Fire TV had an update for a minute – a very long minute. With its latest experience review, Fire TV is finally offering a user interface that matches rival streaming devices.
When Chromecast with Google TV came on the scene this year, Google gave other $ 50 streaming devices a run for their money. It is well designed, responsive and offers clear and organized recommendations with a layout that just works. At the time, the experiences of Roku and Fire TV seemed awkward in comparison. But the new Fire TV update offers a much better experience for the Alexa suite, which prefers it over other streaming devices, with new navigation tools to find content, adding user profiles for more personalized viewing and a vastly improved home screen. . Fire TV Stick Lite and third generation Fire TV Stick users will get it first, and Amazon said other devices will receive the update in early 2021.
The first thing that existing Fire TV users will notice is a reorganization of applications, menus and content. Instead of the primary navigation features being located at the top of the home screen, they now appear closer to the middle under a prominent banner for promoting content and resources. This new menu is also where you will find icons for your main applications, with a “plus” button on the right that will bring the rest. I really liked this design, as I usually only jump between four or five main apps at any time, depending on what I’m watching. Below this line on the home screen, you will find categories for “the next”, recently used apps, Prime originals, live and upcoming events, recommendations for TV content supported by Amazon ads (which is owned by Amazon and appears everywhere on TV), as well as suggestions for specific genre and app content.
The main navigation menu has been reduced from the previous iteration. To the left of the home tab, you will now see a library tab. This is where Fire TV will archive your watch list, rental and shopping selections. To the right of the home tab, you will see the new options “find” and “live”. Amazon removed its TV and movie guides from the previous experience and nestled them on its “find” discovery screen. This is where you can search for apps, TV shows, movies and free content, as well as content by genre category. This, for me, was one of the best decisions Amazon made regarding content discovery, although ads and promoted content owned by Amazon still appear in all of these categories – something I hated in the previous experience I was able to carry here. Is it unbearable? No. But it is still a big difference between the experience you get with Fire TV and, say, Apple TV.
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In the meantime, the dedicated live TV guide is a welcome addition to the Fire TV experience for anyone who has officially cut the cable. The live guide will feature breaking news and sports suggestions here or, if you prefer the traditional feel of showing live, linear channels, you can use the channel guide feature to find something to watch. I loved this tool for surfing on Sling TV in search of something to watch, but I could see that there is room for improvement. When using the guide for this app, I could browse by channel, but no real-time teasers of the program itself were shown. Instead, the guide just showed me how much of the program was left to watch with a thumbnail of the series or movie. Again, not a deal breaker, but a live broadcast of the series while surfing would be a big improvement here.
A big bonus of the new Fire TV, however, is the addition of individual user profiles. Fire TV will support up to six profiles, which will offer multi-user homes a more personalized viewing experience. Specific settings, viewing history, watch lists, live TV and recommended content will all be customized for each individual profile, meaning you no longer need to see suggestions for Unsuccessful if disturbing TV isn’t really your thing – even if someone else in your home is an avid spectator. In addition, profiles allow parents to restrict content by age with Amazon Kids profiles that filter out things that may be suitable for you, but not for your 5-year-old.
Voice support is no longer an especially intriguing feature, as it is present in almost all recent streaming devices. But it was a welcome addition to a Quantum Vizio M-Series unit that I’ve been looking at. In addition, I have used a fourth generation LED Echo Dot to test the new Fire TV experience, and I have to admit, having a fully hands-free option to turn on my television and launch content seemed like a luxury, especially since I kept losing the Fire TV’s thin remote control under a mountain of blankets and pillows. To be honest, I much prefer Google Assistant to Alexa for most things, but Alexa did a great job handling commands for things like turning on my TV, opening apps and showing me content. Sometimes Alexa was perplexed by the Hulu user’s screen when I asked him to show me content in the app, but this used to be solved by repeating the command again.
At the end of the day, I think Amazon hit a home run with its redesign of Fire TV. Browsing makes more sense, user profiles offer better customization and finding content is easier here than in the past. There is room for improvement, for sure. As mentioned, live TV teasers in real time would be a major update to the experience, as well as fewer recommendations for Amazon content and features (although somehow they seemed less ubiquitous than in the previous version of the interface). Amazon still hasn’t attracted me to the Google TV experience that 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 personalization and content recommendations, including for children.
- Voice control with Alexa allows hands-free navigation by genre, title or category – with a compatible Fire TV remote or connected smart home device.
- An improved start tab and navigation menu make discovery easy and straightforward.
- Expect to see ads and promotional banners for content owned by Amazon almost everywhere.