16 ms·

Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

265 points by FabianBeiner 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
sysadm1n 3y ago
https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- yrro 3y ago
  Google Listen (2009-2012) Google Play Music (2011 - 2020) Google Podcasts (2018 - 2024)
  - xnx 3y ago
    Forgot all about Google Listen!
gdsdfe 3y ago
Another one bites the dust
Zetobal 3y ago
Ffs... I am a really good predictor for what Google is killing next. I just started using it because it was preinstalled on the pixel and I was lazy.
- Filligree 3y ago
  It’s getting rolled into YouTube Music, not killed off. The UI might not be as good. I guess we’ll see.
  - pcthrowaway 3y ago
    It's getting killed off. Some features from Google Podcasts may make their way into YT Music, but I doubt all of them will (the Google Play Music 'migration' told me everything I need to know)
  - p_l 3y ago
    As far as users are concerned, it is killed off. Especially considering how migration from Google Music to YT Music went. Personally despite looking to get into podcasts I ended up writing off Google Podcasts from the start, expecting it will stop working just like Listen did.
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
  Same. Simple app that I use to listen to a sleep podcast because I can't listen to the Patreon feed on Spotify.
  - nevereveragain 3y ago
    They _still_ don't support adding a custom feed? That miss was what pushed me to google podcast in the first place, along with their absolute refusal to fix broken feeds for existing podcasts in their index.
- TeddyDD 3y ago
  Same here. Lazyness bit me. Back to antennapod I guess.
gmaster1440 3y ago
Not so much killed as being rolled into YouTube Music
- ra7 3y ago
  Is Google even serious about YouTube Music? The entire music experience, especially on TV with the YouTube app, is downright awful. On the Apple TV YouTube app, they don't even have proper music controls like repeat, shuffle and so on.
- sf_rob 3y ago
  A fate worse than death. (Joke but I was a heavy Google Music user before it suffered the same fate).
  - delecti 3y ago
    That was an annoying and janky migration, but Youtube Music has a better interface than Google Play Music ever did. Though conceptually it's still just weird. A video that I like on youtube because of the video component isn't necessarily a song I want to listen to as music. Also it really needs the ability to block music from certain artists.
    - adhoc_slime 3y ago
      As far as the android app goes I disagree. While there are minor improvements, there are major steps backwards in offline playing, library management and account management. An entirely frustrating experience trying to use the app.
    - dylan604 3y ago
      I get that different products would be pretty siloed within their corporate structure, so I know that they weren't just going to use the YouTube code. However, why are products that are released well after plenty of other apps have forged a path so that the new app can research what works and doesn't work, what do people like/not like, and all of that type of basic information just so abysmally ignored so that this "new" thing is so inferior? If you're not the first pioneering version of something, you better be doing everything the others are doing, but better. Otherwise, what's the point of your product?
flybrand 3y ago
It will relaunch as part of Google+ in 2025, along with a competing add-in to gmail that you have to pay to remove.
- bigfudge 3y ago
  I know sarcasm isn’t very hn but this is hard to distinguish from a genuine prediction.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
matthewfelgate 3y ago
FFS. How do I subscribe to Podcasts on an Android phone now?
- blfr 3y ago
  I highly recommend AntennaPod[1]. If you need/want sync, it can be achieved though gpodder[2]. [1] https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ [2] https://gpodder.net/ https://gpodder.net/
- ilyt 3y ago
  PodcastAddict works fine
- tobz1000 3y ago
  Pocket Casts has been reliable for me for a few years.
- TOMDM 3y ago
  The functionality is being migrated into youtube music
  - matthewfelgate 3y ago
    Youtube music has no functionality.
    - pcthrowaway 3y ago
      YT music is good for discovering new music, but otherwise pretty shit compared to Google Play Music (and I doubt it will be any better for Podcasts)
- delecti 3y ago
  TFA explains the situation pretty well. Google Podcasts is still around until next year, and the Youtube Music app will have that functionality added this year. It's all in the first paragraph.
pb7 3y ago
Original title: “Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music“
pwdisswordfishc 3y ago
There were Google Podcasts?
