'It's hot garbage now' Amazon Fire TV users complain about controversial changes
AMAZON Fire TV owners vow to ditch their gadgets after controversial changes to the app.
Customers have flocked to Reddit to complain about the quality of their Amazon Fire TVs and Sticks.
The gadgets promise a smarter TV experience, but some owners aren't happy with how well the devices are performing lately — or how easy it is to find content.
In a Reddit thread with dozens of upvotes, one poster wrote, “What happened to Fire TV? I just bought a new one, so that's not it.
“You have to scroll through layers upon layers to get what you want to see. You can't escape the previews, it's slow, it kicks itself out of the show or doesn't go there at all.”
A separate user replying in the comments added: “I used to recommend them but not anymore. It's a total mess now.”
Another said: “Funny you should say that. I'm in the process of removing all Amazon devices (Fire TV and Echo) from my ecosystem. Trust is gone!”
And someone commented: “Yes, things are going downhill fast. I left the ecosystem a few months ago”
Another user said they traded their Fire TV devices for an Apple TV.
They wrote: “Yes, it's more expensive, but after years of having Fire Sticks on all my TVs, I'm slowly phasing them out.
“It was absolutely the best decision I ever made. Set it to open the home screen (instead of the default Apple TV+ app) and you have no clutter or nonsense.
“Only the apps you use. No slow and clumsy navigation and no bulls***.”
The complaints come despite a recent advertisement on Amazon Fire TV YouTube that promises users can “scroll less, watch more.”
One user suggested a solution to disable autoplay videos to alleviate some of the problem.
Just go to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content and then look for Allow Audio Autoplay and Allow Video Autoplay.
Turn both off and that should alleviate most of the autoplay issues you may be experiencing.
One replied: “Get out of bed so I don't forget this,” while another simply added: “THIS.”
But it wasn't enough for the original poster who wrote that they had already tried it: “Yes, I did, but thanks for the suggestion.”
Another said: “I did it too but some things still autoplay.”
BAD ADS
Amazon has been under fire lately for adding ads to its streaming service.
Last year, Amazon announced it would start showing “limited ads” on Prime Video.
And the change went live on January 29 this year, impacting paying users of the service.
To remove ads, subscribers must pay an additional $2.99 on top of their existing subscription.
But Amazon noted: “We aim to have significantly fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.”
Amazon Video subscribers have since revealed that they have canceled their memberships entirely.
One user on the Reddit thread said they ditched the Fire TV in their bedroom and started using an Xbox instead: “As a bonus, everything loads MUCH faster.
“I'd rather just use my Fire TV, but I absolutely hate ads and pay for an ad-free experience on literally everything I subscribe to.”
The Sun has reached out to Amazon for comment and will update this article if there is any response.