Home on Fire

Home on Fire is a small Android app for Fire TV that redirects the remote's ⌂ Home button to a launcher of your choice. Optionally also launches that target automatically at device boot, so the Fire TV wakes up on your launcher instead of Amazon's home screen.

Unlike older launcher-replacement tools, Home on Fire works on current Fire OS 8.x (as of May 2026), and on Fire OS 7 (see Compatibility), because it redirects the ⌂ Home button rather than trying to override the home activity itself.

Important

Fire OS 7 shows a brief loading animation when you press Home. Fire OS 8 does not.

On Fire OS 7, the system holds back any app opened by the Home button for up to 5 seconds (an "app-switch lock"). This delay cannot be removed without root, so Home on Fire covers it with a loading animation (or a plain black screen, your choice) that fades into your launcher. In practice it is usually much shorter (often about a second) and clears the moment your launcher is ready. Fire OS 8 has no such delay and shows no animation at all.

To get an instant launch with no animation, you have two options:

• Map a spare remote button (in the app, under Map custom buttons). Bind a color, number or media key to your launcher. That shortcut never goes through Home, so it skips the delay and shows no animation. You can map a second button to jump to Amazon's home.
• Use a Fire OS 8 device. The Home button is already instant there.

Package: io.github.toolicious.homeonfire

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Contents

• TL;DR
• Compatibility
• Why this exists
• Features
• Installation
• Building from source
• Known limitations
• Privacy
• License
• Credits

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TL;DR

Install (from your computer, with Android platform-tools on PATH):

adb connect <fire-tv-ip>:5555
adb install home-on-fire.apk
adb shell pm grant io.github.toolicious.homeonfire android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

Set up on the TV: open Home on Fire, flip the Accessibility service switch on, then click the Choose target app… chip and pick your launcher.

Remote control buttons at a glance:

• ⌂ Home in a third-party app: opens your target instead of Amazon's home.
• ⌂ Home double-press within 1 s: escapes to Amazon's home. Leave a short pause between the two presses. A very fast (mouse-click speed) double-press can register as a single press and just reopen the target, because the two presses collapse into one event that the accessibility service sees; long-press (below) is more reliable.
• ⌂ Home long-press: the most reliable escape. Toggles between target and Amazon's home (may briefly show Quick-Settings; ↩ Back dismisses).
• ↩ Back or ◉ OK on the focused Home icon on Amazon's home screen: opens your target.
• ☰ Menu long-press (~ 500 ms): opens our config screen.
• A custom-mapped button (if set up): opens your target launcher, or jumps to Amazon's home, instantly.
• ⊞ Apps button (if enabled): opens your target launcher, after a brief flash of Amazon's app grid.

Privacy: fully local. No network access, no telemetry, no analytics, no data collection of any kind. See Privacy for details.

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Compatibility

Fire OS 8: Supported
Built and tested against Fire OS 8.1.7.4 (post-September-2025 patch) on an Amazon Ember TV. Should also work on older Fire OS 8.x builds out of the box. The app targets Android API 34 with a minimum of API 21.

Fire OS 7: Supported
Verified on Fire OS 7.7.1.4 and confirmed working across multiple community reports. The redirect behaves differently here: Android 9 holds back a background app launch for about 5 seconds after Home is pressed (the app-switch lock), so your target can only appear ~5 seconds later. Home on Fire covers that gap with a short loading animation that fades into your launcher, so instead of Amazon's home for 5 seconds you get a loading screen that hands off to your launcher. The custom-button and Apps-button shortcuts (see Features) sidestep this delay entirely, opening your launcher instantly. Fire OS 8 has no such delay, so the animation does not appear there.

The loading animation shown while your launcher starts on Fire OS 7.

Fire OS 6 and older: Not supported
Tested on Fire OS 6.7.1.1 and the redirect does not work there.

Vega OS: Not supported
Since October 2025 Amazon has started rolling out a new Vega OS (a Linux-based system built on React Native, not Android) on new Fire TV devices, starting with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select. All future Fire TV Sticks are confirmed to ship on Vega OS, and sideloading is no longer officially supported on those devices: only apps from the Amazon Appstore can be installed. Existing Fire OS devices stay supported; for any new purchase, check the OS first.

Tested it on another device? Please add your result to the compatibility reports thread.

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Why this exists

On Fire OS 8 the ⌂ Home button always pulls you back to Amazon's launcher. Third-party launchers install fine but can't catch the key. The AOSP machinery (pm set-home-activity, the long-press picker) is closed to sideloaded apps, and the September 2025 patch shut the last system-user exploits older workarounds relied on.

Home on Fire works around it with an Accessibility Service that watches for Amazon's home activity becoming foreground, then launches the configured target on top. Redirect, not replacement: Amazon's launcher might flash for ~250 ms, and it stays the OS-level home activity.

