I went back to Google TV after the Fire TV let me down, and I haven't looked back

Published Aug 10, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Based in rural Minnesota, Brian Burgess worked in IT for 10 years before finding his passion for writing about consumer technology. Brian earned his degree in computer and network technology in 2000. He held various IT positions, including help desk support, router installations for IBM, database administration, and other associate network administration roles. He's been a personal technology journalist for 18 years and has written thousands of articles about Microsoft products and services, Android, iOS, streaming, and more. He has written for notable tech sites including XDA, InformationWeek, How-To Geek, Byte, groovyPost, and others. When he is away from the keyboard, you will hear him playing guitar, working outdoors, and watching Star Trek. One of the cool things about (some) Fire TV sticks is that they are cheap, include essential apps, and let you sideload through the Android-based OS. Sure, the home screen is a mess, but I always install an alternative launcher like Projectivy for an Android/Google TV-like experience. However, certain models of the new Fire TV Stick run Vega OS, and sideloading apps isn't possible. Because of the confusion and frustration, I returned to a Google TV box to take back control of my TV. There are thousands of other apps I know will work and can play local media. Sorting out Fire TV Sticks Vega and Fire OS differences Amazon is confusing customers by releasing its new Fire TV Stick models with different OSes at the same time. The new Fire TV 4K Select (2025) and Fire TV Stick HD (2026) run the company's locked-down proprietary version of Linux called Vega OS, which doesn't allow sideloading at all. Amazon took away consumer control in Vega OS by not allowing sideloading at the device level. Amazon says it is for safety concerns over potentially harmful third-party apps. The other two sticks, including the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and 4K Max (2nd gen), still run the Android-based Fire OS most users are accustomed to, which has always allowed sideloading of Android APKs. This leads to uncertainty, and consumers end up buying the wrong stick. Confusion for customers aside, even on traditional Fire OS sticks, the ability to sideload certain Android APKs hasn't always been guaranteed or practical. So, I decided to switch back to a Google TV box so everything I want to do now and in the future works. Sidestep sideloading and network issues With a Google TV box and USB drive I bought a Pro version of a Google TV streaming box after my Android-powered Hisense smart TV died after a lightning strike, and it lets me do most of what the TV did. The Google TV box lets me connect an external drive to create a local media library player. I format a USB flash drive using exFAT to bypass the 4 GB limit of FAT32 and the incompatibility of NTFS. Then I load it with media files and use the highly capable VLC media player to watch the content. I already have Jellyfin and Plex servers set up, but the advantage of local playback is predictability. I know exactly where the files live, and I do not have to depend on a server, network connection, or transcoding issues. I don't have to worry about sideloading client apps on Fire OS. I can also swap out flash drives on the fly. It's an opportunity to load the drive full of photos to view on the big screen. An app like File Manager+ also makes it easy to sort through all files on the drive. VLC is useful for playing beautiful 4K files to unusually formatted media that Plex or Jellyfin might need to transcode. Clients on Google TV may also struggle playing certain media from a server or NAS. It's a straightforward, no-frills media player that can display a wide range of file formats directly from the USB drive — like on a PC. I can't plug a flash drive into my Fire TV Stick. To be fair, you can create a flash media player by plugging a drive into an actual Fire TV set (or a Roku TV, for that matter) if it has an open USB slot; however, it's simply not an option with a streaming stick. VLC A smaller app collection Fewer options with inconsistent sideloading Android APK sideloading is not possible on Vega OS, which means it has a smaller app ecosystem. Many of the apps previously available on Fire TV need to be rebuilt to meet new Amazon App Store requirements. For example, if you're a self-hosted media enthusiast, Plex is currently the only tangible option. Open-source options like the official Jellyfin client don't exist. Although I found an alternative Jellyfin client from a Reddit developer. Fire OS is a forked version of Android, and even though sideloading apps on the device is possible, it's not always practical. Apps may not cooperate with the OS or work at all. For instance, apps that require Google Play service support will display a "This app cannot run on your device" error. It's possible to sideload the Google Services Framework and other necessary services and components, but each APK needs to be installed separately, and it can be unstable. Since the success rate for running Android apps via sideloading on Fire TV varies widely, I decided it is easier to go with an official Google TV streaming box, so I have confidence that the apps I install will work. Google TV opens a larger streaming universe than Fire TV Sticks Fire TV sticks (and sets) are cheap for a reason. Similar to Roku, they're full of ads and don't let consumers control the experience like Google TV does. Sideloading apps is also an issue, especially with the new sticks running Vega OS. If you like control, customization, self-hosted media, and a larger app ecosystem, I recommend the Google TV platform. Fire TV sticks are on a path of frustration and annoyance. For my primary streaming media system, I have app and customization assurance with the Google TV box.