Google Blocks Amazon Echo Show From Accessing YouTube

Sep 28, 2017

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According to a recent report, Google has apparently decided to stop allowing the Amazon Echo Show to access YouTube. If you ask the smart speaker to show you a YouTube video, it fails and Alexa just says this: “Currently, Google is not supporting YouTube on Echo Show”.

The change happened yesterday and Amazon has released a statement toÂ The VergeÂ about the removal of YouTube from its device. You can see the statement from Amazon below.

Google made a change today at 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.

For those who are following tech world, this may bring bitter memories of the YouTube saga on Windows phone. While this may seem as Google using its monopoly to crush its competitors, one has to admit Google blocking access to its service is technically legal.

While Amazon’s strident statement makes clear that it does not believe this is a technical mistake, but a conscious choice by Google. Google, however, very much begs to differ on the reason it blocked YouTube on the Echo Show. When The Verge reached out to Google and they explained the reason that the decided to pull YouTube from the Amazon Echo Show.

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.

This sort of push and pull between companies that compete on multiple fronts is nothing new. But seeing an intelligent assistant like Alexa lose the ability to display video from YouTube feels a little ominous. We hope that both companies will work out a deal soon, so users can enjoy YouTube on Amazon Echo.

As yet there are no details on when YouTube may return to the Echo Show, as soon as we get some more details, we will let you guys know.

Tags:

Amazon, Amazon Echo Show, Google, YouTube

Raja Rajan

Raja has been obsessed with technology and Cricket for as long as he can remember. Nowadays, he works as a freelance developer and writer for PrimeInspiration.com

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