YouTube pulled a no-show on Amazon’s Echo Show today.
Google pulled the video service from the smart speaker this afternoon, a move Amazon doesn’t seem too happy about. Echo Show owners weren’t given any advance warning previous to the removal.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the service had been pulled in a statement, also implying that the move came as a surprise to them.
Google made a change today around 3 pm. YouTube used to be available to our shared customers on Echo Show. As of this afternoon, Google has chosen to no longer make YouTube available on Echo Show, without explanation and without notification to customers. There is no technical reason for that decision, which is disappointing and hurts both of our customers.
In a statement given to The Verge, which first reported the removal, Google contradicts the Amazon statement, saying that they’ve been working with the company, but that the implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates the service’s ToS.
We’ve been in negotiations with Amazon for a long time, working towards an agreement that provides great experiences for customers on both platforms. 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.
We’ve reached out to Google for more information.
For the time being the messaging coming out from both companies is pretty contradictory, but Google’s statement inspires some hope that YouTube will be returning to the Echo Show if Amazon deigns to make the changes that Google allegedly wants them to. Amazon probably doesn’t have much of a choice here, losing YouTube would be a pretty massive blow to the company’s only smart speaker with a screen.
A more pronounced war between Amazon and Google wouldn’t be beneficial to anyone given the essential services both companies offer, but given the interconnectedness of the companies best interests suggest this would be pretty unlikely.