Amazon is developing its own operating system to compete with Android and iOS, aiming to replace Android in Fire TV devices as early as next year, according to a report by Lowpass.

The project has been under consideration since at least 2017 and hundreds of people are reportedly working on the new operating system codenamed 'Vega,' according to the report.

- "Development of the new operating system, which is internally known as Vega, appears fairly advanced. The system has already been tested on Fire TV streaming adapters, and Amazon has told select partners about its plans to transition to a new application framework in the near future. A source with knowledge of the company’s plans suggested that it could start shipping Vega on select Fire TV devices as early as next year," reported Lowpass by Janko Roettgers.

Amazon is not only considering implementing Vega in Fire TV but also planning to use the operating system in smart displays and other connected devices.


Vega will replace Android in Fire TV
Currently, Fire TV and other Amazon devices use a forked version of Android Open Source Project (AOSP) named Fire OS.

The latest Fire OS 7 is based on Android 9, which is significantly older than the most recent Android 14.


 Fire TV devices are currently based on Fire OS, which is an Android fork

Amazon is reportedly seeking to replace its current Android foundation with the upcoming Vega OS, which is based on Linux and employs "a more web-forward application model", i.e. Javascript.

- "I’ve been told that Amazon plans to eventually move away from Android completely across all of its new devices. Vega is meant to run not only on Fire TVs and smart displays, but also in-car entertainment systems and other future hardware products."

 Also read: Fire TV is getting search ads and non-entertainment banner ads

An anonymous Amazon employee has previously characterized Vega as an "iOS / Android competitor for all devices and IoT".

- Source: Lowpass