Google kills Google Podcasts (in favor of YouTube Music)

September 26, 2023 9:39 PM

Google Podcasts is shutting down Google just announced that it is shutting down Google Podcasts in 2024, despite having been installed more than 500 million times since its 2018 launch. They are encouraging users to switch to YouTube music instead.
posted by mijustin (52 comments total)

oh no! anyway...
posted by slater at 9:49 PM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

The YouTube Music that doesn't allow you to listen to music with the screen off (without paying)? That YouTube Music?
Yeah, they've clearly thought this through.
posted by agentofselection at 9:58 PM on September 26, 2023 [11 favorites]

I just got started with Pocket Casts, after Stitcher recently shut down. It's fine! Better than Stitcher, actually. And I'll note that I haven't had the skipping audio problems that people are reporting, and I have NOT done their unlimited-battery workaround. It's been fine as is.
posted by intermod at 10:00 PM on September 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

Yet another corpse in the Google graveyard. I hate the YouTube apps with a passion. I will use literally any other podcast app instead - any recommendations? My only requirement is it be easy and intuitive to use.
posted by pianissimo at 10:16 PM on September 26, 2023 [16 favorites]

Here's a vote for Overcast!
posted by samthemander at 10:20 PM on September 26, 2023 [16 favorites]

You can listen to youtube music with the screen off if you use the site in a browser with media controls like chrome.
posted by adept256 at 10:35 PM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

And since this won't effect Knowledge Fight or Behind the Bastards I super don't care. To be honest, I didn't know about Google Podcasts until today.
posted by adept256 at 10:37 PM on September 26, 2023

I'm a Google Podcasts user. It's barebones, which I consider a benefit, it has its issue (no reviews), but the others I've tried have annoyed me. Guess I'll need to get used to one or another now--I'm certainly not moving to YouTube Music.
posted by mark k at 10:46 PM on September 26, 2023 [9 favorites]

Well, damnit.

So: for my falling-asleep-to-a-podcast habits I need (a) continues playing with the screen off (b) a sleep timer, or at least an option to stop at the end of the current episode, to prevent it from burning through my entire queue after I fall asleep (c) Android. Suggestions?

(Back when Google Reader shut down a number of clones and somewhat-clones sprang up like mushrooms to fill the void; I'm still using The Old Reader all these years later. I'm not convinced that's going to happen this time.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:51 PM on September 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

We had a deal: Pocket Casts, been using it for ages, it works well. I feel like the ui has gotten less obvious over time, but it does what it needs to do.
posted by aspo at 12:06 AM on September 27, 2023 [10 favorites]

Also PlayerFm is great: has a sleep timer, plays w/screen off, and is just really solid (despite terrible name).
Also, lets you sort your podcasts into categories / folders I have no idea why this kinda essential feature is so hard to find - sort mine with emojis - compact & can listen by mood
posted by litleozy at 12:53 AM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Yep, another vote for PlayerFM. I've been using it for years. Not perfect, but pretty darned good.
posted by 1adam12 at 1:57 AM on September 27, 2023

I’ve been using browser YouTube Music for music, and it’s benefited from Google’s negligence of it. Now I worry it’ll be a focus and will slowly go to shit like everything else Google focuses on.
posted by Kattullus at 2:28 AM on September 27, 2023

Podcast Addict is my fav.
posted by kokaku at 2:47 AM on September 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

I wish people would stop making enshittified pay-per-hammer-swing ephemeral fucking Apps and start making Computer Applications again.
posted by lalochezia at 3:45 AM on September 27, 2023 [24 favorites]

AntennaPod is a great open source player! No enshittification guaranteed.
posted by ropeladder at 4:11 AM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

nth'ing podcast addict. been using it for years and it fulfills all of your requirements, @we had a deal kyle.
nice part is with the sleep function, it will begin to decrease the volume and you can just shake it to restart the sleep function again
posted by fizzix at 4:28 AM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

I use Podcruncher on iOS and it is fine. Almost tempted to use spotify but havent yet. I shopped around when out when some podcasts I Patreon got glitchy, but it seems nothing can save you from that.

i dont think podcruncher has a sleep timer. And it does not go down to .5 speed. Trust me, listening to Stuff you should know or Trap Nerds on half speed is hilarious.
posted by drowsy at 4:33 AM on September 27, 2023

I wish people would stop making enshittified pay-per-hammer-swing ephemeral fucking Apps and start making Computer Applications again.

