Fire TV has been updating for a minute – a very long minute. With the latest overhaul of the experience, Fire TV finally offers a user interface that can stand up to that of rival streaming devices.
When Chromecast with Google TV hit the spot this year, Google gave other $ 50 streaming devices a run for their money. It’s well designed, snappy, and delivers clear and organized recommendations with a layout that just works. At the time, both the Roku and Fire TV experiences seemed clunky by comparison. But the new Fire TV update offers a much better experience for the Alexa set that favors it over other streaming devices, with new navigation tools for finding content, the addition of user profiles for more customized viewing, and a vastly improved home screen. Fire TV Stick Lite and third generation Fire TV Stick users get it first, and Amazon said other devices will get the update in early 2021.
The first thing existing Fire TV users will notice is a reorganization of apps, menus and content. Rather than having the primary navigation features at the top of the home screen, they now appear closer to the center below a spotlight banner for content and feature promotion. In this new menu you will also find icons for your primary apps, with the rest to the right of a ‘more’ button. I quite liked this design, as I find that I generally only jump between four or five primary apps at a time, depending on what I’ve watched. Below this row on the home screen you will find categories for ‘next’, recently used apps, Prime originals, live and upcoming events, recommendations for ad-supported IMDb TV content (which is Amazon owned and appears on fire everywhere TV), as well as genre and app specific content suggestions.
The primary navigation menu has been reduced from the previous iteration. You will now see a library tab on the left side of the home tab. This is where Fire TV stores your watchlist selections, rentals, and purchases. On the right side of the home tab you will see new options for ‘search’ and ‘live’. Amazon deleted its TV and movie tabs from the old experience and nestled them under its search screen. Here you can search for apps, TV shows, movies and free content, as well as content by genre. This was one of the best decisions Amazon made for me in terms of content discovery, although ads and Amazon promoted content still appear in these categories – something I hated about the previous experience carried over here. Is it unbearable? No. But it’s still a big difference between the experience you get with Fire TV and, say, Apple TV.
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Meanwhile, the dedicated Live TV tab is a welcome addition to the Fire TV experience for anyone who’s officially cut the cord. The live tab here will bring up the latest news and sports suggestions, or, if you prefer the old-fashioned feel of live and linear channels, you can use the channel guide feature to find something to watch. I loved this tool for surfing Sling TV to watch something, but I did see some room for improvement. When I used the guide for this app, I was able to browse by channel, but didn’t get to see real-time teasers of the show itself. Instead, the guide only showed me how much of the show was left to watch with a thumbnail for the series or movie. Again, not a deal breaker, but a live feed of the series while you surf would be a big improvement here.
A big bonus of the new Fire TV, however, is the addition of individual user profiles. Fire TV supports up to six profiles, giving multi-user households a more tailored viewing experience. Specific settings, watch history, watch lists, live TV and recommended content are all tailor-made for each individual profile, meaning you no longer need to see suggestions for Botched if interfering with reality TV isn’t really your thing, even if someone else in your house is an avid viewer. Additionally, profiles allow parents to restrict age-restricted content with Amazon Kids profiles filtering things that might be suitable for you, but not your 5-year-old.
Voice support is no longer a particularly intriguing feature as it is present on almost every recent streaming device. But it was a welcome addition to a Vizio M-Series Quantum unit that I reviewed. In addition, I am using a fourth generation LED powered Echo Dot to test the new Fire TV experience, and I have to admit that having a completely hands-free option to turn on my television and launch content felt like a luxury – especially as I kept losing the slim Fire TV remote under a mountain blankets and pillows. To be honest, I prefer Google Assistant to Alexa for most things, but Alexa has done a pretty good job of handling commands for things like turning on my TV, opening apps, and showing me content. A few times, Alexa was stunned by the Hulu user screen when I asked to show me content in the app, but this was often resolved by repeating the command again.
Ultimately, I think Amazon hit a home run with its Fire TV redesign. The navigation makes more sense, user profiles offer better personalization, and finding content here is easier than in the past. There is certainly room for improvement. As previously mentioned, real-time live TV teasers would be a great update to the experience, as well as fewer recommendations for Amazon’s proprietary content and features (though somehow these felt less ubiquitous than in the previous version of the interface). Amazon hasn’t exactly lured me into the Google TV experience I love, but Alexa enthusiasts and streamers looking for a cheap device won’t be disappointed.
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- The new Fire TV offers up to six user profiles for better customization and content recommendations, including for kids.
- Voice control with Alexa enables hands-free browsing by genre, title or category – with a compatible Fire TV remote or a connected smart home device.
- An improved home tab and navigation menu make exploring easy and moderately simple.
- You can still see ads and promotional banners for Amazon-owned content pretty much everywhere.