Say goodbye to YouTube on the Echo Show and FireTV
Google has announced it will block YouTube from two Amazon devices and criticised its rival for not selling Google hardware.
IT Pro understands that YouTube is no longer available on the Amazon Echo Show as of today and it will not work on the Fire TV from early January.
A Google spokesperson told IT Pro: « 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 FireTV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon. »
An Amazon spokesperson told IT Pro: « 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. »
Google announced it would remove YouTube from Amazon’s Echo Show in September. The company said it did so as « Amazon’s implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience. We hope to be able to reach an agreement and resolve these issues soon. » Despite this, Amazon managed to reinstate YouTube on the Echo Show in November, according to Voicebot .
There were also reports that Google could be creating a smart screen device to compete with the Amazon Echo Show. The device has reportedly been codenamed « Manhattan » and will offer Google Assistant, Google Photos, YouTube and video calling as well as acting as a smart hub.
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