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Just last night, I was wondering why I couldn’t find the main Amazon app in the Play Store. I was looking to install it on my new Moto X and spent 10 minutes digging around until I found Amazon Shopping. The “shopping” part was new to me, so I figured Amazon simply renamed their app. Not exactly.

Turns out that Google pulled Amazon’s old app according to TechCrunch, which received the following confirmation statement from [company]Amazon[/company]:

“We launched a new Amazon App for Android Phones on September 9 that provides an award-winning mobile shopping experience, enables customers to discover and purchase all of Amazon’s digital catalog, and provides customers access to the Prime Instant Video player and unlimited streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV episodes. Google subsequently changed their Developer Distribution Agreement on September 25. As a result, we removed the app from Google Play and published the Amazon Shopping app. Customers who want the best Amazon experience on their Android phone, including access to Prime Instant Video and Amazon’s entire digital catalog, can still get the Amazon App for Android Phones at amazon.com/androidapp.”

I do recall Amazon launching their new app in early September: That was the one that essentially put a front door to Amazon’s own AppStore within the shopping app. And I wondered if that was going to fly with Google. Apparently, and understandably, not.

That’s because the Amazon app walked you through the process of installing apps outside of the Play Store and then let you install the Instant Video app through Amazon, essentially bypassing Google’s store.

This explains why Amazon is now called Amazon Shopping in the Play Store and also why you won’t find Instant Video access inside. That latter bit is a bummer as [company]Google[/company] Android users have been waiting for years to gain access to their Amazon video content on an Android device. The only ones that can view Instant Video are Amazon’s own Fire OS devices, which are largely based on Android.

While the original Amazon app isn’t appearing in the Play Store on my Android phone, the direct link to the app is (for now), so I just installed it and grabbed the Instant Video app as a result. Google and Amazon can bicker all they want; I’d just like to enjoy the content I’ve bought and rented on the device of my choosing.