- tinyhouse 3y ago
  Yes, I'm using it. I first started using Spotify for podcasts but those idiots (sorry Spotify) don't let you disable the auto play so it automatically starts a new podcast after you finish one. At least on the free tier. I then switched to Google. The reason I care is that I often listen to podcasts when I'm in bed at night as it helps me sleep.
  - sebdufbeau 3y ago
    For me, Spotify on Mobile has a sleep timer functionality and one of the options of "End of episode". I do have premium so cannot confirm if it exists on the free tier.
  - thinkmassive 3y ago
    The autoplay is extra annoying when listening to an older episode too. When you go to the full list it automatically jumps to the one last played. Scrolling long lists in Spotify is very buggy. The only way to fix it is mark the newly-started episode as played, then mark as unplayed. So many extra steps that shouldn’t even be necessary in the first place.
mywacaday 3y ago
This is infuriating, I had just migrated from Stitcher to google Podcasts
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
shadowgovt 3y ago
Oh no, not that service I never used because I learned my lesson trusting Google with basic media organizational applications! Seriously, it's sad that they broke their reputation on this, but the writing was on the wall from day zero. If you're an Android user, I recommend BeyondPod (http://www.beyondpod.mobi/android/index.htm http://www.beyondpod.mobi/android/index.htm): it's simple, it's reliable, it integrates to a search engine, and it also supports pasting in links with authentication so you can get any Patreon exclusive feeds you have access to (something that, to my knowledge, Google Podcasts was never able to support).
_fat_santa 3y ago
TBH this doesn't matter that much, as there are plenty of other great podcast apps that one can use. This is one of the things I love most about the podcast ecosystem is that (at least for now), it's a very open platform with the exception of Spotify exclusives.
resters 3y ago
How is it that we live in 2023 and apple’s native podcast app is pretty mediocre and now Google is killing one that was slightly better.
dcdevito 3y ago
[dead]
treypitt 3y ago
Good riddance, what a dumpster fire. The tiny buttons for pause, replay, skip buttons are all right next to each other on the lock screen, so you often skip podcasts when you really want to pause or fast forward. on the other hand, the rewind 10-seconds button has half the real estate of the widget. Downloads arent automatically deleted even after the episode is completed (even if you mark as played or remove from queue). There's no skip intro/outro options. Frankly, the Overcast app is one of the main things attracting me to iOS at this point, and a dearth of good native podcast clients is hurting the Pixel/Google ecosystem
- klauserc 3y ago
  I'm pretty happy with _Podcast Republic_ on Android. Its a bit of a "power user" app, but I have yet to find something that I want to tweak that it doesn't let me tweak via its vast settings menus.
- wlesieutre 3y ago
  Have you tried Pocket Casts? https://pocketcasts.com/ https://pocketcasts.com/ It's now owned by Automattic (of Wordpress.com and tumblr) and the clients are open source https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android
  - alphabettsy 3y ago
    Second this. I tried Overcast and moved back. The availability of an Android app and web client that syncs your progress is amazing.
  - aport 3y ago
    I've used Pocket Casts for ~8 years. Can't recommend it enough, a really great app.
  - Fluorescence 3y ago
    I switched from iOS/Overcast to Android/PocketCasts and I found it had a number of benefits which I struggle to recall now... batch downloads might be one of them. My main bug bear is how how some screens are drawers and some screens are pages which makes navigation confusing. Even after years of use, I still keep accidentally closing the drawer screens when trying to scroll and trying to navigate backwards which isn't allowed. Please... just make them all pages so they behave consistently with the same navigation and gestures.
robertoandred 3y ago
> The move will leave only Apple among the major players that hasn’t consolidated music and podcasts into a single destination Apple just finished UNbundling everything from one monolithic app, now people want it back?
