Amazon has started rolling out a free over-the-air update to its Fire TV products that dramatically redesigns the user interface — a welcome update to the more cluttered design that existed before.
Amazon’s new Fire TV interface is what it should have been from the start
A much better UI
A much better UI
The old interface had a side menu with a long list of sometimes-redundant options, including Search, Home, Movies, TV, Watchlist, Prime Video, and Video Library alongside other categorial options like Recent and Prime Originals and Exclusives. The new interface looks a little bit like Netflix. It has a top menu, a large space for content art, and underneath that, horizontal rows or shows or app options. “Recent” shows now appear at the top of that list. And the Apps & Games row can now be customized, using the included Fire TV remote.
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But Amazon said that the update is available on Amazon’s “second-generation” Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick, and didn’t specify whether this is something that will come to older boxes and sticks. We’ve asked the company for clarification on this. Update: A spokesperson for Amazon said the update will come to first-generation Fire TV boxes and sticks “in the coming months.”
The Verge first noticed the change to Fire TV last week while reporting our This Is My Next series on streaming media devices, so if you’d like to see more of the new interface, check out the video here.
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