The thing i most dislike adtech and VCs for doing is training most of the world to think of the value of everything they use as free. People not paying for apps (or music, video, etc.) ensures that those abusive business models are permanent, and it’s not the kind of thing government policies can easily reverse.
posted by adamsc at 4:53 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I *just* switched from Stitcher to Google Podcasts and now apparently I'm going to switch to another app and I don't really have time to do this every couple of months?!
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:21 AM on September 27, 2023 [9 favorites]

I've used Podcast Republic for years in Android and love it.
posted by jazon at 5:23 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I stopped using Google Podcasts after I unsubscribed from a podcast and then later decided to re-subscribe and it wouldn't let me. I could see the podcast in the search results, but no matter how many times I tried to re-add it, clearing the cache, etc. I just couldn't do it.

I like Pocket Casts, which I find easy to use and which lets me organise my podcasts as I wish. I use a Samsung S20, so Android.
posted by essexjan at 6:22 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I guess what I'm unclear about is whether Google Podcasts is just a podcast RSS organizer like any podcast front end is these days, or if it's a hosting service like Google Video was.

If all they're doing is saying "this is a UI that is no longer supported", that's shitty for people who like the UI but is less shitting than "we are discontinuing this and everything in it will be deleted".

YouTube is the worst place to listen to podcasts if what you want to do is listen to them. So, go Google!
posted by hippybear at 6:38 AM on September 27, 2023

For iOS users, I’ve been using Overcast for years and would strongly recommend it. Free with visual ads, or $10 USD/year subscription. Good volume and speed controls, sleep timers, podcast directory and manual URL subscribe (including username/password if needed), iOS shortcuts integration, custom playlist options, various sorting/download/stream-only options either globally or per-podcast…

I listen to a lot of podcasts and I am unapologetically a fan.
posted by Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer at 6:38 AM on September 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

Darn. I was a big fan of Google Podcast's integration with Home. I'm already paying for Spotify and it keeps pushing its podcast feature, so I'll take the plunge.
posted by PatchesPal at 6:40 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I use Pocket Casts. Used it for years on Android and now use it on iOS.

This is one of the reasons I use Google as infrequently as possible and refuse to buy their hardware. They have a horrible history of neglect.
posted by dobbs at 6:47 AM on September 27, 2023

The old Podbay was stripped down and crap free, so of course it didn’t survive. It looks like a newer app is using the name now, but I don’t know if it’s the same people. I may have tried something else before using Overcast, but I don’t know how to find apps that went away that weren’t household names.
Overcast works. I hated the UI for a while because it seemed needlessly complicated after the simplicity of Podbay, but I got used to it and they may have redesigned it, so now I like it fine.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:47 AM on September 27, 2023

Oh no - I bought a NoSleep 3 season bundle - it lives on Google Podcast. What now, I wonder.
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 6:49 AM on September 27, 2023

> you can just shake it to restart the sleep function again

I've been using Podcast Addict with the sleep timer for like 8 years and did not know that. Thanks, fizzix!
posted by Turd Ferguson at 6:51 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

This is one of many reasons why Google needs to be broken up. Imagine if a company that's committed to podcasts had taken that market share!
posted by sid at 7:34 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Google Podcasts isn’t a content host, but they do have their own directory of RSS feeds. The other two (that matter) are Apple and Spotify. All the independent apps use Apple’s directory.

The podcast I manage got one to five listeners per month from Google, so I’m not surprised it’s going away.
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 7:57 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Well, dammit -- I finally trained my mother on how to use the app. I'll have to switch her over to another app when I next visit ...
posted by Quasirandom at 8:32 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I learned my lesson the hard way with Google Listen. 11 years ago.
posted by whuppy at 8:51 AM on September 27, 2023

So, if no one uses an app ...

Google Kills it.

Yet - if lots of people - demonstrably - use an app ...

Google Kills it.

Make it make sense.
posted by Faintdreams at 8:54 AM on September 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

So for an iOS user who just uses the default Apple Podcasts app … is Google Podcasts the Android equivalent default? Also, if this isn’t too AskMeFi, what kind of awesomeness would I get out of a third party app? With GP going away, seems like a great thread for recommendations for everyone.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:01 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm convinced they will shutter gmail one of these days. I consider the fact that I'm so tied to gmail an existential risk
posted by treepour at 9:11 AM on September 27, 2023 [11 favorites]

Just to confirm, Google Podcasts does not have an OPML generation tool yet, but one is coming according to them?
posted by Keith Talent at 9:38 AM on September 27, 2023

The way Apple and then Spotify co-opted grassroots podcasting really suckw. Google Podcasts was an also-ran in this world always, so meh. Pocket Casts and Overcast are indeed good, RSS and downloads is all we need! But there's no way to use these open systems to listen to the Spotify proprietary stuff, is there? Fortunately that whole trend seems to be dying out, the podcasts I know who got taken over by Spotify all kind of withered away.
posted by Nelson at 11:09 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I shifted from listening to podcasts on Spotify to Google fairly recently, just because I found Spotify's service to be deteriorating for the way I use it and I was having a hard time evaluating other podcatchers out there. Google seemed to have most of the podcasts I listen to and was free, but I've also found it hinky. I've experienced the problem described above where re-subscribed pods aren't added to the subscription feed. It seems to do a skip-and-playback routine on podcasts from some producers. It's didn't really seem like it was getting a lot of love, as a service.

