Google has announced today that it will discontinueGoogle Podcastsin favor ofYouTube Music, which will be the company’s “centralized podcast destination.” The business hasn’t shared a firm shutdown date just yet, but mentioned that it will happen sometime in 2024. Google Podcasts will continue to function normally until that time.
Inits blog post, the company describes that it sees the potential in podcasts and that the spoken audio format is only growing. In addition to audio-only content, a lot of podcasters are also using YouTube for video versions of their content. That’s why it made sense for the company to include podcasts in its music-focused YouTube Music app, too. The moment Google introduced this to YouTube Music, it left Google Podcasts in an awkward position, with many people speculating that it would get rid of Podcasts in favor of YouTube Music. That’s exactly what’s happening.
Google says it will allow you to download an OPML file of your subscriptions, allowing you to switch to a different platform altogether if you don’t want to use YouTube Music
YouTube Music’s podcast player vs. Google Podcasts
Google is also citing independent research on why it’s making this decision. According to Edison, “about 23% of weekly podcast users in the US say YouTube is their most frequently used service, versus just 4% for Google Podcasts.” Note that the research is saying “YouTube,” not “YouTube Music” — we assume that both services are meant here.
Google says it will reach out to users in the coming months to gather feedback on how the transition should work, and “once we feel the migration tools are ready, we’ll release them along with clear guidelines on how they work.”
If you don’t trust Google with this process (we wouldn’t blame you based on the difficult transition from Google Play Music to YouTube Music and the botched efforts to migrate Nest accounts to Google Home), you’re in luck. There are plenty ofgreat podcast apps to switch to on Android, many of them independent of bigger companies.
