Amazon Vega Fire TV Stick Launch - Accedo’s Experience with the New Vega OS

This just in: Amazon has launched the new Fire TV Stick 4K Select, powered by its all-new Vega OS, along with updated app development requirements for Fire TV.

Throughout the past months, Amazon has worked with the majority of active Fire TV application customers to prepare for this launch, whether it be via customer in-house teams or via their partner developers. 

As one of Amazon’s Preferred Developer Agencies, Accedo had early access to Vega and worked closely with Amazon to prepare customer applications for the new environment. This hands-on experience provided valuable insights into what it takes to successfully adapt to Vega OS — from technical requirements to strategic planning for multi-platform portfolios.

It has been a challenging but exciting journey to be able to deliver our customer apps for this new Amazon environment. Having learnt some valuable and hard lessons throughout the process, we have the knowledge and experience to avoid some now obvious and not-so-obvious pitfalls.

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Vega OS - a new foundation for Fire TV

The new Fire TV Stick 4K Select is based on what Amazon is calling Vega OS, which is built on Linux rather than the modified Android base used for Fire OS. 

Vega OS is described as "highly responsive with an efficient footprint, enabling fast app launches and smooth navigation." 

The Fire TV Stick 4K Select showcases this new direction. Running on just 1GB of RAM (compared to 2GB in earlier Fire TV Stick 4K models), it demonstrates how Vega OS delivers greater performance with fewer resources. Unlike Fire OS, Vega does not support sideloading — all apps must be distributed through the Amazon Appstore.

While Amazon will continue to release Fire TV products running Fire OS during the transition, it has confirmed that all future Fire TV Stick devices will be built on Vega OS. Existing devices will remain supported.

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How is app development on Vega OS different?

Existing Fire TV applications, which were based on Android, are not directly compatible with Vega. Instead, Amazon has introduced a React Native-based framework for Vega devices.

For developers, Amazon has launched Vega Developer Tools in open beta. The toolkit supports React Native 0.72 and web technologies through Vega WebView, allowing developers to potentially reuse existing code when building for the new platform.

To maintain continuity, Amazon has also unveiled a Cloud App Program, enabling Android versions of apps not yet ported to Vega to be streamed to Vega OS devices. For selected publishers, Amazon will cover the cost of this cloud streaming service for nine months. 

Note, however, that Amazon cloud app streaming is available only for apps selected by Amazon.

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What does this new approach mean for multiplatform app development?

This really depends on how you develop and maintain a portfolio of apps already. 

Those already using a React Native framework across platforms will find the transition more straightforward, needing only to integrate the specifics of the Amazon Vega SDK. , There are naturally some trade-offs to consider, particularly in terms of flexibility and performance.

Others following a hybrid development model — using native apps for some platforms and HTML5/JavaScript frameworks for connected TV — may find Vega’s WebView support helpful for code reuse. Still, performance optimizations and tuning are often required to ensure smooth experiences in this setup.

For maximum flexibility and performance, we recommend developing native Vega apps using its React Native SDK. This may require new skills or workflows, especially for teams managing complex multi-platform environments.

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Accedo’s experience with Vega OS - What we have learned.

We had the opportunity to work closely with Amazon throughout the development of Vega OS, which puts us in a strong position to help prepare our customer applications for this new environment. 

Starting from a template app provided by Amazon, our teams quickly established a functional foundation and adapted core components to meet the new platform’s requirements.

Working in parallel with Amazon’s evolving SDK gave us valuable insights into the continuous innovation taking place behind the scenes. What we found the most critical throughout the process are the ability to adapt, close collaboration, and early alignment across the ecosystem — particularly when integrating key services such as media players, DRM, and analytics.

One key challenge is ensuring a clear understanding of certification requirements and incorporating them into the overall development plan from the start. This was naturally a somewhat moving target for a new platform, but it highlights the importance that quality assurance and certification planning should always be considered an integral part of application development and not something tagged on to the end of the project. 

Through continuous testing and feedback, developer agencies such as Accedo contributed significantly in identifying critical areas for improvement unique to different customers, and helping Amazon prioritize enhancements that would deliver the most value to them. 

Above all, we put in a lot of efforts to ensure that every update contributed to a stronger, more stable foundation for future Fire TV experiences.

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Want to build an app on Vega OS?

At the moment, there will be two environments to support:

• The existing Fire OS ecosystem, running on Android-based Fire TV devices (including Fire TV Smart TVs).
  
  
• The new Vega OS environment, currently supported by the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and future Fire TV Stick models.

The timeline for a full transition remains undefined, but the direction is clear — Vega represents the future of Fire TV.

With our first hand experience in developing apps on Vega OS for our customers, Accedo is ready to help you bring your Fire TV apps to the new platform — faster, smarter, and with confidence. Contact us to learn how we can support your Vega OS journey.