Hello S_K,
Thanks for posting! Please find the answers below:
Q1: Once the Amazon Fling SDK is discontinued on March 5, 2026, will it still be supported on older devices?
A1: Fling will be removed from Fire OS 6 and higher devices, 12 months after the deprecation announcement in Q1 2025. It’s unclear if Fling will continue working on Fire OS 5 and below after the sunset date, so it’s probably worth reaching out to the Fling team directly. My assumption is that Fling will continue being available on Fire OS 5 because it does not receive any further software updates, so whatever is available there, will stay there. However, it also means that no bug fixes, or security updates will be provided for Fling on Fire OS 5, and if a Fling based app crashes or behaves unpredictably, there will not be any support provided.
Q2: Does the discontinuation affect only the casting of photos and videos, or will other features be impacted as well?
A2: Fling enables various casting features like discovering Fire TV devices, playing media, controlling playback, and remote app installation. All of these features will no longer work in apps that don’t replace Fling with an alternative solution like Matter Casting.
Q3: If the entire Fling SDK is deprecated, will all related code also become deprecated or unusable?
A3: Yes, after the service sunset, the Fling SDK will no longer be available for download, and apps cannot use the Fling dependency anymore. The entire Fling SDK and related code will become deprecated and unusable.
Q4: Since Matter Casting is recommended as a replacement, from which Fire OS version will it be supported, and on which Fire TV devices?
A4: The Matter Casting launched on Fire TV in 2024, but it’s not clear what the exact Fire OS version are that it is supported on. In general, Matter Casting is the recommended replacement for Fling, but the details on Fire OS and device support need to be verified with the Fling team.
Q5: Will Matter Casting be supported on all Amazon devices such as Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, etc.?
A5: Again, details need to be clarified, but my assumption is Yes, it will be supported on all Fire TV, Vega TV, and Fire OS 14 devices, but the full granular device compatibility is unclear.
Q6: As Matter Casting is supported on Fire OS 7.0 and above, can older Fire OS versions continue using the Fling SDK, or will they lose casting support entirely?
A6: Fling will continue to run on Fire OS 5 devices as they won’t receive system updates beyond the sunset date. For Fire OS 6 devices, Fling will be removed with the R26 system release (12 months after deprecation announcement). I’m not sure about backporting Matter Casting to Fire OS 6 or earlier, because those devices are in partial device support with no new features added. This suggests older devices (Fire OS 5 and possibly some Fire OS 6 devices that don’t receive the R26 update) may retain Fling functionality, while others will lose casting support entirely if Matter Casting isn’t available for them.