Job listing hints at Amazon dropping its forked Android for Fire TV and Echo devices

Amazon devices have been running Fire OS, a fork of Android, for quite a while now. It first came into existence when the company released its very first Kindle Fire tablet in 2011. The device ran a forked Android based on Gingerbread 2.3. Over the years, more and more devices running the forked operating system have launched.

That includes Amazon Fire Stick, Fire TV, Echo smart home devices, Fire Tablet (Fire HD 10 curr. $94.99 on Amazon), and Fire Phone. The company has also introduced many updates throughout the time. But at the end of last year, we started to see reports suggesting the company is preparing to ditch Android and shift to a new operating system dubbed Vega OS.

This new OS is reportedly Linux-based and utilizes a "more web-forward application model." The reports also claimed that the company was seemingly telling the devs to use React Native for their application. For those wondering, React Native is a framework that works on a broad range of operating systems, including Android and iOS.

After months of initial reports and rumors, Amazon seems to be actually preparing to shift from its forked Android OS to its own operating system. A job listing appeared on the official website for the Fire TV Experience Software Development Engineer role.

In the "A day in the life" section, Amazon writes the role would require implementing and delivering features on the "Fire TV client codebase as it transitions from FOS/Android to native/Rust React Native." Here, FOS is the short form of Fire OS, and Rust is an advanced systems language that will likely be the backbone of the new in-house operating system.

If you head to the job listing now, it says that the job isn't available anymore, suggesting Amazon has found the right candidate for the role. But the listing has been archived on the Wayback Machine, which you can check out through this link.

Interestingly, Vega OS already exists on the Amazon Echo Show 5 Kids Edition (check price on Amazon). In its current state, it doesn't look different than Fire OS, but it comes with many changes under the hood. It's not yet clear whether Amazon is preparing to roll out the alleged new operating system to all devices running its forked Android version. But as of now, reports indicate it's just for smart home devices.