Amazon Fire OS vs Android: What You’ll Miss With an Amazon Device

Pick up aFire TV deviceor anAmazon Fire pill , and the on - board operating system is only loosely found on Android : You ’re actually dealing with a modified OS , cut off from Google ’s apps and service , but it ’s not particularly clear just what that means for your choice of apps and options . Allow us to tot up some clearness .

If you ’re weighing up whether to go with Fire TV or Android television set for your home setup , for representative , then you take to know what ’s in and what ’s out as far as apps and contentedness are concerned ; likewise if you ’re think about choose a Fire tablet rather than any other Android tab ( or Chromebook ) . Here ’s the state of matter of shimmer .

Video streaming on Fire OS

Google is n’t involve with Amazon ’s Fire OS crotch of Android , so access to Google apps is limited . There is now ( again ) an official YouTube app for Fire television set devices , but the app has n’t yet made it to Fire tablets . It ’s the same story with YouTube TV , which is on fresh Fire tv set ironware but not the Amazon Fire tablets .

you’re able to watch received YouTube through the web web web browser on Fire pad , and even sign into your Google account , but it ’s not ideal . Meanwhile , Google Play Movies & TV is n’t ( officially ) uncommitted on any Amazon devices at all , but you’re able to get at your antecedently buy flick and shows through the YouTube app ( on Fire TV devices ) or the YouTube site ( on Fire tablets ) .

Otherwise , picture cyclosis is very well covered , though again there ’s a disparity between the Fire television receiver devices and the Fire telly tablets : Apps let in Amazon Prime Video , Netflix , Roku , Hulu , Plex and Disney Plus are available on both , but the likes of Crackle , Sling TV and Apple TV Plus are only uncommitted on the streaming sticks and box . The very few omissions in this category include popular Plex alternative Kodi and HBO Max ( though we ’re hoping it will appear presently , as HBO Go and HBO Now are useable ) .

Image: Amazon

Music streaming and audio on Fire OS

medicine streaming is as well serve on Amazon Fire OS devices as video cyclosis : You ’ll find big name apps like Spotify , Pandora , Tidal , Deezer and of line Amazon Music here . However , there ’s no YouTube Music , and no Apple Music , at least not in terms of an prescribed app — you may run Apple Music through Alexa voice commands on your Amazon devices , as its one of the services Alexa support , but this is a flake of a machine politician .

TuneIn Radio is available on Amazon Fire TV devices and Amazon Fire tablet as a standalone app , so you ’ll have no problems tuning into on-line radio from around the humanity . It ’s often when you start out to dig underneath the mainstream app family — to podcast apps , for example — that gaps in Amazon ’s selectiveness starts to appear .

Here ’s another lesson of that : If you ’re a Sonos drug user , you may add the app on a Fire tab and use it just as you would on a regular Android machine , but it ’s not available on the Fire TV for big screen devices . Not everyone will have a Sonos scheme they call for to manage , but it ’s these smaller grouping of users that sometimes are n’t to the full catered for by Amazon hardware .

Screenshot: Gizmodo

Screenshot: Gizmodo

Productivity and utilities on Fire OS

We ’ll focus on the Amazon Fire tab here , as these are the main gimmick you ’ll be using for productivity — can they stand up to the iPads and Android tablets for receive work done on the go ? Or are they basically just medium consumption gadget ? Spend a few minutes browsing around the app store and you ’ll see it ’s largely the latter .

You do n’t get Google Docs , Sheets , and Slides , and as with Android in cosmopolitan , there ’s no chance of bring Apple Pages , Numbers , and Keynote any sentence soon . Word , Excel , and PowerPoint are missing too ( although Outlook is here , oddly enough ) , and other productivity apps such as Slack , TeamViewer and Trello are absent as well . On the plus side , there are prescribed apps for Dropbox and Evernote .

It is potential to get by , just about — theOfficeSuite packagemade by MobiSystems is okay for a bit of oeuvre on the go , but Fire pad of paper really are n’t the gimmick to get if you need access to all your common productivity apps away from your desk . At the time of piece of writing , the third most popular destitute productivity app on the Amazon App Store is an ‘ Instant alive Call From Peter Rabbit ’ app , which just about center it up .

Screenshot: Gizmodo

Screenshot: Gizmodo

Gaming and Kid Stuff on Fire OS

There ’s a enough selection of games on Fire tablets — Clash of Clans , Asphalt 9 , Stardew Valley , Gardenscapes , SimCity BuildIt , Minecraft , Crossy Road , Alto ’s Odyssey , Monument Valley , and PUBG are some of the biggest names here , though most do n’t appear on the Fire TV as well ( Crossy Road is one of the few exceptions ) .

There are plenty of gaps too . Games such as Fortnite , Call of Duty Mobile , the GTA ports , Thimbleweed Park , Super Mario Run , Sky : Children of the Light , and Temple Run ca n’t be found in the Amazon - run app stock . We found more top - tier plot than we expected to , but the Google Play Store has a vastly bigger selection .

However , Thomas Kid are well catered for on Amazon Fire tablets , specially if you go for the Kids Edition model — they wad in a 1 - year subscription toFreeTime Unlimited , which include thousands of apps and games from the like of Disney , Nickelodeon , PBS Kids , and Sesame Street . You ’ve bewilder Netflix as well , but you do n’t have admission to YouTube Kids .

Image: Amazon

Image: Amazon

You ’re maybe not going to be using your tablet as a communication theory twist as much as your phone , but you might still want to keep in touching with people on your Fire tablet ( we ’re assuming you do n’t really need communicating and social medium apps on your Fire telecasting ) .

You wo n’t find Google Duo , Snapchat , Signal or WhatsApp on the Amazon Fire tab ( or FaceTime , obviously ) , but Instagram , Facebook Messenger , Facebook , Twitter , Zoom and Skype are present and correct , so more social medium and communicating tools are usable than you might have expected .

The less well - know the app , the less potential you are to find it on the Amazon App Store . You wo n’t find the up - and - coming Microsoft Teams for businesses and family , and you wo n’t get the increasingly popular Housepartyvideo chat apphere either . TikTok is available on Fire OS , however , so you could still get your fix of short telecasting clip .

Screenshot: Gizmodo

Screenshot: Gizmodo

The Fire OS verdict

The survival of the fittest of apps on the Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire tablet devices is a lot ripe than you might opine turn over you ’re trade with the Amazon App Store and not the Google Play Store . The selection of apps and games is smaller , unsurprisingly , but Amazon ’s alternative has some big name to offer as well .

Everyone ’s app function is unlike , but the category where Amazon holds up well is in video streaming — you could get just about everything on the Amazon Fire television devices , though the selection on the Fire tablet is a little more limited . The most obvious discrepancies between Fire OS and Android are probably in the ‘ serious ’ app family like productiveness , where you ’ll struggle to happen the most normally used apps .

societal medium , chit-chat apps , and games are well catered for in the Amazon App Store , with some exclusion — take on your phone is your main messaging app then you may plausibly experience without Snapchat , WhatsApp or Signal on your tablet ( these are all apps that can only be lam on one twist anyway , which is perhaps why Fire OS variation do n’t exist ) .

Screenshot: Gizmodo