‘What a terrible idea’ Fire Stick users yell as Amazon lets slip a major change to millions of devices

AMAZON has accidentally revealed a major change is coming to Fire Sticks and fans are not impressed.

Users feared that the move could lead to more adverts and kill-off "sideloading" when rumours emerged late last year.

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Android is the backbone of the Fire operating system used on Echo display devices as well as Fire TV kit.

But Amazon has apparently been secretly plotting its own system built from the bottom up, dubbed "Vega OS".

While it probably won't look very different to what people are used to on the surface, the software functions behind-the-scenes will be very different and could mean Amazon will have more control over what will and won't feature.

At the time, people described it as a "terrible idea" and threatened to throw their device away.

"If you can’t sideload then I’ll most likely be walking away from the FireTV Sticks," one user wrote on Reddit.

"Will this stop being able to sideload? If so, then I’m done with Fire TV’s," another said.

A third commented: "If you can't side load apps, Amazon will put out the fire on fire tv."

Now a job posting has added fuel to the fire, seemingly confirming Amazon's plans.

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Vega OS isn't mentioned but it does say that the software development engineer will "implement and deliver features on the Fire TV" as it "transitions from FOS/Android" (FOS stands for "Fire Operating System") to another system called "native/Rust" and "React Native".

The listing, spotted by AFTVNews, has since been pulled from Amazon's career site.

Things might not change for a while

However, it might not be the news some users dread as it's unlikely Amazon will go to the effort of converting existing Fire TV devices.

Instead, it's more likely the new non-Android based system will be used on future Fire TV devices.

And Amazon tends to be quite good at supporting older gadgets for several years after their release.

So, you're fine until you need to upgrade in a few years time - assuming it all happens.

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