Amazon brings back in-app purchases on Android

Amazon is once again allowing Prime Video app users to directly buy movies and other items on Android devices. Yesterday, the company notified Prime Video app subscribers of this via email, writing the following:

“In-app purchases are now available on all Android mobile and streaming video devices. Simply go to the Prime Video app on your mobile device and search for the movie, TV show or channel subscription you want to purchase. Rent, buy or subscribe right from your device and you can start watching right away.”

Last year, Amazon removed in-app purchases of digital goods and services from its Android apps to avoid remitting a 30% commission to Google. The fact that those in-app purchases are back suggests that the two companies may have come to some sort of commercial agreement that makes in-app purchases favorable to Amazon again.

There’s no word yet on whether and when in-app purchases on the Kindle app for Android, which were also disabled last year, will return.

The decision to return in-app purchases to the Prime Video app for Android is just the latest example of a thaw in relations between Amazon and Google. Last year, the companies settled a disagreement over Amazon’s use of the Android fork for its Fire TV devices, and Google recently dropped a longstanding policy prohibiting Google Assistant and Alexa from running simultaneously on smart speakers.