Amazon has one of the most popular “forks” of the Android operating system with its Fire OS for tablets, and finally, the company is upgrading to Android 11.
Still a version behind Pixels and other brand new Android devices, Android 11 is very much an overdue upgrade for Amazon’s Fire OS. Previously, Fire OS was based on Android 9, with no release made for Android 10.
What’s new in Fire OS 8? Amazon’s developer documentation touted a few new features, as first highlighted by the folks over at Lilliputing.
From Android 10, Amazon is bringing support for Direct Share, HEIF images, and thankfully, dark mode support. It seems the system as a whole as well as individual apps will support a systemwide dark mode toggle, though Amazon has yet to preview what that will look like.
From Android 11, Amazon is mostly implementing background processes, such as blocking toast messages from background apps. One of the only user-facing changes is the ability to give apps one-time access to a permission.
All features implemented in Fire OS 8 are at feature parity with Android 11, which doesn’t necessarily mean that everything in Android 11 is available in Fire OS 8. Some Android 11 features such as File Based Encryption (FBE) aren’t yet supported in Fire OS 8.
Amazon will debut its Android 11-based Fire OS 8 on the new Fire 7 tablet when it debuts next month. However, the company has yet to announce if any of its existing tablets will be updated.
More on Amazon:
- Amazon finally brings USB-C to its most affordable Android tablet, the $60 Fire 7
- Amazon Alexa devices can now view livestreams from 2021 Nest Doorbell and Cams
- Amazon app for Android removes the ability to purchase digital content to avoid Google fees
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments