The HBO Max app no longer supports older Fire TV devices, after a recent update.
According to the HBO Max support page, as reported by AFTV News, Fire OS 6 is now the minimum supported Fire TV OS, with newer versions also supported, along with Vega OS 1 or later.
New Fire TV devices running on Fire OS 5 were being sold through the end of 2020, including the 2nd Gen Fire TV Stick. Because Amazon doesn’t update its devices with the newest OS versions, these older devices will lose HBO Max support. Amazon continues to sell devices running on old OS versions, which could cause users to run into issues with losing app support much earlier than expected. Be sure to check which OS version a device is running on before buying to avoid running into that issue.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Select, and Fire TV Stick HD are all running on newer OS versions and will continue to be supported by the HBO Max app.
If you have a Fire TV device and aren’t sure which version its running, go to the Settings menu, navigate to My Fire TV, then About, and select Fire TV to see all of the information about your device.
Amazon’s most recent Fire TV devices are running on Amazon’s Vega OS. Most streaming apps are still supported, including HBO Max. The biggest change that comes with the new OS is that users aren’t able to sideload unofficial or third party apps. That means that one popular workaround for getting apps that don’t support certain devices won’t work if support for Vega is ever dropped.