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Google Pulls YouTube From Amazon's Devices

There's no YouTube app for the Echo Show and Amazon Fire TV as Google and Amazon work toward an agreement.

Charles Singletary Jr

December 5, 2017 5:15 PM

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Google and Amazon are both giants in their markets, but occasionally cross streams with their content and/or devices. Amazon leapt into media streaming with its Echo and Fire TV devices, but the decision to explicitly emphasize them on its storefront may have caused a rift in their relationship with Google.

Engadget reports that slow progress on a new agreement between Amazon and Google has led to the latter's decision to remove their YouTube app from Echo Show and Fire TV.

"We've been trying to reach [an] agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other's products and services," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "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 FireTV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon."

Owners of Amazon's products may look at Google as the immediate bad guy with this move, but the above statement shows that Amazon has played its part in this turbulent exchange as well. It's likely this will push Amazon to a more amicable partnership with Google, hopefully sooner rather than later so consumers don't have to suffer through this back and forth. 

Charles Singletary Jr

News Editor

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.