Amazon’s Fire TV Getting Major User Interface Upgrade

Amazon is rolling out the biggest update to its Fire TV user interface in years — designed to help you find something to watch even faster.

The new UI will start rolling out in February, initially in the U.S. on the most recent Fire TV devices, and Amazon will be demo’ing it at 2026 CES in Las Vegas this week. Along with the UI redesign, the company is prepping the release of a new Fire TV mobile app that adds content discovery and management tools, and it’s introducing our first-ever lifestyle TV, the Amazon Ember Artline.

According to Joshua Danovitz, Amazon’s VP of Fire TV, the new UI is overall more “modern” — cleaner, faster and better organized. The interface displays movies, TV shows, sports, news and live content across all your subscriptions, so that when you browse the UI you will see titles and programming from all the apps you use.

The new Fire TV UI features rounded corners, redesigned color gradients, updated typography and more optimized spacing. Beyond the aesthetics, the underlying code was rebuilt to make the experience faster: Danovitz said in some cases the new UI is up to 30% faster.

The redesign also increases the number of apps users can pin to the Fire TV home screen, from six to 20. The Menu button on the Fire TV remote lets you access Games, Art & Photos, and the Ambient Experience with a few clicks. There’s also a shortcut panel on the right rail you can access by long-pressing the Home button on the remote, to let you add shortcuts the controls including audio and display settings and smart-home device management.

Fire TV will continue to include Alexa+, Amazon’s generative AI-powered agent, to let you ask to watch something based on the mood you’re in, who you’re with, or actors or directors you like. Alexa on Fire TV also recently added to ability for you to ask to jump straight to a specific movie scene.

The new Fire TV UI will launch starting in February on the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd generation), and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series in the U.S. Later this spring, Amazon plans to expand the new UI design to more countries and more devices, including the latest-generation Fire TV 4K streaming media players and TVs including the Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Omni QLED Series as well as TVs from partners like Hisense, Insignia, Panasonic and TCL.

Also launching in February is a redesigned Fire TV mobile app — which until now has essentially functioned as a backup remote control.

The redesigned Fire TV mobile app (which will be available as a free download) adds the ability to browse content, manage your watchlist, and play titles on your TV, with a look and feel that matches the new Fire TV design, according to Danovitz. Now Fire TV customers can use their phone as a second screen to discover what to watch next or add a friend’s show recommendation to your watchlist when you’re away from home.

Also at CES, Amazon will show off its first lifestyle TV, under the new brand name Amazon Ember. The Amazon Ember Artline is a 4K QLED TV designed to be hung on the wall like a piece of artwork.

The Amazon Ember Artline is the company’s thinnest TV to date, measuring just 1.5 inches deep, and will be available 10 different frame colors (walnut, ash, teak, black oak, matte white, midnight blue, fig, pale gold, graphite and silver). The TVs have a matte screen (to reduce glare) and will be available in 55- or 65-inch screen sizes, priced starting at $899. It’s scheduled to go on sale this spring in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the U.K.

As with its previous-generation TVs, the Amazon Ember Artline comes with far-field microphones to support Alexa+ and includes its Omnisense technology that automatically turns the ambient experience on and off when people enter or leave the room. The Ember Artline is integrated with Amazon Photos and offers more than 2,000 pieces of free art. It also has an AI-powered feature that lets you take up to four photos of the room where you plan to hang the TV and get personalized recommendations on the best artworks to show on-screen to match the décor.