Google Podcasts shutting down in 2024 for YouTube Music
YouTube Music will be Google's one podcasting app and service going forward, with Google Podcasts set to go away in 2024...
Oh boy, can't wait for Youtube Mail and Youtube Maps next
it'll all end with YouTube Search
I wish this were more implausible, but at this point I'm getting worried.
Seriously. Fewer and fewer people are using Google as a search engine anyways. I know it's miniscule, but people are aware of Duck Duck go, and aware of Google's spy apparatus, hence why in any survey or poll they conduct they ask the user's opinion on how well they think Google is doing with their private data. I always score them the lowest possible.
What we should be concerned with is how many websites and third party logins use Google.
Let's just rename Google to Youtube and get it over with
Classic google. Add this to the Google app graveyard.
Never surprising to hear of yet another Google service shutting down.
one app
does one thing
why is this so hard to understand
It's likely not financially viable to have separate teams for their many products that all have similar features. Consolidating makes more sense because they can actually afford to maintain development.
Honestly, they should just roll YouTube Music into the default YouTube app, as well. And they probably will at some point. It just doesn't make sense to have these services - which are basically all the same, functionally-speaking - spread out across multiple apps.
Honestly, they should just roll YouTube Music into the default YouTube app, as well.
I don't think I could disagree more. I use both and listening to music and watching videos are entirely different activities for me and I want the apps to do different things in different ways.
It's likely not financially viable to have separate teams for their many products that all have similar features.
Clearly Google doesn't follow that logic because they have numerous competing chat apps. Even Google Maps has chat...
Man, I really did like Google Podcasts.
It was way better than the other podcast apps. And coming from iTunes, it was a smooth transition.
This sucks. Open source your shit, Google, and I promise we'll keep it going.
Google's graveyard is quite big. At this point am reluctant to use any of their services in fear of it disappearing.
Would be nice if more companies just open sourced the stuff they don't need or don't want to maintain anymore.
Even if no one picks it up, at least it got another chance.
Would never happen.
Obviously I can't know what you have tried before, but I'd highly recommend Pocket Casts. I've been using this since at least 2014 (looking at a support chain that I had opened) and can't imagine losing the features they've got. It's shifted owners a few times and their mobile apps are now open source should you be interested in that.
Podcasts didn't work with SD cards, yt music does, can't say I'll miss it.
What value would oss bring here when it's the content that matters most? I'm actually really interested to know because I too really liked this app/service.
It's so wild that Google would rather weaken their own brand than just keep a secondary frontend around. It would require minimal maintenance cost (given the size of their company, just have 1-2 fulltime devs working on keeping it in shape and updated), and it could access the exact same backend as the Youtube Music app.
Weird.
And don't misunderstand me, I really don't like Google Podcasts for podcasts, but I also admit that having a separate app for podcasts is superior, as you listen to them very differently than you listen to music. Spotify amiably shows how their recommendation algorithms absolutely cannot handle someone listening to both, anyways.
They probably want to monetize on podcasts too, in the same way they do on videos and music. At the moment, Google Podcast is completely free and ad-free.
I actually don't think it's a bad decision. I think merging it with YouTube is a good thing. They could integrate tightly with YouTube since they already added a "podcast" feature and you could seemlessly switch between Video and Audio.
Sooner or later I expected that to happen.
I only found and started using this app a couple of months ago wouldn't have imagined it was on its way out
Typical Google
Such a bad idea. Podcasts seek forward and interface actually worked. Zero chance the migration to YouTube is smooth.
google discontinued something? shocking
Before you get used to YTM and they drop that too, just use AntennaPod
Before you get used to YTM and they drop that too,
Sure they will integrate YTM into YT, using just a tab to switch.
They already do this on my google TV. The YTM app just opens YT with a music tab. Won’t be long before the mobile apps follow.
That's just the Google way... still didn't get over the RSS reader disaster... Anyways, I tried the app a couple of times: it's not a great app for listening to podcasts. If you like podcasts, try Antennapod, Pocket Casts or Podcast Addict (and please stay away from Spotify).
In the end: good riddance.
AntennaPod is the best.
Hell yeah, AntennaPod is so good. It's better better than most paid and ad supported alternatives I've tried and the best part it's FOSS.
I never found a single use for RSS because I always found myself just going to the site anyway to read the full thing because 99.999999999% of RSS feeds are trash and it's easier to just page through the site itself anyway. Podcasts... it feels like a massive waste of time listening to someone discussing something, usually poorly, with tons of exposition, diversions, and other BS. I'd rather just read something instead.
Good riddance to both.
