Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick owners in the US have had access to Alexa on their devices for over a year, but the voice assistant hasn’t made an appearance on Fire TV devices overseas yet. That has finally changed with the new 5.2.4.1 software update currently rolling out to all Fire TV models globally. In addition to bringing the new Fire TV user interface to older 1st-generation models, as well as a few other new features, the update adds Alexa to all UK and German Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks.
The new 2nd-generation Fire TV Stick will be arriving at people’s doorsteps in the UK tomorrow, and in Germany later this month, with Alexa onboard, but thankfully existing Fire TV and Fire TV Stick owners won’t have to buy a new device to have access to the voice assistant. Once a device receives the 5.2.4.1 software update, the basic voice search capability will be replaced with Alexa.
Just like Fire TV devices in the US, basic voice searching for movies, TV shows, music, and apps will still work on UK and German devices after receiving the Alexa-packed software update. Just now, residents in those countries will be able to talk to Alexa as well, the same way one does with a device like the Amazon Echo.
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Hallelujah… finally. Now I guess it’ll just be another few months before the update reaches me. Great
Great news, now just hope rbox can release a pre-rooted rom
Yyyeeeeesssssssss bring it on!!
That’s great news, now if the will connect echo directly to the fire stick and fire tv w/o touching the remote at all would be even a better advancement.
Superb
Thanks for putting up with us whinging Brits
We need Rbox!
you arent going to get a rooted stick or box….do you really think thatd ever happen ever? LMFAO!!
THEY JUST BANNED KODI BOXES THAT TOUT FREE MOVIE ETC ABILITY.
lol…..ugh……
One of my Fire TV (version 1) boxes updated today to the new firmware. Unfortunately I have not had chance to look at any new features yet. I am looking forward to checking it out sometime tomorrow.
You lucky so and so.. haha.. I’ve been checking every day but nothing yet. Please let me know how it runs as I too have the first gen Fire TV. I use it everyday so I’m hopeful the new update runs as smooth as the current OS does.
It runs fine. It will take a bit of time to get used to the new UI and menu system I suppose. When I first tried it out there were some delays starting shows but I think that may have been an unlucky moment with my router acting up. It all working fine now.
I tried some of the suggested Alexa tips. While playing some music I asked “play Breathe”, Alexa announced Breathe in the Air by Pink Floyd and starting playing it. I went back to my original playlist and played some other songs. I then asked “What’s playing (now)” and I got the response “Breathe in the Air by Pink Floyd”. Time will tell how useful Alexa is to me on the Fire TV.
Thank you very much for coming back and posting your thoughts. I’ll look more forward to the update now :)
I got the update over the weekend yay :) it runs very nice and smooth, been playing around with Alexa too. Fantastic update.
21st of Apr but no update yet
I got my update for Germany for my 1st gen AFTV today, works fine. The voice search for music is great. I wish it would continue playing when I switch off my video projector. Any ideas how I could achieve that? AFTV sends it signal to an HDMI switch which sends the video to my projector via HDMI and the sound to a receiver via toslink.