Amazon’s next Fire 7 tablet will come with a new version of the company’s Fire OS operating system called Fire OS 8 (h / t to Liliputing and AFTVNews). It is based on Android 11, which is quite a significant upgrade to the core technology that currently powers Amazon tablets; the previous version, Fire OS 7, is based on Android 9, which was released in 2018.
According to Amazon’s developer documentation, the update may bring several new user features. On the one hand, it carries a dark mode for the entire OS system, which developers can make their application follow. Above all, however, it is good for privacy and security. Along with various permissions system updates, the upgrade should also make it easier for Amazon to push for security fixes. Google no longer provides Android 9 updates.
Currently, there is only one tablet for which Amazon documentation shows that it has Fire OS 8: 2022 Fire 7. Given that 2020 Fire HD 8 has more or less the same chip, it seems likely that it works with Fire OS 8 if Amazon decides to update it. The company did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment on whether it intends to update any of its existing tablets with the new version of the operating system.
Google’s May 9 report on the distribution of the Android version – 58 percent of devices run at least Android 10. Image: Google
Even if the update doesn’t mean that the 2022 Fire 7 will have a dramatically different user interface than the 2019 version, upgrading the Fire OS could make things easier for developers in the future. While there will still be many Fire OS 7 devices running for a while, the fact that Amazon isn’t introducing a device that runs it in 2022 means that it will eventually start to shrink. In turn, this will allow developers to start using features and code that will not work on Android 9, which can be especially useful if they are developing for both Amazon and Google app stores; at the moment, almost 60 percent of Android devices run at least Android 10.
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