Good e-Reader has new information regarding Amazon suspending the ability to buy Kindle Books in the main Amazon Shopping App for Android. The Amazon App no longer supports the purchasing of Kindle books and audiobooks. This is the second major app for Android to suspend the ability to buy Kindle books, on June 1st, 2022, Amazon will disable the ability to buy Kindle books using the main Kindle app for Android.
Amazon owned Audible ceased selling individual audiobooks through their Android app from Google Play a couple of weeks ago. This will prevent anyone from buying audio titles individually. However, Audible still sells subscriptions through the app and will continue to offer credits for exiting members. Around the same time that Audible announced their new policy shift, Barnes and Noble announced they will no longer do business with Google at all. They ceased offering audiobooks, ebooks or subscription purchases through their flagship Nook App. This not only affects users who downloaded the app on their smartphone, but also people who bought a Nook Tablet.
Why has Amazon, Audible and B&N shifted purchases away from their app? Towards the of the last year, the company announced that they were going to enforce that everyone who sells in-app content in their apps, would have to use Google Billing. Google said that apps do not adhere to this new policy, would actually be delisted from the platform, so nobody would be able to download their apps anymore. This is really inconvenient for users, I know lots of serious readers who embraced the Android ecosystem on their phones, tablets or e-readers, just to be able to buy things.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.