Amazon is launching a Fire TV redesign that puts more emphasis on content while simplifying navigation and layout. The update represents the first major Fire TV release in years in terms of user experience, the company says, and comes with a revamped version of the Fire TV app and the arrival of new premium Fire TVs with colorful bezels.
The company saw the need for a change in the look and feel of the Fire TV as the volume of streaming content has exploded over the years. Fire TV customers today can access TV and movies through purchases, rentals, and streaming services, but they also have apps to watch short-form content on TV, access multiple live TV streams, premium content, podcasts, music, games, and more.
The simplest Fire TV design
“As we promoted this content, the [user interface] it got a little full — a lot of stuff and a lot of series,” Fire TV VP Aidan Marcuss explained in an interview with TechCrunch. “We know the data — a lot of time is spent on the search,” he added. “We know it could just be easier.”
The new UI features several design changes, including rounded corners, varied gradients, consistent typography, and increased spacing between content to make the interface feel less cluttered. While you can still scroll down to see your favorite series, like what’s on next, you can also see your apps in an expanded horizontal row.
Before, you could only pin six apps on the Fire TV home screen — a common user complaint. However, the update has reduced the size of app icons, allowing more to be visible on the home screen, and gives you 20 app slots to scroll through.
At the top of the screen, navigation has been simplified into obvious categories such as Movies, TV, Live TV, Sports and News. A search button is available to the left of the Home tab.
In the new tabs, Fire TV brings together access to the content you’re already watching and what’s available across all the services you’re subscribed to. It also lets you discover new content, including recommended movies or shows (in series labeled “For You”), free movies to stream, lists of top movies or shows, and other subscription content you might want to try.
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These pages don’t offer infinite scrolling, but they are large as they represent the depth of content available on streaming services.
The new Live TV tab organizes live content from services that have built-in live TV streams, as well as broadcast or cable TV if you happen to subscribe. The sports section, in particular, includes access to live matches in progress and other scheduled sports content.
Other TV functions are hidden under the three-line hamburger menu icon, including Games, Art and Photos, the Appstore, Music Video and Audio, a now-universal watchlist (“My Stuff”), Settings and other options.
To make it easier to access commonly used settings, you can also now press and hold the Home button to adjust display and sound settings, set a sleep timer, use accessibility features, access smart home features, and more. From this panel, you can do things like adjust the TV’s brightness, boost audio dialogue, or display the Ring camera feed on the screen while you watch, among other things.
The redesign also includes rewritten code that makes the interface move faster on some devices, Amazon claims.
“On our most popular devices, that’s 20% to 30% faster for the same features, because it’s all about getting people to what they want to watch, quickly,” notes Marcuss.
AI is built-in
Of course, Alexa+ access is built in, allowing users to ask questions, find content, or even do things like call an Uber. This AI-powered assistant allows users to ask questions in natural language, refine their queries as they chat, ask for follow-ups, and use visual context. For example, you could say “Tell me more about this” when you’ve selected a movie or TV show square tile on the screen. You could even ask nuanced questions like “find me more movies that look the same” or help you find photos or artwork.
Alexa+ will be available as an additional subscription after exiting the early access phase (which currently requires a subscription). The AI service will also be included with a Prime subscription.
The Fire TV app, meanwhile, has also been updated to offer the classic remote combined with a new way to discover new content. The idea is that people might want to look for something to watch on their phone instead of just having one person driving the content discovery and search experience with the remote.
The revamped Fire TV interface and mobile app will launch in February on the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen) and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series in the US
Later this spring, the redesign will come to more countries and more devices, including the Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), the latest generation Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Omni Series QLED, and TVs made by partners like Hisense, Panasonic, and TCL.
It will also be available at launch on the new Amazon Ember Artline TVs. (See below).
Ember Artline TVs: Amazon’s new TVs that look like art
Ember Artline TVs are Amazon’s latest TVs that come with a frame that can match the style and colors of your room. They will come in 55-inch and 65-inch options, starting at $899.
The new TVs themselves offer 4K QLED displays with 800 nits of brightness. The screen is also thin, at one and a half inches, and has a matte screen finish to reduce glare.
The TVs also support Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Wi-Fi 6.
However, the big selling point is the 10 different frame options to choose from, offering a variety of colors, textures and geometries. This allows customers to better take advantage of Fire TV’s Ambient features, which include displaying art when the TV is not in use.
Available colors include walnut, ash, teak, black oak, matte white, midnight blue, fig, soft gold, graphite and silver.
Fire TV has access to over 2,000 free artworks, or you can use your own photos.
You can also ask Alexa+ to display certain photos from your Amazon Photos collections using commands like “Alexa, create a slideshow of our family trip to Colorado” or “Alexa, show photos from our wedding.”
