Following its previous move to remove Audible audiobook purchases from its Play Store app, Amazon is also disabling Kindle digital book purchases on Android. Of course, bans on purchases on Google Play are to blame. Beginning June 1st, Google will require all Play Store apps to use Google Play billing for digital purchases or face removal from the marketplace. Technically, Google Play billing has been in the rules for a while now, but Google is ending the forced laissez-faire policy that effectively allowed companies to run their own billing systems.
When you visit the Amazon app, you can still buy physical books, but digital purchases now show “Why can’t I buy in the app?”link instead of a buy button. The Amazon link shows a popup that says “To stay in compliance with Google Play Store policies, you will no longer be able to purchase new content in the app. You can create an in-app reading list and buy from [the] Amazon. website from your browser.”
Amazon Music purchases have also been closed on the Google Play app. The move brings Amazon’s Google Play app into line with the iOS app, which also doesn’t allow for digital purchases. On Android, Amazon is pushing users to a website where they can still buy digital content or sign up for an unlimited subscription, which avoids blocking Play Store purchases.
Google Play accounts take a percentage of in-app purchases (usually 30 percent, although the media can be as low as 10 percent), and several large companies have responded to the rule change by removing purchases from their Android apps. Epic Games is once again taking Google to court over this, while Barnes & Noble have disabled digital purchases on their own Android hardware. Companies not using Google Play for in-app purchases are technically prohibited from releasing app updates from March 31st, and on June 1st, apps using unapproved billing will be removed from the Play Store.