Originally published at: Amazon Officially Kills Sideloading on Future Fire TV Sticks
Amazon has officially confirmed what many of us suspected for months. Every future Fire TV Stick will ship with the company’s new Vega OS instead of the Android-based Fire OS that powered the lineup for years. The confirmation was quietly tucked into Amazon’s Fire TV developer documentation. The page flatly states ‘Starting with Fire TV…
We knew it was coming. The question remains on what will happen with existing Firesticks and Firecubes. Is it still worthwhile to buy the 3rd generation Firecubes?
I have 4 Firesticks. If I need another one in the future and I can’t sideload with it I’ll be switching to Buzztv.
Its a pitty that amazon has taken this position.
My question is, how will google react in future? They already remove sideloaded aps from my Nvidea shield home page, or poster page. What can be done to stop google from removing apps from .y home page?
I don’t know all the specifics about Vega OS, but I’m sure developers are already working on a way to bypass the sideloading restrictions on the new sticks. Who knows if they will be able to (or when), but I’m interested to watch any progress made. I know we have expanded our box/stick arsenals so we have many options now and don’t need Firesticks, but the cat-mouse game between Amazon and cord-cutters/developers will continue to make good drama lol.
That’s the end of firesticks
Nah I doubt it. We here at the Insider that sideload apps like KODI, Stremio, and other APK’s are a very small percentage of the overall Firestick users who get Firesticks to use for legit apps
Probably right older sticks are fine but then there are so many other devices that work well as @Miki would say stream on
You don’t think somebody, somewhere is working on a way to circumvent the Vega OS restrictions?
Absolutely someone is. Was just saying what we do here with our devices is a very small percentage of what most people do with their devices.
Yes very well said. I talked about this in the Final Thoughts section of this article but it seems that Amazon is seeing Roku’s financial success and trying to copy their streaming playbook - Why Roku's Success Shows Everything Wrong With Streaming
Great for their shareholders and bottom line, but horrible for us streaming consumers…
I’ve already begun transitioning to other devices. I’m currently using Ugoos Am9 and will probably buy one more.
Yes, I fully understand that. I’m not a Firestick apologist in the least, just like it when developers find a way to stick it to Amazon because of the changes they have made lol.
got rid of my fire sticks and replaced with BuzzTv.
I have a drawer with 5 new 4k max sticks that I bought 2 or 3 yrs ago when they were on sale (amazon actually denied me from buying more one year because I had reached the limit) The sticks were $20+ at the time. Do you think there will come a time that they will try and mess with the older versions or is it not worth their effort?
I have switched out one of my sticks with the onn plus and am very happy with it but would like to be able to use some of the 4ks to replace older sticks that my friends and family are using so as not to have to “teach” them any new tricks. Trying to avoid all “ what do I do now” phone calls.
I still have an old 1st Gen stick that somehow avoided the sledgehammer 
that I only use when I travel. Have KODI and my IPTV service on it. still works
You should have applied the exploit that @TROYPOINT posted last summer on all those fire sticks that blocks the Amazon updates. You can still use those fire sticks for Kodi, Stremio and Tivimate without any issues.
I still use all versions of firesticks and have no problem streaming iptv. So you will be able to use them for quite awhile. I think Amazon stated support for the latest devices until 2028 or after?
Almost no chance. Vega OS is based on Linux, not Android. It would require rebuilding every app.
Welcome! Yes, you are probably right, but I don’t think the linux-based system will stop some developers from trying down the road. It’s fine, no big loss, we don’t need firesticks anymore.