responsible for the dedicated Prime Video app on Vega OS, as well as all [Prime Video] experiences on the Vega Launcher. With the app launching in 2025, you will get to shape the future of this product as well as the culture of the team.

Lowpass reported that the job listing's language was edited to remove mentions of Vega after Roettgers asked Amazon for comment. Amazon has declined to comment. You can see the job listing here.