Google Allows YouTube App on Amazon’s Fire TV Once Again
There are times when technology companies that control a massive amount of global creative holdings must set aside their differences to make sure that people can stream “Bosch” just a little more easily. This, thankfully, is one of those times.
Google and Amazon announced that the two companies have reached an agreement that would allow the former’s YouTube app to be compatible with the latter’s Fire TV. This new easing of tensions will also allow Google Chromecast users to stream content from Amazon Prime Video on various devices.
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The agreement marks a break in an ongoing standoff between the companies. It also removes a barrier to entry on both sides of the divide, with this new process allowing individuals to skip laptops as a necessity to connect content to their TVs. Part of these new changes means that users can use Amazon Prime Video with Chromecast directly from a phone or tablet.
This also means that, with the addition of Prime Video, Chromecast has locked in functionality with all of the top streaming services. Netflix, Hulu, and a number of network-based apps currently offer the ability to stream from a handheld device through a TV.
The two companies have been in engaged in a marketplace battle for over a year now; at the start of the 2018 calendar year, Google yanked the official YouTube app from Amazon’s family of Fire options, pointing to the fact that, at the time, Amazon did not allow certain Google products to be sold in its online marketplace. (Or in that weird little corner of Whole Foods, but that’s another business story entirely.)
Even though this agreement has been reached, the two companies still have a list of competing products that each are trying to get in front of consumers. There are dueling personal home assistant devices, with Amazon Echo and Google Home, in addition to the ongoing content arms race, with Prime Video and YouTube Premium both occupying the same space as well.
Conceivably, this renewed compatibility between devices will help both companies stave off the coming competition posed by Apple TV+, due out to consumers later this year.
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