Amazon Kindle book purchases are the next Google Play billing casualty
Following its earlier decision to remove Audible audiobook purchases from its Play Store app, Amazon is also disabling Kindle eBook purchases on Android. Google Play's crackdown on purchases is of course to blame. Starting June 1, Google will require all Play Store apps to use Google Play Billing for digital purchases or Marketplace face removal. Technically, Google Play billing has been around for a while, but Google is finalizing a hands-off enforcement policy that has effectively allowed businesses to run their own billing systems.
After Audible purchases were turned off in April, Kindle purchases are gone now, too.
When visiting the Amazon app, you can still buy physical books, but digital purchases now show a "Why can't I buy in-app?" link instead of a buy button. The Amazon link displays a pop-up that says: "To comply with Google Play Store policies, you will no longer be able to purchase new content from within the app. You may create an in-app playlist and perform purchases on [the] Amazon website." from your browser".
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Amazon Music purchases have also been closed in the Google Play app. The move aligns Amazon's Google Play app with the iOS app, which also doesn't allow digital purchases. On Android, Amazon pushes users to the website, where they can still purchase digital content or subscribe to an unlimited subscription, bypassing the Play Store's purchase block.
Google Play's billing takes a percentage of in-app purchases (typically 30%, though averages can go as low as 10%)
several major companies have responded to the rule change by removing purchases from their Android apps.Epic Games is taking Google to court over it, while Barnes & Noble ended up disabling digital purchases on its own Android hardware. Companies that don't use Google Play for in-app purchases have been technically blocked from releasing app updates since March 31, and on June 1, apps that use unapproved billing will be removed from the Play Store
