Great rivalries. You know them. Coke/Pepsi. Ford/Holden. Dogs/Cats. Amazon/Google. At least one of those has thawed a little overnight, and it’s not Mr Snuffles playing nice with Duke. Amazon and Google brought each others’ systems into the fold and for once, customers are the winners.
Amazon’s Prime Video app has added Chromecast support overnight on Android and iOS and allowed its Android TV app to roll out to more devices while Google’s brought an official YouTube app to Amazon’s Fire TV stick.
This brings a longstanding stalemate to a definitive middle (as if this will be the end of it), resolving some of the loudest user complaints on both sides of the aisle.
With Prime Video very much in ascendance following a string of high profile releases (Good Omens, Jack Ryan, Hannah, the new season of The Man In The High Castle and please hurry up with The Expanse S4), the app’s lack of Chromecast support gave a large chunk of users no way to watch videos from the service on the largest screen in the house.
Amazon wanted you to buy its Chromecast competitor hardware, Fire TV, for its streaming service (and others with Fire TV support) a questionable play, with Chromecast devices already almost ubiquitous in many markets and we’re happy to see the end of.
Why now? Well, Amazon and Google made the announcement that this would happen back in April. In the months since, Amazon rolled out a very welcome Apple TV app (though one suspects that favour might not extend in the other direction). Oh, and all parties are going to speak to US Congress about competition on July 16. 🤷♂️
Google has also delivered on its end of the bargain, with YouTube now officially arriving on Fire TV. This should never have been too far out of Google’s way, since Amazon’s platforms run a version of Android anyway.
On Amazon’s Echo devices though, all is quiet. Amazon might now sell Chromecast devices (at least, in the USA – like almost everything else, searching for “Chromecast” on Amazon AU is a shitshow), but Home products are conspicuously absent.
Maybe that’s a deal for another day.
Still no ability to request shows etc by way of Google Home.
I checked my Vodafone TV and it’s not in the Play Store – should it appear eventually – or only for very recent builds (I think VFTV is on Nougat). Or is it only for Chromecast?
Still not available on my Foxtel now android tv+
Did you notice you get Amazon Prime for free if you have a Chromecast Ultra?
Now can we have Audible support google cast please?