September 27, 2023
Google has announced that it will be shutting down its Google Podcasts app in 2024. The company says it will be focusing on offering podcasts within YouTube Music instead.
Google has previously been investing heavily in YouTube Music. In April, it launched the ability for users in the U.S. to listen to podcasts in YouTube Music without a paid subscription. The company also announced earlier this year that it would be making podcasts available within YouTube Music globally before the end of 2023.
Google Podcasts was first launched on Android in 2018. The app offered users a way to listen to a library of podcasts for free, while also receiving personalized recommendations. Google rolled out a redesign for the app in 2020 and finally brought it to iOS. The service is also available on the web, Windows, and macOS.
In a blog post, YouTube said that it will be “increasing our investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music — making it a better overall destination for fans and podcasters alike with YouTube-only capabilities across community, discovery and audio/visual switching.” It added that it will be “discontinuing Google Podcasts” later in 2024.
YouTube justified the discontinuation of Google Podcasts by saying the move “matches what listeners and podcasters are already doing.” The company cited data from Edison, which suggests 23 percent of weekly podcast users in the US say YouTube is their most frequently used service, as opposed to 4 percent for Google Podcasts.
YouTube said that it will help Google Podcasts users move over to YouTube Music by providing “a simple migration tool and the ability to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library.” The company will also offer a tool that lets users download an OPML file of their show subscriptions, allowing them to upload it to other listening platforms.
The sources for this piece include an article TheVerge.
