Amazon firetv/stick OTA update kills custom launcher

Hi guys n girls, how you all doing?

Some of you with firetv, 4k firestick, firestick 2nd generation devices have probably noticed that amazon have pushed out OTA updates that have killed off the ability to set your own ATV launcher.

The update has taken away the privilege of writing "pm grant" permissions through the adb shell process in terminal/adb. The update modified system settings to prevent the user modifying the accessibility settings which I'm sure a lot of you read about on the Web.

This amazon update has had a detrimental effect on the users ability to take control of their firetv homescreen (stop advertisements, sponsored apps) and has left many of us for the worse.

Some apps such as githubs firetvlaunchx app which replaced the 'launcher hijack' method after similar updates killed that off have also been stopped.

So we are buying these devices that are advertisement machines and we are being prevented from upgrading them to suit our own needs through personalisation of simple comforts that make family viewing more comfortable.

It is always a good thing to have control of your device and as amazon continues to grow from the profit made through advertisements and the constant screening of sponsored apps, what choice do we really have in the future if we continue to buy devices like these?

Maybe the solution lies in switching to more user friendly sticks/boxes on the android TV platform.

What do you guys think?
 
Yeah I agree
You'll always have more flexibility to do what you want on your box/stick if it isn't tied down to a providers OS.
I saw a YouTube video the other day that shows you how to install a custom android ROM/OS onto a Firestick. Means you can do what you like and gets rid of all the Amazon bloatware and frees up valuable RAM.

Personally I'd always favour an android box over a Firestick.
 
Yeah I agree
You'll always have more flexibility to do what you want on your box/stick if it isn't tied down to a providers OS.
I saw a YouTube video the other day that shows you how to install a custom android ROM/OS onto a Firestick. Means you can do what you like and gets rid of all the Amazon bloatware and frees up valuable RAM.

Personally I'd always favour an android box over a Firestick.
Yes definitely, There is lineage 12.1 for the tank (firestick 2nd gen) I have this on one of my sticks in the kids room, it frees a lot of space on stick and gives the user more freedom.
However as the rom is still under development it's quite bugg-ish with things such as bt audio not working.

There are also pre-rooted stock roms kicking about for all the sticks and boxes and these are worth a look at. This let's the user uninstall bloatware, disable updates which of course stops anyone interfering with your setup (amazon).

Since fireos became available it has always had the same tacky click click click interface.
Perhaps if they started installing customization options within their software a lot more people would take interest and there wouldn't be the need for them to worry about developers editing their sticks etc to tailor their own needs.
Just a thought..

In the meantime SweenWolf and Techdoctoruk have a workaround for anyone who, like me, loved a different launcher.
This works on the 4K Stick and should probably work on the second gen tanks too but don't quote me on it

Custom Launcher On Amazon 4K Firestick /2nd Gen Cube (September 2020) | TechDoctorUK
 
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