Amazon allegedly confirms that Instant Video is hitting Apple TV before year-end

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Online retail giant Amazon is bringing its Instant Video service to the new Apple TV after all. As a quick refresher, Amazon recently pulled both Google’s Chromecast HDMI dongle and Apple’s Apple TV from sale because the two set-top boxes, in Amazon’s own words, don’t “interact well” with its video subscription service. Confirmation of a tvOS version of Instant Video was inadvertently leaked by Amazon itself in response to a question on Twitter.

The app should hit the Apple TV App Store by the end of the year.

Engineer Dan Bostonweeks confirmed on Twitter receiving a confirmation from Amazon after sending feedback via the Instant Video iOS app about lack of tvOS support.

“Dan, I have interacted with our technical team and have been informed that they are currently working on developing a new app for the Apple TV,” reads a response Bostonweeks received from an Amazon employee.

“As we have already succeeded in developing an app for the iPhone and iPad, we hope to make an app separately for the Apple TV. Hopefully, within a few weeks span, you’ll be able to see the Amazon Instant Video app feature on your Apple TV.”

For what it’s worth, I have noticed that Apple’s editors have featured some games from Amazon Game Studios on the App Store in the past two weeks or so. If there was bad blood brewing between Amazon and Apple over the Instant Video app, surely Apple wouldn’t promote Amazon’s games on the App Store.

This past Thursday, for example, To-Fu Fury, a game released in the App Store by Amazon’s games-publishing arm, was featured as Apple’s new Free App of the Week.

And earlier in the week, Amazon added new features to its iOS apps. Amazon’s Video for iOS app, for example, gained the X-Ray feature for movies and television shows, support for 3D Touch shortcuts and iOS 9’s multitasking features and more.

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On the other hand, Amazon, just like Apple, also appears to be in talks with broadcasters about a live television service delivered over the Internet.

In fact, the online retailer had preemptively updated its own set-top box with 4K support, better graphics, faster CPU and other features just as Apple was gearing up to release its refreshed Apple TV (which lacks 4K video output support).

All in all, just because the two technology giants compete fiercely in digital entertainment doesn’t mean they should be rude to each other. If Amazon doesn’t make its Instant Video service available on tvOS, it will be shooting itself in the foot.

Likewise, Apple would be foolish to limit consumer choice by saying ‘no’ to Instant Video on the Apple TV. In fact, Apple has made it clear to BuzzFeed News that all video services “are welcome” on its new box.

Source: Dan Bostonweeks via MacRumors