Amazon has started rolling out a new User Interface for Fire TV Stick third generation and Fire TV Stick Lite users. According to the company, the UI is much more personal, faster, and intuitive. It comes with a simplified home screen, find a destination, user profiles, and is also tuned for a voice-first experience with Alexa. Additionally, third-gen Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite users will be receiving the update over the coming weeks, whereas, older device users will receive the UI update early next year.
Reimagined Design & Navigation: The company claims that it’s now easier and faster to get to what you’re looking for. With the Main Menu in the center of the screen, you can easily navigate to key destinations like Home, Find, Live, Library, Profiles, and more. Click up to discover popular content and watch trailers, or click down to browse expanded rows of shows and movies. Here, you can also access your apps, channels, and games with the ability to pin and rearrange the order of your apps so you can easily access your favorites. With supported streaming services, you can now scroll over the app icon to quickly peek at what’s inside and begin playback, or simply jump into the app itself.
To Customize the order of your apps, channels, and games in the Main Menu, follow the below steps:
- Focus on an app you’d like to move
- Click the menu icon on your remote
- Select “move”
- Move the app to your desired position
Redesigned “Home” Screen: The Home screen features a new look and feels and features content tailored to each profile and its user’s viewing preferences. You can find show and movie recommendations from subscription-based streaming services like Prime Video, Zee5, SonyLiv, and Voot plus free content from ad-supported apps. Content recommendations appear in the ‘Popular Movies & TV Shows’ row and will improve overtime as you enjoy more shows and movies from your preferred content providers.
Improved Content Discovery with ‘Find’: It’s not always simple to discover your new favorite show. Users can now use the newly designed Find tab to filter by content like Movies or TV shows or search recommended categories like Comedy, Action, or Adventure as well. If you’re searching for movies or TV shows, you can also filter by content from subscription-based apps or content which is available for free. Of course, if you know exactly what you’re looking for, you can do that in the Find tab as well, or simply ask Alexa.
User Profiles: Users can now create up to six user profiles on Fire TV, providing a personalized experience for everyone in a household. Profiles allow each user to access their viewing history, recommendations, watch list, live TV preferences, and select settings, including accessibility features. After setting up your Alexa Voice Profile, switching Fire TV profiles is as simple as saying “Alexa, switch to my profile.”
To get started with a new Profile:
- Say, “Profiles” or select the profiles icon on the Home screen.
- Select Add Profile.
- Select New profile. You can also choose existing profiles from other services, like Prime Video.
- Choose a name and icon for you profile.
To create an Alexa Voice Profile, press the voice button on your remote and say “Alexa, learn my voice.” Alternatively, you can:
- Open the Alexa app on your mobile device.
- Open More and select Settings.
- Select Your Profile.
- Next to Voice, select Create.
- Select Continue.
Improved Navigation with Alexa: Alexa now allows you to use your voice to navigate throughout the UI, just say “Alexa, go to Live” or “Alexa, go to Find.” You can also say things like “Alexa, show me action movies” or “Alexa, switch to my profile.” Coming early next year, Alexa Explore will provide a dedicated destination where you can discover popular Alexa features, view connected smart home devices, see stocks, and more.
Tune In Live: Live TV is an integral part of the Fire TV experience. The Main Menu bar features a dedicated Live tab where you can access shows (supported by your subscribed Apps) currently on-air, or use the Channel Guide to browse for live sports, news, and TV channels. It’s the single destination bringing together your live TV apps.