Amazon will also update the Fire TV, introducing its ‘Artline’ video frames at CES

Amazon is making a Fire TV redesign that focuses more on content, as well as simplifying navigation and layout. The update represents the first major release of Fire TV in years from users, the company says, and is followed by a refreshed Fire TV app and the arrival of new Fire TV TVs with beautiful frames.

The company saw the need to change the look and feel of Fire TV as the amount of streaming content has exploded over the years. Today’s Fire TV customers can access TV and movies through purchase, rental, and streaming services, as well as access to premium TV shows, access to more TV shows, premium content, podcasts, music, games, and more.

Simple design for Fire TV

“When we brought the content to the forefront, (the user interface) got a little confusing — too many elements and too many lines,” explained Fire TV VP Aidan Marcuss in an interview with TechCrunch. “We know a lot – there’s a lot of time to research,” he added. “We… know it can be easy.”

The new look features a number of design changes, including rounded corners, different gradients, consistent typography, and increased spacing between content to make the look less cluttered. While you can scroll down to view your favorite rows, such as upcoming events, you can also view your apps in an extended horizontal row.

In the past, you could six pin programs to the Fire TV home screen – common user complaint. But the update has reduced the size of the app’s icons, allowing more to appear on the home screen, and giving you 20 app slots to scroll through.

At the top of the screen, the navigation has been changed to intuitive categories such as Movies, TV, Live TV, Sports, and News. The search button is located on the left side of the Home tab.

Through the new tabs, Fire TV puts between what you’re already watching, and what’s available from the games you’ve subscribed to. It also gives you access to new content, including licensed movies or TV shows (in the lines labeled “For You”), free movies you can watch, lists of top movies or TV shows, and subscription features you might want to try.

These pages don’t offer endless scrolling, but they are long because they represent the depth of content available in the streaming game.

The new live TV tab organizes the content of services that have live TV shows built into them, including broadcast or TV, if you subscribe. The games section, in particular, includes access to games that are currently available and some that are planned.

Other TV channels are located under the three hamburger lines, such as Games, Art & Photos, Appstore, Music Video & Audio, the world list (“My Stuff”), Favorites, and other options.

For easy access to frequently used settings, you can also long-press the Home button to change display and audio settings, set sleep timers, use accessible features, access smart home features, and more. From this panel, you can do things like adjust the TV’s brightness, activate voice chats, or show your Ring camera feed on the screen while you’re watching, among other things.

The update also includes rewritten code that makes the feature run faster on other devices, Amazon says.

“On our popular devices, that’s 20% to 30% faster for the same content, because it all gets people to what they want to watch, faster,” says Marcuss.

AI comes in

Of course, the Alexa+ feature is built in, allowing users to ask questions, access content, or do things like call an Uber. This AI-powered assistant allows users to ask questions in natural language, direct their questions while chatting, ask for follow-ups, and use visuals. For example, you can say, “Tell me more about that one,” when you have a movie or TV show selected on the screen. You can also ask questions in a different way, such as “find me more videos that have similar features,” or to help you find photos or artwork.

Alexa+ will be available as an additional feature when it comes out of its basic version (which requires login). The AI ​​service will also be included with the Prime subscription.

The Fire TV app has also been updated to offer remote controls combined with a new way to discover new content. The idea is that people can browse something to watch on their phones instead of having one person navigate the content and search remotely.

The refreshed Fire TV interface and mobile app will begin rolling out in February on the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series in the US.

Later this spring, the update will come to many countries with more devices, including Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), the latest generation of Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Omni QLED Series, and TVs made by partners like Hisense, Panasonic, and TCL.

It will also be available for launch on the new Amazon Ember Artline TV. (See below).

Ember Artline TVs: Amazon’s new TVs that look like art

Ember Artline TVs are Amazon’s latest TVs that come with a frame that can match the style and colors of your room. They come in 55-inch and 65-inch options, starting at $899.

The new TVs offer 4K QLED displays with 800 nits of brightness. The display is also thin, one and a half inches, and has a matte finish to reduce glare.

The TVs also support Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and Wi-Fi 6.

However, the best selling point is the 10 different models to choose from, offering different colors, shapes, and geometries. This allows customers to take full advantage of the Fire TV’s Ambient feature, which includes displaying artwork when the TV is not in use.

Available colors are Walnut, Ash, Teak, Black Oak, Matte White, Midnight Blue, Fig, Pale Gold, Graphite, and Silver.

Fire TV comes with access to over 2,000 free wallpapers, or you can use your own images.

You can also ask Alexa+ to show other photos from your Amazon Photos collection using commands like, “Alexa, make a slideshow of our family trip to Colorado” or “Alexa, show photos of our wedding.”