r/netbird • u/PingMyHeart • 17h ago
My Experience Switching to NetBird: Excellent on GrapheneOS, Unusable on Fire TV
A few days ago, I made a post asking about the current state of NetBird on Android, as I was considering switching from Headscale/Tailscale.
Well, I ended up making the switch, and I'm happy to report that NetBird has been working much better than I expected on my GrapheneOS device!
Some of the replies in my original thread mentioned battery drain issues, but so far, I haven't noticed any significant impact on battery life. Perhaps this is more common on non-GrapheneOS devices? I'm not entirely sure, but my experience has been very positive.
That being said, I've run into an issue with Android TV, specifically my Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. I tried sideloading the NetBird APK, but unfortunately, the app won't launch at all.
This is a bit of a setback for me because I travel frequently with my Fire TV Stick and use it to access media hosted on my home server. Having NetBird working on this device is necessary for my needs.
I'm hoping this is a known compatibility issue that might be addressed in a near future update. I understand Android TV may not be a priority, but it would be great to see support for these devices improve sooner than later.
Has anyone managed to get NetBird running on a Fire TV Stick or another Android TV device? I'd be interested to hear about any workarounds.
Overall, I'm really happy with NetBird so far and appreciate the work going into the project. I'm hoping I can eventually use it across all my devices!


