Google pulls YouTube from Amazon devices

Google has blocked its YouTube website from Amazon’s streaming devices as part of an ongoing feud between the companies.

Amazon FireTV users will lose YouTube from January

The YouTube app has been removed from Amazon’s voice-enabled speaker Echo Show with immediate effect and customers of Amazon FireTV will lose access to the user-generated video site from January 1.

Google’s move was prompted by Amazon not making its own streaming services available to customers of Google’s entertainment products.

In a statement, Google said: “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.”

Amazon responded to Google by saying it was “disappointing” the company was blocking access to an open website and that it also hopes to resolve the situation quickly.

YouTube was blocked from Amazon Echo in September but both Google and Amazon did not specify a reason for the disruption and the service was reinstated a few months later.