Mozilla to shut down Firefox for Amazon Fire TV and Echo Show devices

Mozilla's Firefox, the world's most popular privacy-oriented open-source browser, will no longer be supported on Amazon's Fire TV and Echo Show devices. Over three and a half years after the launch, the non-profit organization announced its website.

With the company dropping support for Firefox on these platforms, users will stop receiving updates at the end of April. Android Police first reported the announcement, noting that users will have to switch to Amazon's Silk browser once Firefox is no longer supported. The Firefox listing will be removed from Amazon's app store at the month-end.

The end of Firefox support for Fire TV and Echo show devices appears to be a belated response to YouTube's return to the Amazon AppStore a couple of years ago. When Amazon and Google were fighting and could not reach a compromise, Firefox served as a fantastic alternative for users to play their videos on the platform. It wasn't the only option at the time, as Amazon's Silk Browser was another great alternative that users had access to at the time.

"Starting on April 30, 2021, we will no longer support Firefox on Amazon Fire TV or Echo Show. You will no longer be able to install the app on FireTV, receive security updates, or be able to reinstall the app if you uninstall it starting on April 30, 2021. If you have Firefox set as your default browser on Echo Show, you will be redirected to Amazon Silk for web browsing starting April 30, 2021," Mozilla said on its end-of-support announcement for Firefox on Amazon's devices.

Users who currently have the Firefox browser installed will still be able to access the browser but will not download it again if they uninstall the browser; new users will not find the browser in the Amazon Appstore.

However, just because you have the application installed does not mean that you should use it. After April 30, users will be vulnerable to future security flaws that will not receive any security fixes, at which time switching to Amazon's Silk browser would be highly recommended.