After more than a year, it seems the ridiculous streaming video slap fight between Amazon and Google is now mostly over thanks to the return of the YouTube app on Fire TV devices and support for Amazon Prime Video on Chromecast devices.
The fight originally began in late 2017 after Google pulled official support for YouTube from Echo Show devices as a response to Amazon refusing to carry a number of Google product including various Chromecast, Nest and Google Home devices on Amazon.com.
This move prompted Amazon to forgo adding official Chromecast support to the Amazon Prime Video app, to which Google responded by pulling support for YouTube from all Fire TV sticks in early 2018. It was all a big mess.
But now, it seems the two tech giants have finally smoothed things out by adding support for each company’s video service to its competitor’s devices. Unfortunately, there’s still no exact timetable for when this will happen, with both companies only saying the change will take place sometime later this year.
Additionally, while the streaming battle is mostly over, it’s important to note that Google and Amazon’s agreement does not include adding support for YouTube back to the Echo Show. That means Echo Show owners will have to continue relying on the previous workaround when they want to watch YouTube videos, which involves using the Show’s built-in web browser to access the desktop version of YouTube.
At the same time, Amazon hasn’t agreed to start selling Google devices online again either, so there’s clearly still room for further negotiations. Maybe one day Google and Amazon will figure out some way to compete with each other that doesn’t involve blockages of some kind, but we just aren’t there just yet.
[Amazon]