It’s been a couple of years since Amazon originally debuted its Fire TV media player. Since then, there have been no shortage of competitors looking to take on Fire TV and Fire TV Stick but Amazon’s TV box and stick are still some of the most attractive solutions for television streaming on the market. That’s primarily because Amazon is offering a huge amount of content you can stream with Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. However, a wide variety of content can sometimes lead to navigation issues. With literally hundreds of thousands of movies and TV shows to choose from, finding the right one for you can sometimes be a challenge. Of course, that’s even without taking thousands of games, apps, channels, and other cool Fire TV content into account.
This is why Amazon is currently working on a user interface overhaul that’s slated to hit its Fire TV lineup later this year. The most important change is the position of the main navigation bar which has now been re-positioned to the top of the Fire TV UI. Your Home screen will now display recently added content and your very own apps and games. Of course, Amazon Original content will take precedence when it comes to promoted shows and movies. In addition to freeing up more space to display latest and greatest Fire TV content, SlashGear reports that Amazon is working on a feature which would allow users to play trailers directly from thumbnail boxes featured on their Home screen. If this actually ends up happening, it will certainly facilitate the process of deciding on a new show or movie to watch.
The UI overhaul will also add a Your Videos section to the Fire TV interface which will let you easily differentiate between free and paid-only content. Latest reports also suggest that Alexa will become a much more capable Fire TV controller when the upcoming UI update rolls out. More specifically, Amazon’s intelligent voice assistant will be able to navigate you through a movie, TV show, or music track with simple commands like “go back a minute” or “start the movie at three minutes in”. There’s still no word on an official release date of this update but more information is expected to follow soon.
