Amazon Prime Video App Restored to Apple App Store, Apple TV After Temporary Disappearance
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UPDATED: Amazon’s Prime Video app was restored to Apple’s App Store for iOS and Apple TV app menu on Friday afternoon, after it had mysteriously disappeared earlier in the day.
The ecommerce giant’s video-streaming app on Friday morning was no longer available in Apple’s App Store for iOS or Apple TV and it wasn’t showing up in searches on the Apple services.
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Puzzled users across the globe posted on social media about the sudden absence of Prime Video on Apple’s platforms, with some speculating that the issue may be related to a technical problem rather than a business dispute.
“Earlier today, there was a technical glitch that impacted the Prime Video app on iOS and tvOS devices,” an Amazon rep said in a statement. “The issue has been resolved, and the Prime Video app is now once again available in the App Store.”
An Apple spokeswoman previously referred an inquiry to Amazon PR, declining to comment further.
Even though the app was temporarily unavailable, those who have previously installed Prime Video on their Apple devices said they were still able to use it for now. The disappearance of the Prime Video app from the Apple services was reported earlier by AppleInsider.
Amazon first released a Prime Video app for iOS in 2012. The two companies had haggled for several years over distribution of the Prime Video app on Apple TV, before Apple added Amazon’s Prime Video to the device in December 2017.
According to market research firm App Annie, Amazon Prime Video was the No. 4 most popular entertainment app in the App Store for iPhones in the U.S. as of Oct. 3, after TikTok, Netflix and Hulu — and Prime Video was the No. 1 app for iPads in the category.
Separately, Amazon and Google were locked in a years-long battle over bringing their respective videos services to each other’s connected-TV device platforms. Under an agreement settling the matter, announced in April, Amazon launched the free YouTube app on Fire TV while Google added native Amazon Prime Video support to Chromecast; last week, YouTube TV went live on most Fire TV devices.
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