Based in rural Minnesota, Brian Burgess worked in IT for 10 years before finding his passion for writing about consumer technology.
Brian earned his degree in computer and network technology in 2000. He held various IT positions, including help desk support, router installations for IBM, database administration, and other associate network administration roles.
He's been a personal technology journalist for 18 years and has written thousands of articles about Microsoft products and services, Android, iOS, streaming, and more. He has written for notable tech sites including XDA, InformationWeek, How-To Geek, Byte, groovyPost, and others.
When he is away from the keyboard, you will hear him playing guitar, working outdoors, and watching Star Trek.
When you upgrade your old device, you expect the new one to be faster and have more features. However, that isn't exactly the case with the new Fire TV sticks. You could argue that the new sticks are streamlined for better performance, but they fall short on features. My old stick could sideload apps, so I could get the functionality I wanted.
All previous sticks ran Fire OS, the Android-based operating system that lets you sideload apps. However, Amazon now installs its own proprietary, locked-down Vega OS on the new Fire TV streaming sticks. It severely limits how many apps you can install.
No more app sideloading
Vega OS isn't Android-based anymore, and it hurts users
Amazon's new operating system for its streaming sticks is Linux-based, so the sideloading you knew and loved on Android-based Fire OS is no longer available. Android apps aren't compatible, and the retail giant wants tighter control over what users can and can't install. It cites performance and security enhancements that prevent users from installing apps from unknown sources. Still, another likely reason for the restricted operating system is the bottom line. The company's execs want to squeeze as much ad revenue as possible from the cheap sticks.
It is now more of a straight streaming device, like a Roku, where there's little room for customization in a locked environment. But part of the appeal for enthusiasts is having the freedom to install what they want on the sticks. You could run apps missing from the App Store. I used to like finding an Android app I liked and knowing that, more often than not, I could sideload the APK on my Fire TV device using Downloader and pointing to a site like APKMirror.
It wasn't just Android apps on my phone, but ones I found useful on other devices like Chromecast and Android TV boxes, such as alternative launchers like Projectivy, Monet, or Arc. Installing an alternative launcher was one of the first things I did to help clean up the cluttered Fire TV home screen. For me, the appeal wasn't just fixing the stick's flaws, but choosing what I can run on the device. Power users can tinker with Vega's developer mode, but it requires advanced knowledge and a different configuration route. A simple sideloading option isn't feasible.
Varying models, options, and OSes
Navigating your way through the different sticks and features
The Amazon ecosystem is no longer universal: you can't buy a Fire TV Stick and assume it runs Fire OS and lets you sideload apps. The company is selling older sticks with Fire OS and new ones with Vega, making it difficult for consumers to know what they're getting. Once the old sticks are sold, new sticks, and those coming in the future, will also run the new operating system. At that point, sideloading Android apps will no longer be possible on any streaming stick.
Each stick has a cute name like "Plus" or "Select" that describes the hardware's capability, not the operating system it runs. The best advice I give friends and family who want a stick that still supports sideloading is to look for the "newest model" and avoid it at first. Newest doesn't mean the best. I also tell them to research the exact model number to confirm whether it will arrive with Fire OS installed. The 2025 4K Plus and second-generation (2023) 4K Max models are currently the only ones still available on Amazon's site that let you install Android APKs.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max
Do developers just need to catch up?
The future of apps on the new Fire TV Sticks
Confusion aside, the number of missing apps is glaring. Amazon wants developers to bring their apps to the new OS to fill the gap users already face: sideloading Android apps that aren't in the Fire OS store. But Android tools don't carry over automatically to a Linux environment. The company hopes developers will keep bringing their products to the new platform. It might not be a problem for large companies with teams of engineers and developers, but independent third-party projects could suffer.
Where are the apps anyway? For instance, when I started with the new sticks, I thought the days of using them as a Jellyfin client were over, until I discovered a Jellyfin app for Vega OS that a developer on Reddit posted about. A Moonfin app also popped up recently, but there's no official client yet. Plex is available on the new sticks, but it has some limitations.
That broadly covers an app gap for self-hosted media, and it has limits in many other categories. The app catalog Vega OS offers is smaller than Android-based Fire OS, which you could expand by installing APKs. Still, even as more apps are added, users don't have the same choice as before.
I'll keep using my old Fire TV Stick for now
One of the cool things about the Fire TV sticks was sideloading Android apps. I could have a cheap stick connected to the TV I wanted and still install apps I've loved for years. However, since Amazon has removed that capability and developers can't simply port over apps to a Linux-based system, I'm stuck with a stick I can only use for streaming. So I'll keep using my old stick to keep sideloading apps and see how things play out.