I'm inclined to act annoyed because it kind of mirrors what happened to Reader, but the truth is I haven't found it to be the best tool and I'm probably due to evaluate what I've been listening to. Trim down the subs list. Find some new things. Thanks to folks sharing what they've been using - I'll be keeping an eye out.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 11:13 AM on September 27, 2023

I'm convinced they will shutter gmail one of these days. I consider the fact that I'm so tied to gmail an existential risk

This almost makes me break out in hives when I think of it. For those of us old enough to remember when most people exclusively got an email address through their ISP and the pain of moving house and going from one ISP to another and having to change email (or similarly when people got their very first email address through work or school and then you graduated or changed jobs and lost that first email account etc. *pours one out for scfbbs.vuw.ac.nz student bulletin board service from the 90's and Wellington City Council CityNet dialup to the VMS system* )
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:53 AM on September 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I think it is very unlikely they will shutter Gmail, it is one of their most successful consumer and business products. I do expect they'll keep ratcheting up the monetization though, more targeted advertising and perhaps more pushes to get people to pay for using it. That 1GB of storage when Gmail launched seemed enormous. It's now 15GB (shared across several products) and that no longer feels unlimited.
posted by Nelson at 12:09 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm convinced they will shutter gmail one of these days. I consider the fact that I'm so tied to gmail an existential risk

I almost wish they would. Google killing Gmail is unlikely and not something that concerns me.

What does concern me is what is already happening: Google has such a large share of the email market that they've made it much, much harder to run your own mail servers. Basically, there's a good chance Google will just drop your email on the floor if you're running your own server and there's little you can do about it.

I get that Google needs to be aggressive about spam, but their impersonal, automated, "we don't care" attitude has driven a lot of people away from self-hosting.

My fear isn't that Google will kill Gmail. It's that it will continue reducing the interoperability of email.
posted by jzb at 12:25 PM on September 27, 2023 [9 favorites]

Duped again! So many Google products have died out from under me that at this point, it just feels like my own fault for assuming they would continue. Absolute Lucy-and-the-football situation every time I start using a new Alphabet product.
posted by grandiloquiet at 1:04 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

for my falling-asleep-to-a-podcast habits I need (a) continues playing with the screen off (b) a sleep timer, or at least an option to stop at the end of the current episode, to prevent it from burning through my entire queue after I fall asleep (c) Android. Suggestions

I use Spotify and it does all these things.
posted by Mitheral at 1:23 PM on September 27, 2023

Time to try the Android suggestions here. Podcasts is ok, but I still miss the old Google Play Music. Much better interface overall.
posted by luckynerd at 2:25 PM on September 27, 2023

Ugh, of course they are. I'm sure I can get used to something else, but it makes my ass tired.
posted by aught at 3:52 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

for my falling-asleep-to-a-podcast habits I need (a) continues playing with the screen off (b) a sleep timer, or at least an option to stop at the end of the current episode, to prevent it from burning through my entire queue after I fall asleep (c) Android. Suggestions

Antennapod will do this, is open source and is free, and isn't giving money to terrible people like Spotify.
posted by Canageek at 5:37 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

TIL about Google Podcasts
posted by filtergik at 5:27 AM on September 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just cancelled my paid Spotify account since I was only using it for podcasts and switched to Google Podcasts.

I need something that works well with my Android Drive app.
posted by charred husk at 6:33 AM on September 28, 2023

I’ve used Overcast on iOS since Apple effectively destroyed their podcast app—which was a shame but apparently some knucklehead in a suit wanted to shift everyone to some other thing they’ve probably eliminated twice since then. Overcast isn’t perfect—it keeps dying randomly and then “music app” starts playing the first track I have on the phone (WTF?), but I pay for it and it is good enough.

As an aside, “music app” also stinks, but if you remove it from the phone, non-Apple music apps quit working. All part of the “elegant design” I guess.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 10:58 PM on September 28, 2023

I selfhost audiobookshelf which works well for both podcasts and audiobooks and listening in different places while tracking progress, and also keeping all the podcasts without filling up my phone
posted by onya at 3:59 AM on October 1, 2023

Another happy Overcast user. Have had zero problems with it for years, and I listen to a LOT of podcasts.
posted by fncll at 7:44 PM on October 1, 2023