Amazon has stopped putting Android on new Fire TV Sticks. Every stick it has launched since the fall of 2025 runs Vega OS, Amazon's own Linux-based system, and Amazon says all future sticks will too. Your current Fire TV is not changing, and plenty of people will be perfectly happy with a Vega stick. But if there is one app you cannot live without, check for it before you buy, because the rules for apps are different now.
We have a practical view of this. We build MarketCast, a stock market app for Fire TV, Google TV and Android TV, and Apple TV, and since July 2026 it also runs on the Vega-based Fire TV Stick 4K Select. Here is what Vega means for the people buying these sticks and for the people building apps for them.
What is Vega OS?
For a decade, Fire TV ran Fire OS, Amazon's version of Android. Any Android TV app could be adapted to it with modest work, and people could install apps from outside the Appstore (sideloading). Vega OS replaces that foundation with a Linux-based system, and apps for it are built with React Native, a JavaScript framework, using Amazon's Vega developer tools. The home screen looks familiar. Underneath, it is a different platform.
Amazon has been fairly quiet about this in its marketing, but its developer site has said since October 2025 that starting with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, all future Fire TV Sticks run on Vega.
Which Fire TV models run Vega OS?
- Fire TV Stick 4K Select: announced September 30, 2025 and shipping that October. The first Vega device, with 1 GB of memory.
- Fire TV Stick HD (2026): announced April 15, 2026 and on sale in the US from April 29 at $34.99. It has the same name as the older Android-based Fire TV Stick HD, so check the year, not just the name.
- Fire TV Stick 4K (3rd gen): announced September 30, 2026 at $59.99, with 1 GB of memory. It replaced both the 4K Select and the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, which was the Android-based 2023 Fire TV Stick 4K under a new name.
Still on Android-based Fire OS: the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, now the only Android stick in Amazon's lineup, the Fire TV Cube, and TVs with Fire TV built in. Amazon is still developing Fire OS for those, and has announced Fire OS 14, based on Android 14, for new TVs, starting with models from TCL. And existing Fire TV devices are not being converted. A stick you already own keeps Fire OS and keeps running your apps.
What changes for buyers: missing apps and no sideloading
Android apps do not run on Vega. An app has to be rebuilt for Vega, or come through the cloud program described below. When AFTVnews counted shortly after the 4K Select launched, it found just over 1,000 apps on it, against more than 30,000 on Android-based Fire TVs. The catalog grows as developers ship Vega versions, but it is still the first thing to check.
No sideloading. On Vega, only apps from the Amazon Appstore can be installed. If you use a downloader app, install media players from outside the store, or rely on a niche app that its developer sideloads to you, a Vega stick will not do it at all. That is a design decision, not a setting you can change.
Less memory. Both Vega 4K sticks have 1 GB. Vega has less overhead than Android, which is how Amazon makes that work. We cannot speak for native Vega apps, since ours is not one. What we know first-hand is the cloud route.
Cloud-hosted apps: how some Android apps reach Vega
To avoid launching Vega with an empty store, Amazon created the Cloud App Program. Amazon takes an existing Fire OS app, runs it in an AWS data center, and streams its screen to the stick as video. Your remote presses travel up to the data center and the picture comes back down. On the Appstore, these apps are labeled Amazon cloud-hosted app on the detail page. The program is invite-only: Amazon picks the apps, games are not included, and Amazon has described it as a bridge while developers build native Vega versions.
MarketCast went live on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select this way on July 28, 2026, and we did not change a line of code to get there. It is the same Fire TV app our other users have, running in Amazon's data center.
Two things are different in practice. First, because every button press makes a round trip to a data center, how responsive a cloud-hosted app feels depends on your internet connection as much as on the stick. Second, Vega puts non-video apps to sleep after about five minutes without any input from the remote. For a stock market app that people leave on the wall, that matters. In MarketCast, the Stream, our live market channel, keeps running on Vega, while other screens pause after about five minutes idle and pick up again when you press a button.
What Vega means for app developers
If you build for Fire TV today, you have three options, and none of them is free.
A native Vega app is a rewrite. Your Android code, layouts and libraries do not carry over. You rebuild the app in React Native against Amazon's Vega SDK and maintain it as a separate codebase. For a team that already writes React Native for phones, some of that work transfers. For a team like ours that writes native Android code, it is essentially a new app. When the native version ships, Amazon replaces the cloud-hosted app on users' sticks through an update, but Amazon's documentation says app data does not carry over, so users start fresh.
The Cloud App Program is no work if you are invited. Amazon's guidelines say the app must already run on the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and Amazon decides who gets in. You keep shipping your normal Fire TV app, and it shows up on Vega. The trade-offs are the network round trip and the idle sleep, and the open question every developer in the program is watching is what the long-term terms look like.
Skip Vega for now. The Android-based 4K Max, the Cube and Fire TV smart TVs are still on sale, and the sticks people already own keep running Fire OS. But every new stick Amazon sells is Vega, so the share of Fire TV users you can reach this way shrinks every year.
For us, the cloud program was the obvious first step: same app, no new code. A native Vega app would be one more codebase alongside our Android and Apple TV apps, which is the same trade-off that keeps us off Roku, as we explain in why MarketCast is not on Roku.
Should you buy a Vega Fire TV Stick? What to check first
- Write down the apps you actually use. Not just the big streaming services. The live TV app, the sports app, the one for your local news, the photo screensaver, the stock app.
- Check each one for your exact stick. Look at the app's Amazon Appstore listing, or ask the app's maker, whether it supports the model you are buying. If it is marked as a cloud-hosted app, it will work, but expect it to feel like a stream rather than a local app.
- If you sideload anything, do not buy a Vega stick. Get the Fire TV Stick 4K Max or a Google TV device instead.
- If you only watch a few big services, a Vega stick is probably fine, and cheap. Confirm those few apps and go.
- If you already own a Fire TV, nothing changes. Amazon's published security update schedule runs to December 31, 2030 for most current sticks, and Fire OS is still being developed.
If you are deciding between a Vega stick and something else, we compared the current devices in which streaming stick is actually fast. If you are keeping an older Fire TV and it feels sluggish, start with why your Fire TV Stick is slow and how to fix it.
MarketCast on Fire TV, old and new
MarketCast is a free download on Android-based Fire TV, on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select as a cloud-hosted app, on Google TV and Android TV, and on Apple TV. The heart of it is the Stream, a live stock market channel for your TV that plays your stocks, the indexes, movers and headlines with a ticker tape along the bottom, and it is the part that keeps running on Vega. Our supported devices page lists every model, and if your old stick is the 2014 original, read why it is time to upgrade.