Google pulls access to YouTube because Amazon "violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience."
Good news, Amazon Echo Show owners and prospective buyers: YouTube is back after an almost two-month hiatus.
Amazon confirmed the news in a Tuesday email to PCMag, noting that Vimeo and Dailymotion are also now available on the device.
"We're excited to offer customers the capability to watch even more video content from sources such as Vimeo, YouTube, and Dailymotion on Echo Show," Amazon's statement reads. "More video sources will be added over time."
Google pulled its streaming service from the 7-inch touch screen-equipped gadget in September over a terms of service violation, a move users were less than thrilled about. The following month, Amazon slashed $30 off the price of the Echo Show, bringing it down to $199.99.
Meanwhile, if you're in the market for an Echo Show for yourself or someone else this holiday season, you might want to head over to Target, where it will be available for $179.99 on Black Friday.
Original Story (9/27):
If you've spent $230 on an Echo Show thinking it would be a neat way to watch YouTube videos, you're out of luck. YouTube no longer works on Amazon's most expensive Echo device. It doesn't look likely to return any time soon based on the explanations each company has given regarding the removal.
As Reuters reports, Amazon's view is as follows, "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."
Google responded, stating, "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."
Clearly something is amiss between the two companies. The reason Google pulled YouTube is because Amazon isn't presenting Echo Show users with features beyond just watching videos. So there's no video recommendations or channel subscription options. Google relies on those to keep people watching and sees them as integral to the service.
As the Echo Show is a device setup primarily for viewing video, it looks as though Amazon is the bigger loser in this dispute. No YouTube access could put many Amazon customers off buying an Echo Show. The question now is whether Amazon is finding it difficult to implement the required YouTube features, or if it simply doesn't want to because of how it impacts the user experience on its device.
It seems unlikely Google will choose to compromise to get YouTube back on to this one device.
