Amazon’s made it a little harder to buy Kindle books on Android
It felt like a hoax because for years you could buy a Kindle book on the Amazon app on your Android device while you could not do the same on your iOS device. But this unique relationship is over, as Ars Technica initially noted . When you try to buy e-books in the Amazon Android app, you are now taken to a new screen that explains why the purchase option is lost. If you update the app, you will see a note similar to what you see on your iOS device indicating that no in-app purchases of digital goods are offered.
Amazon dropped support for e-book purchases from iOS devices in 2011 . The goal was to avoid the "tax" that the Apple App Store applies to digital products. Comixology, the comic app, lost its capability in 2014 shortly after it was acquired by Amazon. It was and still is a very annoying by-product of the Apple App Store system . If you see a book you want to read and tap the button to buy it, sign in to the Amazon app. Then you should immediately go back to the browser, go to Amazon and buy the book through this channel. Not impossible, just disappointing.
By comparison, buying content on an Android device feels like getting away with it. Indeed, while Google expected applications to use Google's billing system to purchase digital merchandise, they rarely delivered as expected. Android is an attractive alternative for those of us who spend a lot of time buying e-books on our devices. I went out and bought an Android E Ink tablet partly because I was excited that I didn’t have to jump through the circles I had to do on iOS.
But Google is now hitting app developers who distort its rules. Starting June 1, Google announced that it will remove apps that violate its billing system rules. That's why Amazon ended support for audio book purchases through the Android app on April 1, 2022, and rival Barnes & Noble ended support for e-book purchases through your app. April 4 .
Interestingly, in March Google announced a beta program to allow app developers to use their own billing systems. The trial program includes Spotify but not Amazon. This beta program is likely due to Google's legal battle with Epic Games. Tightening the screws in the billing system may not help Google's cause, but much of Epic's battle with Google stems from the inconsistency it has with its partners . Treating everyone the same, even if it makes the user experience worse, still treats everyone the same.