Fire TV Development vs Android TV Development

Fire TV and Android TV are both based on the Android platform. However, there are fundamental differences between the two even in broad perspectives. They are curated to the specific kind of hardware that runs them.
Programming apps and content for both these systems are therefore quite different. Here are a few aspects in which they differ.

1.) Operational and navigational features
Both Android TV and Fire TV have a navigational trackpad containing directional keys to browse through and select content. However, Fire TV has addition Forward/Replay buttons which eases functionality while playing videos and other content.

2.) Google assistance
Android TV is directly based on the Android OS curated for TV. Therefore, it has access to almost every service that Google provides, including easily downloadable content from Play store and Google location. However, these features are not available in Fire TV.

3.) Android Library support
Android TV enjoys the Leanback support library in its entirety for development. Fire TV too supports some features of this library. Widgets and UI components, the two main assets of the library are used extensively in Fire TV app development.

4.) Voice control
The Leanback library provides Voice search and Control features via APKs in Android TV. However, the Fire TV interface is based on Amazon’s own specifics. It engages Alexa to search using Cloud services globally. This provides search results and voice support that has had user inputs from all across the globe.

5.) Platform
As Android TV is a direct wing of the Android OS, it uses the latest Android system on offer from Google. On the other hand, Fire TV is based on either Lollypop or Nougat. This helps Fire TV to fine tune the user experience based on feedback data rather than depending on Google to edit their smartphone interface for TV.

Although Android TV enjoys more flexibility in development, Fire TV is better curated for viewers.