Reporting from Fire TV apps
On your own desk, adb still works over the network: Android TV and Fire TV bug reports covers developer options, adb connect, adb bugreport and the logcat crash buffer on a TV, and where that stops scaling.
Fire TV apps are among the hardest to debug from the field: a tester sees a glitch in the living room and has to describe it from memory, or film the screen with a phone. On a TV there is no keyboard and no screenshot key, so Everframe does not put a reporter on the TV. The Android SDK reports crashes and errors from the Fire TV app on its own, with the trail of what happened before.
The same envelope as every other screen
Fire OS is based on Android, so Fire TV apps use the Android SDK. A Fire TV report is the same envelope as one from your phone or web app, so webhooks, triage rules and the dashboard treat it the same way — the stack, the breadcrumb trail, the screen and the device.
Crash reporting on Fire TV
The Android SDK reports uncaught Java and Kotlin exceptions, as on any other Android device. Native crashes, ANRs and low-memory kills are reported on Android 11 and later. Fire OS 8 is based on Android 11, and native crashes there arrive without stack frames; Fire OS 7 is based on Android 9, which keeps no exit record for them.
What every Fire TV report carries
- Uncaught Java and Kotlin exceptions with the stack, and native crashes and ANRs where Fire OS records them.
- The breadcrumb trail and the screen the app was on. Replay when it is enabled for the app.
- App, SDK, OS and device metadata.
Install
// gradle.properties
everframeVersion=1.2.1
// build.gradle
implementation("dev.everframe:core:$everframeVersion")
implementation("dev.everframe:reporter-ui:$everframeVersion") Questions
Can testers file a bug report from a Fire TV?
Not yet. Crash and error reporting and session replay work today; on-device capture arrives later.
Does the Fire TV app need a keyboard or a special remote?
No. Nothing is typed on the TV, and the Fire TV remote stays a remote.
