Roku could be so much better if it copied this Fire Stick feature

I’ve been using Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max for the past few weeks and recently decided to switch from using it on my TV to my monitor. I had a few reasons for doing this, but the main one was being able to watch shows in 4K at my desk, since most streaming services don’t support 4K quality on a PC’s web browser. During this process, I discovered a feature on the Fire TV Stick that I hadn’t even realized it had, which I’ve now come to appreciate very much: Bluetooth audio support.

That means you can pair Bluetooth headphones with your Fire TV Stick, like the SteelSeries Arctic Nova 7 headset I use, or Apple’s popular AirPods, and listen to shows and movies through them instead of your TV or monitor’s speakers. This is especially handy if you’re using your Fire TV Stick in a setup like mine, on a monitor with no speakers, or if you want to watch TV late at night without disturbing others in your household.

But when I told my friend who has a Roku Streaming Stick about this, I was shocked to learn that Roku’s streaming sticks don’t have Bluetooth audio support. This was puzzling to me, especially since Roku had just released two brand-new streaming sticks recently: the Roku Streaming Stick and the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. How does a streaming device in the year 2025 not natively support Bluetooth audio?

Although Roku offers a Bluetooth Headphone Mode, its official support page notes that it’s not compatible with the Roku Streaming Stick, Roku Express, and Roku Premiere because they don’t have Bluetooth capability. It was through this discovery that I learned how, in just one simple way, the Amazon Fire TV Stick outperforms Roku’s streaming sticks, and it was all thanks to Bluetooth. However, in all fairness, some Roku devices do support Bluetooth audio, and a workaround is available for those that don’t.

Roku Streaming Sticks can use Bluetooth headphones with the Roku app

The Roku app has a feature called Private Listening Mode

Since Roku’s streaming sticks don’t natively support Bluetooth headphones, there are no settings on the device itself to enable their connection. That means if you have a Roku Streaming Stick and want to listen to audio from it using Bluetooth headphones or earbuds, the only way to do so is through your smartphone via the Roku app. This differs from Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks, which allow you to connect your Bluetooth headphones directly to the device, without the use of an app.

That being said, the Roku app has a setting called Private Listening Mode. This lets you route the audio from your Roku stick to your smartphone. So, if you have earbuds or headphones connected to your phone, you can hear the Roku’s audio through them. Although your headphones aren’t directly connected to your Roku Streaming Stick via Bluetooth, turning on Private Listening mode in the Roku app gets around the stick’s lack of Bluetooth audio. If you have a Roku device and want to try Private Listening Mode, you can find it on the Remote screen in the app by tapping the Headphone icon.

Notably, some Roku devices offer Bluetooth audio support, but it’s only available on their pricier streaming devices, including certain Roku Ultra models, the Roku Select Series TV, the Roku Streambar SE, the Roku Streambar, and the Roku Smart Soundbar.

While Private Listening Mode is undoubtedly handy and offers a way for users to listen to their Roku stick with Bluetooth headphones, I don’t believe it’s as good as the Fire TV Stick’s Bluetooth implementation.

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick has Roku beat here

Native Bluetooth audio support is better than none

What I like about the Fire TV Stick’s Bluetooth implementation is its simplicity. Upon learning about the feature’s existence, I had it set up in less than a minute. All I had to do was enable Bluetooth pairing on my headset, and they appeared almost instantly on my Fire TV Stick when I scanned for Bluetooth devices to connect. If you have a Fire TV Stick, you can connect your Bluetooth headphones by heading to Settings > Controllers & Bluetooth devices.

What I liked about this is that I didn’t need to download an app; it just worked right out of the box. While Roku’s app workaround is manageable with Private Listening Mode, I feel like it doesn’t compare to the Bluetooth functionality of the Fire TV Stick. After all, it’s 2025, and Bluetooth has been around for so long. Why shouldn’t a streaming stick have it natively?

It definitely makes the Fire TV Stick more accessible for me, especially since I use it right next to my PC, where I use Bluetooth compatible headphones. Roku’s setup requires using three devices: your streaming stick, your phone, and your headphones. In contrast, the Fire TV Stick skips the middleman and only needs you to enable pairing on your Bluetooth headphones to connect to your Fire TV Stick.

Additionally, I appreciate that Amazon’s implementation of Bluetooth audio support is consistent across its entire Fire TV Stick lineup. Whether you opt for the cheapest Fire TV Stick HD or the most expensive Fire TV Stick 4K Max, they all come with Bluetooth audio support.

On the Roku side, none of its streaming sticks support it. You’ll need to pick up a Roku Ultra (or the LT variant) to use Bluetooth audio natively, without relying on the Roku app and Private Listening Mode.

I believe it’s time for Roku to add Bluetooth audio support to its streaming sticks. All of Amazon’s recent Fire TV Sticks have it, so it’s about time Roku did, too — without relying on its app. I’ve been using my headphones connected to my Fire TV Stick (via Bluetooth) and listening to audio from my PC (connected via USB-C) simultaneously for a few weeks, and the experience has been fantastic. The audio sounds great, and I didn’t need to fiddle with an app to make it work. Overall, I think all streaming devices should support Bluetooth audio, and I don’t believe you should have to rely on an app to use Bluetooth headphones on your streaming stick, and it’s just one simple way that I find Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks better than Roku’s.

Since the Fire TV Stick supports Bluetooth audio, I’ve been testing other devices to see if they also support it, and I was surprised to find that even the PS5 doesn’t have it. That’s right, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick has a feature that even a $500 console lacks. The Switch 2 does support Bluetooth audio, so at least Nintendo gets a win there, and I’ve found it quite useful for using my Switch 2 at my desk while I’m near my PC.