- syncbehind 3y ago
  As they say, those who don't understand / learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Apple learned that having them separate was more beneficial, a lesson Google and Spotify have not.
- nkrebs13 3y ago
  I've never understood this bundling. I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of music. I always know what I want to listen to. I don't need or want podcasts cluttering up my music app when I'm trying to play or discover music. I don't need or want music cluttering up my podcasts when I am trying work through my infinitely long podcast queue. It's never the case that I'm looking for _either_ a podcast or music to fill the silence. Different use cases. Different audio mediums. Different apps.
WesleyLivesay 3y ago
I'm not necessarily super surprised, the uptake on Google Podcasts always seemed very low.
karaterobot 3y ago
Does this mean that people who are paying for subscriptions to Youtube Music so they can listen to music will now be flooded with recommendations and ads for podcasts, just like on Spotify?
jack_riminton 3y ago
TIL Google had a podcasts app
- dylan604 3y ago
  the killedbygoogle list just grew a little bit longer
- dirtyid 3y ago
  They had one of the OG podcast apps, Google Listen from 2009, year after first Android phone release. Probably part of someones 5%. Which was surprisingly functional, and of course they killed it 3 years later.
m3kw9 3y ago
There it is.
noirscape 3y ago
Against better judgement, I was using that. Great... Remember kids, never build anything onto Google.
0xDEF 3y ago
Why did Google fail to turn "simple" apps like Google Podcasts and Google Reader into low maintenance apps? Google Podcasts is so simple it could even have been an open source reference app showcasing Flutter and some backend GCP services.
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  Internal promo economy. Same reason Reader got killed. Nobody wants to work on that.
miohtama 3y ago
Please raise your hands, who is surprised?
Octabrain 3y ago
It's astonishing the strategy that Google follows with their products. This trend of releasing stuff and cancelling it later is reaching the point of being meme. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that markets are hard to predict and compete in and offering a competent product at those sizes requires a lot of economic and human effort but for god sake, I seriously think they should plan better and think twice because this is seriously damaging their image.
- malermeister 3y ago
  Nobody at Google ever got promoted for maintaining an existing product. Creating something new and half-baked is what promo packets are made of!
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
izacus 3y ago
HN moderators: why was title changed from more accurate "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music" to misleading "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" ?
- asplake 3y ago
  Title length can be a problem
- zer0zzz 3y ago
  This title was most charitable as rolling anything into YouTube is a fate worse than death.
- ghusto 3y ago
  "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" isn't misleading, that's exactly what's happening. The fact that they're trying to force people onto YouTube Music isn't relevant for me.
  - izacus 3y ago
    That's an utterly strange response - it's a difference between UI just moving somewhere else and losing service availability. It sounds like you just want to rant?
    - squeaky-clean 3y ago
      Except for some exclusive podcasts, which Google has zero, podcasts are an open standard. Google Podcasts is just one of many clients, so there was never a worry of service availability. All podcast apps except Spotify are just different UI.
    - ghusto 3y ago
      Google Podcasts, the app (and website?) is shutting down. It will no longer exist. Re-framing it as its UI moving somewhere else is a bit like if WhatsApp was to be shuttered and moved to Facebook Messenger, and you said "it's not becoming unavailable, its UI is being moved to to Facebook Messenger".
nytesky 3y ago
On a related note, we have a Google dot, and asking it to play a podcast, it ALWAYS resumes from the last episode I listened to in that podcast, often weeks old. I can’t get it to simply play the latest episode of random podcast
- kstrauser 3y ago
  Dot is Amazon. Do you have a Google or Amazon device?
  - nytesky 3y ago
    Google Nest Hub, and a Google puck Nest Mini? I never know what to call them, I know they deprecated Nest name and pushed everyone to Google Home app so never know what it’s called today. But Google device, playing Google podcast and it ALWAYS RESUMES even when I try all sorts of verbal command iterations (play latest, play todays episode, etc)
bArray 3y ago
Would be good if Google made the URLs redirect for RSS feeds and libraries to seamlessly pickup. I would suggest that anybody creating their own media hosts this in a variety of locations, and not rely on a single point of failure.
booboofixer 3y ago
Unpopular opinion: i loved it and used it everyday, sad to see a lightweight app with no BS on any part of the screen die.
