Google Completely Removing YouTube Support From Amazon's Echo Show, Fire TV

Google has confirmed that it will be completely blocking access to YouTube for Amazon’s Echo Show and Fire TV devices. Google might bring back YouTube support to those devices once the company is able to reach an agreement with Amazon.

“We've been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other's products and services,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. “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.”

The disagreement between the two companies first escalated when Google pulled YouTube support from the Amazon Echo Show back in September. In a statement, Amazon said that Google pulled YouTube from the Echo Show “without explanation and notification to customers.”

Google rebutted those claims by saying that it has actually been in negotiations with Amazon regarding the implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show. Google said that the way Amazon implements YouTube on its devices violates their terms of service and creates “a broken user experience.”

Last month, Amazon was able to bring back YouTube support on the Echo Show, albeit through a workaround. This iteration of YouTube comes with a different user interface that’s similar to what users would usually see on a desktop web browser. Now that Google is completely removing YouTube support for the Echo Show, Amazon’s workaround will no longer work as of today. As for the Amazon Fire TV, the version of YouTube on that device will only work until Jan. 1, 2018.

Amazon has provided an official statement regarding the removal of YouTube support from the Echo Show and Fire TV.

“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.”

A person familiar with the matter told Engadget that a big point of contention had been Amazon’s insistence in creating its own YouTube app on both the Echo Show and on the Fire TV. Instead of collaborating with Google on creating the YouTube app, Amazon is trying to do it by itself and is effectively cutting out some of its key features. Google is very particular with some of those features since their absence could affect the company’s ability to collect ad revenues for some YouTube videos.

One of Engadget’s sources also claims that Google wants Amazon to start selling some of its products like the Chromecast and Google Home, but Amazon is reluctant to do so since those would directly compete with its Fire TV devices and Echo smart speakers. This is also the same reason why customers won’t be able to buy the Apple TV from Amazon.

Amazon’s Prime Video app also doesn’t support Google’s Cast feature, which allows users to cast TV shows and movies from their mobile device to a Chromecast-ready TV. Lastly, Amazon also recently pulled some of Nest’s products from its online store. Nest was acquired by Google back in 2014.

Because of the many difficulties between the two companies, Google is no longer inclined to continue YouTube support for Amazon’s devices. However, Google could change its mind if Amazon is willing to collaborate.