Google is Pulling YouTube from Amazon Fire TV and Echo Show
Google is removing its YouTube app from Amazon Fire TV and its Alexa-Powered Echo Show starting January 1st, 2018.
Amazon and Google are feuding and customers for both companies are the losers. Google is removing its YouTube app from Amazon Fire TV and the Echo Show starting January 1st, 2018. This is due to an apparent conflict between the two companies. If you launch the YouTube app on your Fire TV, you’ll see the message that it will no longer be available beginning with the new year. It also points you to the YouTube help page about other devices that support it.
Google Pulling YouTube App from Fire TV in 2018
In September, Google started to block YouTube on Amazon’s Echo Show device in October, but it did start working again in November as Amazon implemented a web version. And that version lacks key YouTube features like subscriptions. It’s a similar situation with YouTube on the Apple TV which lacks several features like creating playlists and purchasing content.
Google has a disagreement in Amazon business dealings. Amazon stopped selling Google’s Chromecast in 2015 and it isn’t listing any of Google’s smart devices like the Nest thermostat or its Google Home speaker.
In a Variety report, a Google Spokesperson said, “We’ve been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other’s products and services. But Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of Nest’s latest products. Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and Fire TV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon.”
Amazon later released a statement regarding the matter saying, “Echo Show and Fire TV now display a standard web view of YouTube.com and point customers directly to YouTube’s existing website. Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website. We hope to resolve this with Google as soon as possible.”
This whole thing seems to have begun years ago with Amazon’s implementation of its customized version of Android which the company calls Fire OS that runs on its Kindle Fire tablets and Fire TV. Also, Amazon’s decision to run its own App Store on its devices didn’t sit well with Google and there has been a lot of back and forth since. Whatever the case, it’s really a fight over who has the best platform for making advertising money off its users.
Whether these two tech giants can work out an agreement remains to be seen. But for now, the consumers are the ones who lose out. Of course, if you’re looking for your own workaround for the problem, you can simply navigate to YouTube using the Silk Web Browser on Fire TV.
How important is YouTube being on Fire TV to you? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts on the matter.
7 Comments
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Yv
December 6, 2017 at 6:32 am
Perhaps getting Roku would be the way to go to get around the kids fighting in the sandbox?
SuperBob
December 6, 2017 at 8:14 am
Couldn’t care less! The two companies will probably sort it out when they start secondary school.
shula
December 6, 2017 at 10:25 am
I rely on you tube for my exercise I have streaming thru amazon yes I will miss it
blissful1
December 6, 2017 at 12:08 pm
Are both companies so afraid of each other that they will shoot themselves in the foot and sacrifice potential sales in order to avoid product comparisons? Are they so insecure about their company’s products, business model and marketing tactics that they are willing to play bully in the business world? I’m waiting for a startup company that will figure out a way to put both Google and Amazon in their place. It will happen – if only because some savvy consumer becomes so ticked off with their business tactics they come up with a solution to take away their power. The average consumer may temporarily become victims of company foolishness but the consumer will always win in the end – we only put up with so much unprofessionalism from big companies before we start to fight back. Think 3rd party software… ;’)
Widdershins
December 6, 2017 at 3:22 pm
Oh fer f**ks sake!!! … I think someone’s watched Highlander too many times!
Blissful1
December 6, 2017 at 5:07 pm
??? what is this Highlander you speak of ??? :’)
WIddershins
December 6, 2017 at 5:35 pm
Heh, heh, heh … ahem … **clears throat and puts on best Hollywood-Scottish Professor-McGonnegal/Sean Connery accent** …
“There can be only one.”