- ceshm 3y ago
  Same here, I switched from apple podcasts after their home re-organization that ruined the experience for me. Guess I should have known better.
  - alphabettsy 3y ago
    Try Pocket Casts, that’s where I went from Apple Podcasts and haven’t looked back.
- nabakin 3y ago
  I love the balance between simplicity and utility. Ability to download podcasts for later, queue them up into a playlist, cast to a device, easily search through thousands of existing podcasts but able to add the RSS if needed, timeline for recent podcast episodes, etc
  - 0x6c6f6c 3y ago
    Yepp. Google Podcasts hit the right spot in terms of auto playing my next podcast that I don't have with other apps I've used. Managing all podcasts across devices made switching phones seamless. I'll actually miss it. But I've wanted to switch to a more open option so I'll have to figure those things out elsewhere.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Same here, now will either have to find something similar, or go back to downloading MP3 from RSS feeds.
rickdeckard 3y ago
(to migrate users to YouTube Music) YT Music seems to be where Google Media apps shift their users to when they retire. -- Must be fun to be on that dev-team: "We have a new high-priority ticket: Add podcast-support to inherit users from podcast app. Ok, so I guess we move the 'Compete with Spotify/AppleMusic' stories back to the funnel"
amadeuspagel 3y ago
I guess youtube music is youtube sound now?
zer0zzz 3y ago
This is why I scoff at folks who want rcs to be adopted everywhere. How can google be trusted to maintain anything past what seem like pretty consistent expiration dates?
bkanber 3y ago
I actually like the google podcasts app. It's simple, it works, no ads, does everything I need it to do. Sigh. RIP.
rickdeckard 3y ago
Off-topic: Would be great to have a way again to simply share links to podcast-episodes which work regardless of the used app. Before the podcast-hype one could simply share the direct-link to the audio-file. Now all you get are links which require Google/Apple/Spotify to open. (But realistically, I don't know who would be willing to drive this. It would need backing from at least Google/Apple/Spotify to maintain a central catalogue, and the incentive seems to be low...)
- tantalor 3y ago
  I would assume that's not too hard given most podcasts use RSS or similar for distribution. Whether each individual episode is a separately entity (like, with a distinct URI or whatever) within that format, I don't know.
  - rickdeckard 3y ago
    It's not that trivial to do as an end-user. If I listen to a podcast on Spotify which I'd like to share with you (who doesn't use Spotify), I would have to Google that podcast and try to find a RSS-Link for it, which becomes more and more difficult as most pages now link directly to Spotify or Apple and provide no RSS-url. Ideal would be an URI like podcast:// which apps could simply register for on OS-level, but I frankly don't know which entity would actually want to drive such a standardization.
    - cxr 3y ago
      > Ideal would be an URI like podcast:// No, that would be far from ideal, for the same reason that the feed[1] URI scheme was flawed (cooked up by very confused people) from the beginning. And among other things, a podcast:// URI would now mean I can't open the thing in my browser unless my browser vendor adds support and I download the new version. The file is served over HTTP(S). Just use the http or https URI. Podcast players need to do their part[2] in dealing with them. 1. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_URI_scheme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_URI_scheme> 2. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37691360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37691360>
tivert 3y ago
Google executive leaders must have been worried that users might start trusting Google's apps again, so hatched this plan to maintain Google's well-known reputation. When looking at business leaders, it's best to assume scary competence and that they always know what they're doing. After all, if they weren't impossibly better than us mere mortals, why would the market have granted them such high-paid CEO jobs?
