Starting today, the all-new Fire TV Stick will begin shipping to customers in the UK and Japan. Up to 30 percent faster than the previous best-selling version, the new Fire TV Stick will soon be available in Germany too.

Fire TV gains momentum

The latest generation Fire TV Stick features the latest content-forward interface, designed to improve discoverability. Additionally, our on-screen merchandising capabilities continue to improve, providing recommendations that can surface relevant content based on each customer’s unique interests. Since its recent launch in the US, the all-new Fire TV Stick has quickly become a best-seller on Amazon.com and received more than 40,000 five-star reviews. Submit your app now to make sure it is available for customers as they start receiving their new devices.

Content-forward UI puts your apps & games front and center

We’ve made a host of improvements that reduce the amount of work customers have to do to engage with the content they love. This means customers use your apps more – leading to more sessions, deeper engagement, and more opportunities to generate revenue. We expect these and many other features will make the new Fire TV Stick even more popular than it is today, further expanding the reach for your apps and games.

The new UI provides more rows in the browsing experience, creating additional opportunities for your apps and games to gain visibility. In particular, the Your Apps and Games and Recommended for You rows increase the chance that the right customers will see your app.

Deeper engagement with Alexa

In addition, Amazon also announced a free Fire TV software update that will bring Alexa to all Fire TV devices in the UK—including first generations of both Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, as well as the Fire TV with 4K UHD. The update will make Alexa available to the millions of UK customers with Fire TV devices already in their homes, and upgrades every existing Fire TV Voice Remote to an Alexa Voice Remote. Customers without a voice remote can use the Fire TV app for iOS and Android to access Alexa, in the same way they do today with Voice Search. The same software update also upgrades previous generation Fire TV and Fire TV Stick devices to the new, cinematic UI.

Better performance

The next-generation Fire TV Stick has the horsepower to let your high-performance apps and games shine. The Quad-core ARM 1.3 GHz CPU provides a snappy user experience, and the enhanced Wi-Fi capabilities (802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi) and H.265 (HEVC) Codec support improve video and audio streaming experiences. For a full list of specs, check out our Fire TV documentation.

Bringing your app to Fire TV has never been easier

Whether you are a developer building web apps using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, or building native apps using Java, you can kick start your app development using our Amazon Fire App Builder or Web App Starter Kit. All you need is a JSON or MRSS feed with the metadata of your content, and the tools will take care of the rest.

Ready to publish your app to Fire TV Stick? Simply drag and drop your APK into Amazon's free App Testing Service to get test results for the new Fire TV Stick and previous generations of Fire TV in 90 seconds or less. For more information, check out the following resources:

• Register for a free Amazon developer account
• Learn about developing for Fire TV
• Download an SDK for your Fire TV App
• Download Fire TV development tools
• Submit your app