YouTube is Coming Back to Amazon Fire TV

Hell has frozen over: Google’s popular YouTube service is coming back to Amazon Fire TV in the coming months. In return, Amazon’s Prime Video app is coming soon to Chromecast and Android TV too.

“We are excited to work with Amazon to launch the official YouTube apps on Fire TV devices worldwide,” YouTube’s Heather Rivera says. “Bringing our flagship YouTube experience to Amazon Fire TV gives our users even more ways to watch the videos and creators they love.”

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“We’re excited to bring the Prime Video app to Chromecast and Android TV devices, and to give our customers convenient access to the shows and movies they love,” Amazon’s Andrew Bennett, Head of Worldwide Business Development for Prime Video. “Whether watching the latest season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, catching teams go head-to-head on Thursday Night Football or renting a new-release movie, customers will have even more ways to stream what they want, whenever they want, no matter where they are.”

As you may be aware, Google and Amazon have been feuding for quite some time, though it’s unclear what set this off. But relations have been warming over the past year. In December, for example, Amazon reinstated the sale of Google Chromecast dongles after having pulled them for its online store because they didn’t “interact well with Prime Video,” causing “customer confusion.” (That this was Amazon’s fault, not Google’s, is perhaps ironic.)

Well, now everything is fine between the two firms.  YouTube is coming back to Fire TV—though the Amazon announcement neatly ignores that it used to be available—and will offer 4K HDR at 60 fps on supported devices. Standalone YouTube TV and YouTube Kids apps will also be available.  And Amazon Prime Video will be updated to (again) support Chromecast and Google Cast.

See? Compromise and common sense are possible.

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Conversation 22 comments

  • Skolvikings

    18 April, 2019 - 10:08 am

    <p>It's about time. The only thing this feud accomplished was harming customers.</p>

  • Patrick3D

    18 April, 2019 - 10:10 am

    <p>Google's motivation to support Fire TV is obviously to try and smooth over relations before they launch their game service. Fire TV has 30 million active users: <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-fire-tv-tops-30-million-active-users-beating-roku/&quot; target="_blank">https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-fire-tv-tops-30-million-active-users-beating-roku/</a&gt;, rather large market segment to want a service to reach.</p>

  • yoshi

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2019 - 10:11 am

    <p>Maybe there is now hope to have Amazon Music as a default option with Google Assistant.</p>

  • derekabraham

    18 April, 2019 - 10:31 am

    <p>Is it only coming to Fire TV and not for fire tablets?</p>

  • CrownSeven

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2019 - 10:36 am

    <p>Who cares. The work around Amazon created by using a browser to access Youtube actually worked better than google's original Youtube app.</p>

  • senorlargo

    18 April, 2019 - 10:39 am

    <p>Hopefully they'll allow it on the Fire Tablets too. </p>

    • SvenJ

      19 April, 2019 - 5:46 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#421749"><em>In reply to senorlargo:</em></a><em> </em>Be nice if I could get You Tube on my Echo Show and Spot too.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • JacobTheDev

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2019 - 10:43 am

    <p>Very happy to see Prime Video getting Chromecast support! I've always liked that service because their apps are nice and cross-platform, but I didn't use it much because they don't support casting. This elevates Prime to my primary video buying service now!</p>

    • lecter

      21 April, 2019 - 7:12 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#421751">In reply to Jacob-Bearce:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Yep, Paul wrote it like they had support for this before and it's coming back, but as far as I'm aware Cast support never existed on the Amazon apps.</p>

  • Bats

    18 April, 2019 - 11:43 am

    <p>If this is true, it's a huge game-changer. YouTube is immensely popular because it's not just an app, it's a platform.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>From a cord-cutting perspective, I hope YouTube TV comes along with it.&nbsp;There are so many people who are trying to cut the cord and go out to get Fire TV, to come home, set it up, and find out that they can't use the (great) YouTube TV service. I know this, because I read comments and questions from people at the the CordcuttersNews Facebook group all….ALL….the time. Don't get me wrong, Roku is great, but Fire TV is Android with almost everything.</p><p><br></p><p>Like I said, this is huge, especially for cord-cutters, because cord cutting is about choices AND most of all……SAVING MONEY.&nbsp;Saving money and Freedom go hand in had, but the earlier is the most essential elements to cord cutting. It's why people do it…..to SAVE MONEY.</p><p><br></p><p>YouTube saves people money, because everything…..EVERYTHING is on YouTube. LOL….literally everything. People have quit their jobs to start their own "channel" and work to the point of making $1k a day just by creating content. LOL…even my 12 year old niece has a YouTube channel.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

    • jgraebner

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2019 - 2:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#421775">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>Kind of a weird response. Did you actually read the article? It has direct quotes from Google and Amazon spokespeople, so it obviously is true and not just a rumor. It also specifically says that the YouTube TV app is included.</p>

  • glenn8878

    18 April, 2019 - 11:52 am

    <p>Maybe they want to increase marketshare. Roku became the only choice after their feud. I will still buy Roku in light of how finicky those services are.</p>

  • mestiphal

    18 April, 2019 - 11:54 am

    <p>Why can't Google do the same with Microsoft, so my Xbox can take Google Assistant commands and not just Alexa</p>

  • mebby

    18 April, 2019 - 12:07 pm

    <p>Crazy!</p>

  • Pbike908

    18 April, 2019 - 3:03 pm

    <p>Good news for consumers. I think at some level this is driven to avoid anti-trust/regulator scrutiny.</p>

  • Trickyd

    18 April, 2019 - 3:04 pm

    <p>This whole thing was very irritiating and wasteful – how many extra Roku sticks were bought to replace firetv sticks over this? At least three in our household. </p><p>Amazon are not as consumer focussed as they make out , have you noticed how clunky and old fashioned the Amazon Video app is on Roku and Smart Tv's , they want you to use their hardware rather than be happy you're using their service.</p>

  • robmille

    18 April, 2019 - 5:57 pm

    <p>Holy hell! And they're even doing 4K HDR on the Fire TV stuff!</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2019 - 11:36 pm

    <p>I might actually make use of my Prime Video then. Neat.</p>

  • bsd107

    Premium Member
    19 April, 2019 - 2:34 am

    <p>Prime Video coming to Android TV? I have had it on my Sony Android TV for the last three years, uninterrupted and through several OS updates.</p>

  • prabhat_800

    19 April, 2019 - 8:23 am

    <p>Great info. Thanks for sharing this <a href="https://www.techpathway.com/data-science&quot; target="_blank">here</a>. I was waiting for this long time. </p>

  • techniacalpraveen1

    23 April, 2019 - 1:24 am

    <p>thanks bro for this helpful info. Amazon Prime Video Its good On Time watching movies</p>

  • worldfree4uhdclub

    24 April, 2019 - 6:13 am

    <p>Thank you so much for such a piece of information, good to know that we can enjoy the online entertainment <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">again </span>on <a href="https://worldfree4uhdclub.blogspot.com/&quot; target="_blank"><em>Amazon Fire Tv</em></a>.</p>

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