- zer0zzz 3y ago
  The way they keep killing apps (affects android) and the way they killed their line of pixel laptops is the primary reason why I will not be migrating off of the iPhone/Mac continuity combo anytime soon. I really like when my apps and services don’t get canceled and when a lot of them just kinda work consistently across the two computers I use most. Can’t get that from google and Microsoft gave up on phones so…
pradn 3y ago
Google Podcasts seemed to source its feeds from more sources, maybe even the open internet, since podcasts are just RSS feeds, more or less. This led to a wider selection, like pirate streams with all the episodes of paywalled podcasts.
throwawaaarrgh 3y ago
I definitely never saw this coming.
fourseventy 3y ago
We have gone full circle. I started with Google Music which had both music and podcasts at the time. Then they took podcasts out of Google Music and made me install a second Google Podcast app just to listen to my podcasts. Then they shut down Google Music and forced me to move to YouTube Music. Now they are shutting down Google Podcasts and integrating that back into YouTube Music. Like WTF.
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  Gotta launch (and shut down) to get promos!
  - politelemon 3y ago
    This is what really annoys me. For certain there will be people at g noticing this constant bouncing about so that some pointless product manager can get their promotion and bonus. They are noticing the damage this does to them. And it's even possible they are highlighting it. But they are completely unable to do anything about it.
  - wildrhythms 3y ago
    Bingo. This is the reason. The higherups that approve promos are mostly tech-illiterate, so if you're a manager that oversees maintenance/fix work that isn't new and shiny and sexy and dressed up with marketing, you're never getting promoted and neither are your reports.
- JeremyNT 3y ago
  It's amazing how incompetent they seem in this area. They even shut down another podcast app before your journey began, called Google listen. Luckily, although you might want Google's proprietary music player to access their subscription content, there's absolutely no reason to use a Google podcast app. I am a fan of Antennapod[0], which is available on F-Droid. [0] https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/
  - zer0zzz 3y ago
jjice 3y ago
The state of podcasting software is kind of sad now. The initial concept behind podcasts with RSS feeds was so neat and freeing, but podcasts have been reigned into private services due to user convenience and existing market share for audio. Having Spotify handle podcast management for me is great and it's handy but I would much rather have an agnostic app with inputs for RSS feeds. There are just so many podcasts that aren't available via an RSS feed anymore though, continuing to push us into private apps. I guess I'm not helping but I literally can't for many podcasts now.
- coldpie 3y ago
  Huh? I use Apple Podcasts, and used Google Podcasts before I switched to iPhone. Haven't seen an issue like that. Everything I care about seems to be available on everything, and it's easy to add RSS feeds (e.g. from Patreon) in both apps. Maybe you should try using a less hostile app?
  - Trumpi 3y ago
    That doesn't refute the original point, though. Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts are products that embrace the open podcasting model. Spotify and Youtube Music do not, and these are the products that the original comment is referring to, where you are not able to add a subscription using an RSS feed. > Maybe you should try using a less hostile app? Great advice.
- jlkuester7 3y ago
  > There are just so many podcasts that aren't available via an RSS feed anymore though If I need a proprietary app to access a show's feed, then IMHO it should not be considered a podcast (and I refuse to listen to it). That being said, I remain cautiously optimistic about the podcasting ecosystem. A huge number of high-quality shows remain freely available (and many shows sustain an independent revenue stream). Despite the creeping centralization, podcasting still feels very independent when compared to things like Youtube/Tiktok.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  > Having Spotify handle podcast management for me is great and it's handy but I would much rather have an agnostic app with inputs for RSS feeds. What about the Spotify app keeps you using it, even though (1) they're a parasitoid on the open podcasting ecosystem and (2) have successfully destroyed the original, open meanings of "podcast" and "podcasting"?
hiidrew 3y ago
Add it to the list: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
jlkuester7 3y ago
Why anyone would use a proprietary podcasting app is beyond me! (Particularly one from Google with basically had a 100% chance of getting canceled....) https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ is incredible! 10/10, highly recommend!
