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
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.
AntennaPod is your FOSS podcast friend
Thanks for the resource! This looks amazing!
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 is both funny and sad that Google has more or less trained me to never use their apps.
At this point, I purposefully don't use them because I assume they'll soon be cancelled.
About two weeks ago I thought about this in regards to google podcasts.
"Well this one will probably stick around long enough that I'll have moved on by the time google shuts it down. They don't even host the episodes anyway. They source the metadata and audio files from elsewhere. All they really host is my listening history, queue, and subscriptions. Certainly this is less likely to get the axe anytime soon."
two weeks later*
It really does suck though. I genuinely like the google podcasts app/website. Best one I've found so far that works how I like my apps/services to work.
Man I recently switched from podcast addict after years because podcast addict put an annoying nag about permissions changes in Android, plus I always had issues with the playlist/queuing. Guess I'll go back to it soon
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
I miss google play music. Never really liked youtube music
GPM was dope, no two ways about it. I was sad when it closed.
But after moving over to YTM and using it for years, I like the change. It lets me stream music, just like GPM. It lets me play local files and put them in playlists just like GPM. And it lets me put more underground music on my playlists that are uploaded to YouTube, unlike GPM.
The UI and everything you interact with is way better than GPM too.
Not trying to be a Google shill, but I actually love YTM. Podcasts coming just combines two apps I used into one.
I 100% understand what you mean. I still have a hard time trusting Google with their services and host my own RSS reader (TT-RSS) and music (Plex & Plexamp), but I do use YTM for finding new music as well as backing up my personal music like I did with GPM. Not a shill either, but YTM is not a bad product.
I never really used their Podcast app as I assumed it would be closed at some point (and here we are) and really enjoy Pocket Casts. If that ever shuts down, I'll just use GPodder and roll my own hosting for yet another service. I guess in the end, Google has taught me to be self reliant lol
Does anyone know why they shut it down? The replacement was worse on every single account. And by such a significant amount too.
2 reasons, but the main one is that they had to get separate individual licenses for songs or something and that was likely minimally cutting into their absolutely insane profits, but with YouTube music it's still just YouTube so only one is needed.. idk that's what I read on Reddit a couple years ago. The other is that their workplace culture is completely fucked and they push new apps instead of updating the old ones.
I'm not saying they should be like apple but sometimes seeing the killed by google list grow is frustrating when you look back and were an active user of a bunch of the things
YouTube music is great, give it a go
i bet they discontinue youtube-music in 2026 by selling it to sony
google discontinued something? shocking
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.
Antennapod + Gpoddersync FTW
Such a bad idea. Podcasts seek forward and interface actually worked. Zero chance the migration to YouTube is smooth.
YTM interface is great. I don't know if you've tried it, but YTM is different from the standard YouTube app.
I use YTM exclusively for music streaming. The interface has been getting worse over time, but the podcasts integration is pure dogshit and they should be embarrassed. Basically it's a subscription to a youtube channel in the back-end and they might add RSS support some day in the far future. Their only focus now is on allowing creators to add an RSS feed for ingestion, not for users to do the same.
This is a moronic idea, and Google is ruining one of their only good app experiences.
Sure, a video app makes much more sense for podcast delivery!
Many podcasts have a video component, so it actually does if implemented correctly.
Honestly, podcasts on YouTube are better if you have sponsorblock
It's mainly a music app. Videos can be enabled, but by default it's off.
YouTube is the video app, not YTM.
They are mimicking Spotify. How they have music and podcasts built into one app.
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.
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.
I've been using PocketCasts for years but I've been thinking about jumping ship. I'm going to give republic a shot. Thanks
Been using Podcast Republic forever now. (~7 years)
The developer did so much during the time. It allows you to do so much.
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.
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
@ocassionallyaduck @binarybomb Migration is migraine
Excellent app
@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.
I like Podbean.
Goad I never jumped onboard.
Podcast Addict for the win
In my case Pocket Casts, but yes.
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
This sucks. I use it a lot. I picked it over other apps for a reason. Don't make me change my habits!
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
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.
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?
I have never used it. Always used Podcast Addict for podcasts. Spotify made it all clunky
Hopefully it will be better for when it comes to Android Auto, as GPM is my go to in the car.
@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.
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.
