Amazon cites malware risk as reason for dropping sideloading on new Fire Stick models
Amazon has introduced Fire Stick devices running its own Vega OS, which blocks sideloaded apps, citing security concerns and a desire to improve ad and feature control.
Amazon announced that its latest Fire Stick models will run Vega OS, a proprietary Linux-based platform that does not allow sideloading of apps from outside the Amazon Appstore. The move follows criticism that earlier Fire Sticks, which ran a fork of Android called Fire OS, were widely used for streaming piracy and were linked to malware-laden applications.
Vega OS gives Amazon tighter control over the device software, enabling the company to enforce ad placement, support new services such as the Alexa+ chatbot, and manage subscription features. In a recent interview, Aidan Marcuss, vice president of Fire TV advertising and the Appstore, said the new OS provides an opportunity to “innovate and deliver more capabilities, even on the least expensive devices” and that security and privacy are “sort of utmost in my mind.”
When asked for evidence that sideloaded apps had harmed users, Marcuss replied that “apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware” and that there is “a good amount of evidence that apps can carry unwanted code and behavior on them when they’re sideloaded.” He did not cite specific incidents, though Amazon previously blacklisted four streaming apps in 2025 for malicious behavior, and a 2018 botnet infected some Fire Sticks with cryptocurrency-mining malware.
Critics note that Vega OS also limits users’ ability to install custom launchers and ad-blocking tools, which had previously helped avoid Amazon tracking. The new devices support roughly 3,000 apps in the UK, far fewer than the 40,000 available on older Fire OS models, but Marcuss argued that most customers do not need thousands of apps and can access “the vast, vast, vast majority of content” on Vega-OS sticks.
Developers who register their devices can still sideload apps onto Vega OS, but the default configuration blocks most third-party launchers and ad-blocking software, aligning the hardware more closely with Amazon’s advertising and content-distribution goals.
