What you need to know
- In late 2023, Amazon's big banner ad on the home screen triggered autoplay video ads, disrupting the user experience and causing dissatisfaction.
- A recent redesign moved ads to a smaller mini-player, reducing screen space taken up by promotions.
- Automatic playback is also removed; ads now appear with a brief delay, making them less disruptive.
Amazon is rolling out a user-friendly redesign of Fire TV ads, making them less intrusive for viewers.
In late 2023, Amazon made a bold move by changing the Fire TV user interface. Instead of the usual navigation menu as the starting point, the platform introduced a big banner ad that takes up a lot of the home screen. Just hovering over this banner would trigger an autoplay video ad, hitting users with unsolicited content right from the start. This change really threw off the familiar user experience and left a lot of people unhappy.
Even though there was an option to disable autoplay ads, the default setting was still disruptive and intrusive. This update forced users to watch unsolicited video ads right when they started up their beloved Fire TV devices, even before they had a chance to engage with the platform.
A report by CordCuttersNews reveals that a redesign on the Fire TV platform has significantly reduced the disruption caused by these ads. The change moves promotional content to a dedicated mini-player, taking up much less space on the screen.
Although the mini-player only shows a limited view of apps, the interface is still accessible, now positioned at the bottom of the screen. This redesign is expected to roll out to all Fire TV devices released since 2016.
Additionally, the automatic playback is gone. Now, users will encounter a brief delay before any promotional content appears, reducing the immediate disruption that many found annoying.
Basically, with the new Fire TV interface, you can start using apps or browsing before any ads start playing. This is different from Google TV, where video ads automatically start when you reach the featured content section.
The revamped Fire TV interface also lets users skip ads easily with a press of the home button or by setting up a shortcut on their controller.
Of course, pop-up video ads are common on smart TV platforms like Android TV, but there's a key difference. Usually, ads only play when users interact, like hovering over them. However, the previous setup on Fire TV automatically launched video ads without any user input, making it a lot more disruptive, until now.