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Features

Replace ⌂ Home button	Short-press in a third-party app opens your target instead of Amazon's home. Double-press within 1 s escapes to Amazon's home (leave a short pause between the two presses; a mouse-click-speed double-press may just reopen the target). Long-press is the most reliable escape and toggles between target and Amazon's home. ↩ Back or ◉ OK on the focused Home icon returns to target.
Launch on boot	Optionally launches the target app right after device boot and on wake from standby, so the device shows your launcher instead of Amazon's home in both cases.
☰ Menu long-press shortcut	Hold the ☰ Menu button for half a second from inside the target or any Amazon screen. Opens our config screen.
Map custom buttons	Bind a spare remote button to open your target launcher directly, and another to jump to Amazon's home screen. Opt-in, off by default. Buttons that send a key code (color, number, channel ±, subtitles, teletext, media keys) open instantly, with no Fire OS 7 Home delay. Buttons that instead open an app (⊞ Apps, Live TV, Netflix and similar) are redirected: that app flashes up briefly before your launcher takes over. The Custom box on the same row takes up to six further buttons, each opening any app you pick.

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Installation

Home on Fire is sideload-only. There is currently no store release.

There are two installation paths, depending on whether your Fire OS build still has a working Settings → Accessibility page:

• Path A (no ADB needed). If Accessibility settings open and let you toggle services, you can install the APK from a USB stick or via the Downloader app and enable the service through the system UI.
• Path B (ADB workaround). On most stripped Fire OS 8 builds the Accessibility page is blank or unresponsive. You then need ADB once to grant the WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission so the in-app toggle can do the enabling itself. After that one grant you never need ADB again.

The quickest way to find out which one applies to you: open Settings → Accessibility on the Fire TV. If you see a clean list with toggles, take Path A. If the page is blank or you can't focus anything, take Path B.

Path A: install without ADB

Important

This only works if your Fire OS build still has a working Settings → Accessibility page with a toggle for the service. If that page is blank or you cannot focus anything, use Path B.

1. Download the APK on your computer or phone: home-on-fire.apk from the GitHub release page.
2. Move the APK to the Fire TV. Two common ways:
   • USB stick (works on Fire TV Cube, some Smart TVs with built-in Fire TV, and Sticks with a USB-OTG adapter). Copy the APK onto the stick, plug it into the Fire TV, open the Fire-OS file browser, navigate to the APK, and select it.
   • Downloader app from the Amazon Appstore. Install it on the Fire TV, type or paste the GitHub release URL of the APK, let it download, then select the downloaded file to install. This is the usual route for Fire TV Sticks without a USB port.
3. The first time you sideload an APK, Fire OS asks for permission to install from unknown sources. Allow it.
4. Enable the accessibility service. Open Settings → Accessibility on the Fire TV, find Home on Fire in the services list and turn it on.
5. Pick a target app. Launch Home on Fire from the apps grid, click the Choose target app… chip and select your launcher.

Path B: install via ADB

1. Enable ADB on the Fire TV

On the Fire TV remote:

1. Open Settings → My Fire TV → Developer Options. (If this entry is hidden, go to About, scroll to the Fire TV Stick / Cube line, and click it seven times until it tells you developer mode is unlocked.)
2. Set ADB debugging to On.
3. Note the IP shown under Settings → My Fire TV → About → Network. Looks like 192.168.x.x.

2. Get ADB

Two options:

• On a computer. Download Google's platform-tools zip from https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools (Windows / macOS / Linux). Extract it and open a terminal in that folder. You don't need the full Android SDK.
• On an Android phone. Install Termux from F-Droid or the GitHub releases page (the Play Store build is outdated), then run pkg update && pkg install android-tools to get adb into PATH.

iOS is not practical: Apple's sandbox blocks third-party adb binaries, no maintained equivalent.

The commands below use plain adb. On a computer in the platform-tools folder, prefix it with ./ (POSIX) or .\ (PowerShell). On Termux it's already on PATH.

3. First connect

adb connect <fire-tv-ip>:5555

The first time, the Fire TV will pop up a "Allow USB debugging?" prompt. Confirm it on the TV. After that, adb devices should list 192.168.x.x:5555 as device.

4. Install the APK

Download home-on-fire.apk from the GitHub release page (or fetch it directly):

curl -L -o home-on-fire.apk \
  https://github.com/toolicious/home-on-fire/releases/latest/download/home-on-fire.apk

Then install:

adb install home-on-fire.apk

For updates, add -r:

adb install -r home-on-fire.apk

5. Grant the secure-settings permission

The accessibility service is normally enabled via Settings → Accessibility → Home on Fire. On Fire OS that page is often broken (the reason you're on Path B). Granting WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS via ADB lets the in-app toggle enable the service instead:

adb shell pm grant io.github.toolicious.homeonfire android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

One-shot grant, persists across reboots.

