Jordan O'BrienAmazon and Google have officially buried the hatchet after years of tit-for-tat between the two tech giants. This is good news for consumers, as users are now able to stream Prime Video content directly from their phones to a Chromecast-enabled device. In return, Google has reenabled YouTube on the Fire TV.
The two companies have never had that great of a relationship, with Amazon refusing to sell many of Google’s devices on its online store. Amazon also opted against using Google’s version of Android for any of its consumer devices, which includes its tablets and its short-lived Fire Phone, while the companies are locked in battle when it comes to the voice assistant arena, with Alexa and the Google Assistant largely considered the best on the market.
It’s not solely down to Amazon, however, Google has also played its part in the feud. The company has used its dominance in the search market to push its shopping results above Amazon – an issue that led to an EU antitrust investigation, one that found in Google’s favour much to Amazon’s chagrin. Google then opted to disable YouTube access to many of Amazon’s devices, including the Fire TV and Echo Show.
Relations began to improve in December 2018, when Amazon began selling the Chromecast and resumed sales on Nest devices. We were left waiting for YouTube to be reenabled and Prime Video to come to Chromecast, however.
From this week, YouTube will be available on the Amazon Fire TV Stick (2nd Gen), Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Cube, and Fire TV Stick Basic Edition. You’ll still need a Google-powered smart display if you want YouTube access, however, as the Echo Show is still blocked. Meanwhile, if you have the Prime Video app on Android or iOS, you can now stream all of its popular movies and TV shows on any Chromecast-enabled device. Ironically, that includes the Google Nest Hub smart display.