One use for RSS feeds is to distribute podcasts to multiple apps. I believe most podcasts apps are just RSS readers combined with an audio player.
I use RSS to help decide if an item is worth reading or not based on the title
Alternative recommendations?
I've been quite happy with antennapod. Discovery is kind of a pain in the ass, but it's open source, and management and playback have been solid.
PocketCast is also OpenSource. Today I switched over and it's also pretty good.
I honestly can't really decide which one I find better. Try them out for yourself.
Pocket Casts
AntennaPod on Android and Overcast on iOS have been my go-to options.
For Android: It depends on your needs. For better user experience I'd say PocketCasts. For best customization Podcast Republic, Podcast Addict. AntennaPod was for a while the only open source project, PocketCasts is now open source too. If that matters to you, go with those. I like AntennaPod, specifically the sleep timer. However it has some downsides: discovery / search sucks and it's hard to access the queue quickly if your phone uses gesture navigation.
For iOS: pocket casts, overcast
hard to access the queue quickly if your phone uses gesture navigation
Recently learned you can disable just the left back gesture. Amazing quality-of-life improvement.
Antenna pod.
Try Antennapod
Podcast Addict
Excellent app
@ocassionallyaduck @binarybomb Migration is migraine
I like Podbean.
@binarybomb @fne8w2ah A long time ago I used Pocketcasts which is very good but not open source.
FOSS options are AntennaPod or Podverse depending on your needs.
AntennaPod is very popular but Podverse is newer and rapidly developing and it includes a great web player. I'm using Podverse currently, which works with or without an account.
You could also use any RSS reader, and just use Podverse to search and find podcast feeds to subscribe to.
PodcastGuru. Sounds cheesy, but I really like it.
I miss google play music. Never really liked youtube music
YouTube music is great, give it a go
i bet they discontinue youtube-music in 2026 by selling it to sony
Sure, a video app makes much more sense for podcast delivery!
Honestly, podcasts on YouTube are better if you have sponsorblock
They are mimicking Spotify. How they have music and podcasts built into one app.
Another killedbygoogle
Man they really want me to switch to Spotify
Spotify sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad as YouTube music does. I lost a few tracks in the conversion but it works so much better that it was worth it.
I ended up hitting YTM, then Spotify, then settled on Tidal after Google Play Music shut down. Nothing beats what GPM had
Use Antennapod instead
Goad I never jumped onboard.
Podcast Addict for the win
In my case Pocket Casts, but yes.
I been using itfor for years realy loved the layout.
Same. And now the history of what I've listened to will be gone 😕
You can grab it via https://takeout.google.com/
Why do they keep doing this? Google reader was so damn good.
This sucks. I use it a lot. I picked it over other apps for a reason. Don't make me change my habits!
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
Spent a solid hour trying apps to switch to. Found podcast republic which does everything I want with tons of customisation and a one time payment to ditch the ads. Love it.
How hard is it to keep one brand associated with the one thing they do well? I'd understand it if you only have one brand your trying to expand, like Spotify starting to add video content. But when Google own a wide range of apps each with their own brand and identity, they really don't need to get everyone in one place like YouTube.
YouTube for me will always be about short video. When they stopped letting my buy movies on Google play, I didn't start using YouTube and just use Amazon now. When they stopped music, I didn't start to use YouTube music and stuck with Spotify. And now they are stopping Podcasts, I won't move to YouTube. I'm not that bothered but I don't see why they keep doing it, they must hemorrhage users every time and surely the value of YouTube with all these extra features etc is still less than the potential sum of the original parts.
Litetally no podcast app I've tried has a search feature a tenth as good. I use antenna pod but still kept google podcast for its search feature.
PocketCast?
2 of the original big 4 for us podcast folks down! Stitcher what? A month ago?
Stitcher died?? I hadn't even heard that news.
Yeah like 1-2mo ago. Very recent
I have never used it. Always used Podcast Addict for podcasts. Spotify made it all clunky
@fne8w2ah IMO there is little reason to use a big platform for listening to podcasts. I would recommend https://podverse.fm/ or just any old RSS reader which doesn't need any account nor is in any danger of being shut down ever.
At least from everything I've read they've thought about migration and will actually let you use RSS, I was worried they weren't going to add that functionality to youtube music
Just use AntennaPod. You don't need Google spyware to listen to podcasts.
Hopefully it will be better for when it comes to Android Auto, as GPM is my go to in the car.
Such a shame
Finally. That's exactly what I expected. The app hasn't been updated for years, they removed the Google podcast widget on the Google search and added a "Podcast" category to YouTube.