Tip

Doing this from a phone instead of a PC? The apps that connect to the Fire TV and drop you into a shell prompt (not Termux) put you inside the device's own shell, so there is no adb command there. Run just the inner part, without the adb shell prefix: pm grant io.github.toolicious.homeonfire android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

6. Launch the app

Either open Home on Fire from the apps grid on the TV, or from the same terminal:

adb shell am start -n io.github.toolicious.homeonfire/.MainActivity

7. Pick a target app

Inside the app, click the Choose target app… chip. Any installed launcher / TV app that declares CATEGORY_LEANBACK_LAUNCHER or CATEGORY_LAUNCHER shows up.

Path B in one block

Steps 3-6 condensed for re-runs or copy-paste:

# Download the APK (skip if you already have it on disk)
curl -L -o home-on-fire.apk \
  https://github.com/toolicious/home-on-fire/releases/latest/download/home-on-fire.apk

# Connect (Fire TV IP from Settings → My Fire TV → About → Network)
adb connect <fire-tv-ip>:5555

# Install (use -r for updates over an existing install)
adb install home-on-fire.apk

# Grant the secure-settings permission, once, so the in-app
# accessibility toggle works without the broken Settings page.
adb shell pm grant io.github.toolicious.homeonfire android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

# Open the app
adb shell am start -n io.github.toolicious.homeonfire/.MainActivity

In the app, flip the Accessibility service switch and pick a target via Choose target app….

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Building from source

The build pipeline is deliberately tiny. No Gradle, no AppCompat, no XML layouts. Just aapt2 + javac + d8.

git clone https://github.com/toolicious/home-on-fire
cd home-on-fire
./build.ps1        # PowerShell wrapper; auto-bumps versionCode + name

Defaults:

• minSdkVersion 21, targetSdkVersion 34.
• The build script looks for a keystore at keystore/home-on-fire.keystore. If you forked the repo, generate your own with keytool -genkey -v -keystore .... The bundled keystore is in .gitignore for a reason.
• The build script pushes the APK to a connected ADB device on success. Pass -NoInstall to skip that step, -NoBump to skip the version bump (e.g. for purely cosmetic rebuilds).

Manual pipeline if you'd rather not use the script:

1. aapt2 compile --dir res -o build/res-compiled.zip
2. aapt2 link -o build/unsigned.apk -I <android.jar> --manifest AndroidManifest.xml -R build/res-compiled.zip --java build/gen --auto-add-overlay --min-sdk-version 21 --target-sdk-version 34
3. javac -encoding UTF-8 -source 8 -target 8 -classpath <android.jar> -d build/classes <sources>
4. d8 --lib <android.jar> --output build/dex <classes>
5. Inject classes.dex into the APK with jar uf.
6. zipalign -p 4 build/unsigned-with-dex.apk build/aligned.apk
7. apksigner sign --ks keystore/home-on-fire.keystore --out home-on-fire.apk build/aligned.apk

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Known limitations

• On Fire OS 8, a ~250 ms flash of Amazon's home appears at every ⌂ Home press, intrinsic to how the redirect works (we react to the launcher having already become foreground). Removing it would require the approaches Amazon has closed. On Fire OS 7 the launch is instead delayed ~5 s and hidden by the loading animation (see Compatibility).
• Settings → Accessibility may not work on the specific Fire OS build you're on; the WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS grant is the reliable way to enable the service. The app shows the exact ADB command as a Toast when toggling fails.
• A kids profile can lock you in if your custom launcher (Projectivy, for example) is set to claim ⌂ Home itself, because the long-press panel is the only way to switch profiles there. Turn Replace ⌂ Home button off to get out.

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Privacy

Home on Fire is a fully local app and does not talk to any network. Specifically:

• No INTERNET permission. Not declared in the manifest, so the OS will not even let the process open a socket. No analytics, no crash reporting, no auto-update check, no phone-home.
• No data collection. The only state the app stores is your in-app settings (target package, on/off toggles), which live in the app's private SharedPreferences directory on the device and never leave it.
• Permissions declared, and only what's needed for the feature:
  • BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE for the ⌂ Home button redirect.
  • RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED for the optional launch-at-boot.
  • WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS, granted manually via ADB, so the in-app Accessibility toggle can work around the broken-on-Fire-OS Settings page (see Installation).

The source is open, so you can verify.

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License

GPLv3-or-later (GNU General Public License, version 3 or later). Fork freely; any modified version you distribute must stay under GPL and ship its source.

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Credits

• The Android team for keeping AccessibilityService powerful enough that a redirect like this is still possible without root.
• LtvLauncher, a tidy minimalist launcher used during development.
• Projectivy Launcher as an inspiration for the accessibility-redirect trick on Fire OS.