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Google Chromecast returning to Amazon in possible de-escalation of YouTube dispute [Update]

In early December, Google and Amazon’s product dispute escalated resulting in the removal of YouTube from the Echo Show, but more importantly Fire TV. Today, the online retailer appears to be acquiescing to Google’s complaints over the lack of Chromecast devices on sale.

In a statement to several publications Thursday morning, Amazon noted that the Google Cast streaming pucks will now be available for purchase through the online retailer. However, as of publishing, product listings are still not yet live.

In 2015, the Google devices were removed as they directly competed with Amazon’s own Fire TV lineup. At the time, the retailer noted that it wanted to avoid the customer confusion of selling devices that didn’t work with their own streaming service.

However, this feud became increasingly petty given how asking Alexa on the Echo to order a Chromecast would place a Fire TV in consumer’s shopping carts.

Besides the Cast line of streamers today, the Apple TV is also returning to Amazon. However, the relationship between Apple and Amazon improved after Prime Video made its way to tvOS and the App Store last week.

It’s unclear whether YouTube will now return to the Echo Show and if Google is still planning on removing access to the video site from the Fire TV next month. The lack of Chromecast sales was only one reason cited by Google, with others being the lack of newer Nest products and Google Home. Those devices are in direct competition with Amazon’s increasingly growing lineup and are still not available.

Update: Amazon and Google are in “productive discussions,” according to a statement given by the latter company to The Verge this afternoon. The two tech giants are looking for “an agreement for the benefit of our mutual customers.”


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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com