Amazon’s newest Fire TV Sticks are drop support for normal side loadingblocking apps external to the Amazon Appstore unless the device is registered with the developers. News Reports on Cable Cutters: This week Amazon announced the upcoming launch of a new Fire TV Stick HD. The new model will run on Amazon’s Vega operating system, rather than Android, so most streaming apps will be supported, but users won’t be able to add third-party apps. Now, in the product page When pre-ordering the new Fire Stick, some Amazon customers receive a message warning them that the new model will not allow downloading. Interestingly, not all customers receive the message, whether they are logged into an Amazon account or not.
The message, shown in a screenshot below, reads: “For added security, this device prevents downloading or installing apps from unknown sources. Only apps from the Amazon Appstore are available for download.” […] The Fire TV Stick Select, announced in September 2025, it also runs on Vega and some customers will see the same message about downloading on that product page. […] While Amazon remains a “multi-OS company,” we should expect future Fire TV models to also be built with Vega OS, limiting the apps users can access with their streaming devices to those in the Amazon Appstore.
