Almost exactly a year to the day when the retailer said it would begin selling the device again, Amazon has finally listed the Google Chromecast as available on its online store. This comes after one of the largest quarrels both Amazon and Google have had in some time.
If you need to get caught up to speed, essentially, Amazon stopped selling devices that didn’t support its Prime Video streaming service to avoid any confusion customers might face when purchasing streaming devices through the retailer’s website. This meant both the Chromecast and the Apple TV had to go. However, Apple agreed to let Amazon make a Prime Video app for the Apple TV and, in return, sell the device once again.
On the other hand, Amazon was still feuding with Google over YouTube streaming with the retailer’s devices. If you recall, the video streaming service was ripped from the Echo Show because Amazon didn’t comply with Google’s terms of service. Therefore, access to YouTube had to be revoked. The platform later returned to the touchscreen-enabled Echo, but Google was still not satisfied and decided to not only pull YouTube from the Echo Show but also the Fire TV as of January 1, 2018.
To this day, YouTube hasn’t returned to any of Amazon’s products yet and Prime Video still isn’t available through the Chromecast. Therefore, the two companies appear to have made some type of behind-closed-doors deal to at least get the Chromecast on Amazon’s website. The terms of those deals, obviously, haven’t formally been unveiled, but we’ve reached out to both companies for comment and will report back if we hear anything.
In the mean time, feel free to buy the Chromecast from Amazon because you can now.
