Amazon Fire OS 8 debuts this summer (Android 11-based software for Fire devices)

The new Amazon Fire 7 (2022) tablet brings a better processor, more memory, and longer battery life to Amazon’s entry-level tablet. The $60 tablet will also be the first to ship with Fire OS 8 when the new Fire 7 begins shipping June 29, 2022.

Fire OS is the Android-based operating system Amazon uses for its Fire tablets and Fire TV devices, and version 8 of the operating system should be a pretty major update… although it’s unclear if users will really notice much of a difference.

That’s because many of the changes will be under the hood. Rather than major changes to the user interface, many of the updates have to do with privacy and security settings.

While the Fire OS 7 software that runs on older Amazon tablets is based on Android 9, Fire OS 8 is based on Android 11 and includes, among other things:

• Support for a dark theme
• Support for HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) format images
• TLS 1.3 security enabled by default
• Apps can access device location while running in the background
• Apps have more restrictions on starting activities from the background, which should reduce power consumption and minimize interruptions
• Users can grant apps one-time permissions (if you want to grant location access this time, but not always, for example)

These changes are all a result of the move from Android 9 to Android 11, but Amazon notes that not all Android 11 features are available in Fire OS 8. For example, File Based Encryption isn’t supported by Fire OS yet.

You can find more details about Fire OS 8 in Amazon’s developer documentation.