- azangru 3y ago
  > Why anyone would use a proprietary podcasting app is beyond me! It's preinstalled on Android. Easy to get started... Defaults are a powerful thing. Thanks for the recommendation! I was just looking for another app to switch to.
  - mdaniel 3y ago
    AntennaPod is good if you value FLOSS over UX, but I continue to get my money's worth from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.podcastaddict https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.po... (it's IAP, so you don't have to pay to try it) I just happen to still have my notes where I was evaluating players a while back and here's why I chose Podcast Addict over AntennaPod, with this written from the perspective of "why not AntennaPod" * auto download should be configurable per podcast, ideally with number of episodes to retain * auto skip intro, outro seconds should be configurable per podcast * delete from Queue view doesn't remove it from the queue nor even mark it as played * ui treatment makes currently playing overlap with the played marker on queue items * bamboo menu for an episode should offer delete * delete and remove from queue doesn't clear it from the now playing bar * it should stop after episode if sleep timer is active <-- this one is a solid, 100% deal breaker for any app that doesn't support it
    - mertd 3y ago
      I had moved from Podcast Addict to Google Podcasts. PA is slanted way to heavily towards the power user. I just want to see my feed chronologically, pick one and hit play.
    - azangru 3y ago
      I've just tried AntennaPod. Unless there's some setting I am missing, I think it doesn't let you search for podcast episodes and then play them without subscribing to a podcast. In that respect, Google podcasts is better.
pentagrama 3y ago
I really like the simplicity of Google Podcasts, it does one thing and pretty well. I'm also a Spotify user and despise have podcasts mixed with music, so bloated and clunky (also Spotify performance isn't good), music and podcasts are different usecases for me, I'm on different mood. I don't want to jump to YouTube Music, and the last time I did a research, I can't find a simple Podcast app that is free, simple, ad-free, and has desktop web+native phone app support like Google Podcasts. I guess I have to have to pay _other_ subscription now :/. Will try YouTube Music but I'm quite sure will not like it. Note aside: I have YouTube Premium subscription for the ad-free experience, and has YouTube Music included, but to listen to music I prefer Spotify Premium _only_ because has a desktop app, I just can't have Spotify on my browser tabs, and since I use Firefox I can't install the pwa-webapp. If I can have installed the desktop app/pwa-webapp I'm sure I will dich Spotify for sure. Sorry for the unrelated rant but I just remember that.
- wetpaws 3y ago
  [dead]
- jaderobbins1 3y ago
  I think the point about separation of Music and Podcasts is an important one for me as well. I really don't like mixing the two, they have two different use cases imo. Drives me nuts how much Spotify pushes podcasts when I just want to listen to some tunes.
  - KoolKat23 3y ago
    I once tapped on a podcast link that someone sent me that opened in Spotify. I was haunted by podcast recommendations for months, if not years afterwards. I honestly wouldn't care if there was a completely separate tab in the app that didn't influence recommendations.
  - xp84 3y ago
    Spotify thinks if they can get you into Podcasts, which they don’t have to pay a dime for, it will improve their bottom line, since you (probably) can’t simultaneously listen to music that they do have to pay for. Kind of a funny motivation to enter the podcast market, but probably a good business move, as awkward and annoying, and seemingly irrelevant to their brand and core competency as it is.
dalbasal 3y ago
Podcasting, like wikipedia, Linux, WWW and a few other relatively "free" objects are such an important counterexamples. There's so much to learn from all of them, like theoretical devices come to life. The inability of big services (EG, google, apple) to monopolize or gatekeep podcasting relates directly to their failure to make money.(1) the protocol's minimal snooping options relates to the failure to implement digital adtech... and to the lack of good discovery/recommendation services. The unique freedom capabilities podcasting seems to have. The barriers(2) to entry... all so interlocked. Spotify's big money attempt to make money off podcasting is/was all about buying exclusivity. Paying big podcasters (eg rogan) to remove their podcast from other players... podcasts spotify already had free access to. Not shocking or surprising, but instructive. They very big money... more than anyone would likely invest on podcasting proper. The market panic when netflix realised it was in a competitive market with price pressure from both consumers and producers because competition. How are you supposed to have 50% profit margins like that! Google would rather walk away from a market than concede anything short of full price setter mode on either end. There's this point where Peter Thiel and Karl Marx are finishing each other's sentences and drinking Rum. I'm starting to think that point is a certain type of prevailing market condition. The rest is derivative. "Google says it plans on further increasing its investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music and making it more of a destination for podcast fans with features focused on discovery, community, and switching between audio podcasts and video. The latter is something rival Spotify has also" Anyone remember the "HD video race?" Online video was obviously a big thing. Bandwidth & quality were big problems receding as fast as broadband expanded. Google had an in-house video hosting service. They bought youtube. Other services still existed. Google effin plowed forward. They smoked everyone with their ability to implement HD streaming at massive scale. No one could keep up. Now Google's PR statements refer to breakthrough features like "backgrounding video" as a multi-year effort to reach feature parity with spotify. oy. Google can successfully do many things. The are capable of making excellent products. I think they're also capable of making many more economically viable products. However... the enormous profit margins they enjoy make anything short of monopoly pointless. (1)Google literally sell ads on those same podcasts via youtube. (2) At some point, "barrier to entry" goes negative. Early blogging tech lowered barriers to entry. Referring to modern social media's "barriers" feels like discussing the "challenge" of eating caramel popcorn dusted with coke.
slantedview 3y ago
Is nothing sacred at Google? Podcasts is a great simple app that does one thing well. I suppose that means Google had to kill it.
- Antip0dean 3y ago
  I'm likewise surprised that Scholar, Alerts and Translate still exist. The expectation really is that if it's great at what it does, but isn't flagship, then it must be killed.
tibbydudeza 3y ago
Remember Google Videos ???. Could for the life not understand back then why Youtube and this existed at the same time. It make sense - move all consumer content under the Youtube brand - hopefully the teams working on these products don't have the same "I got to start a new team to launch another shitty duplicated product in order for top management to notice and promote us. The folks working on Youtube are doing great work even if most Googlers higher up might think it is so mundane and boring - it pays the bills.
- Scoring6931 3y ago
  Google Video was YouTube’s competitor. Only after some years Google acquired YT
iteratethis 3y ago
Google drastically needs portfolio management. The qualifications for this position should be very low, some very basic common sense would do. I suppose they can get away with all of this because the concept of competing for a customer doesn't really exist at Google. They can toy around without any consequences because they have a money printer. Also, at Google's current size, anything producing less than 1B in revenue per month is frankly not that interesting. Small stuff.
- pcurve 3y ago
  I think part of the problem is, almost all their products have been free... launched as free and remained free without clear monetization plan, except to grow userbase. There was no strong disincentive for pulling the plug on products without paying customers. For the past few years, they've been trying to 'correct' that and in the process pissing everybody off.
- tistoon 3y ago
  Google is an advertisement company. Not a tech/app company. Google creates free apps solely on the incentive to gather and sell your data.
ashishb 3y ago
After the demise of Google Play Music, I wrote https://musicsync.ashishb.net https://musicsync.ashishb.net When the rumors of Google Podcasts being killed started circulating, I added podcast support to my app. In many cases matching or doing better than the Google Podcasts in terms of useful features.
- 12907835202 3y ago
  Podcasts doesn't seem like something I would want to manage myself. An album I grab once and keep forever. A podcast I grab everyday and keep until I've listened. Your link seems to mostly talk about uploading and managing it myself. I'm guessing podcasts don't actually work like this?
  - ashishb 3y ago
    You just have to add RSS feed URL or you can even search and subscribe to podcasts inside the app. And the new episodes will be fetched regularly to your phone. The media file won't be downloaded unless you enable that. Sorry the unclear description. I'll fix it.
smsm42 3y ago
In a year or two somebody would realize that YT is for videos and it doesn't make sense to keep music and podcasts there, and a new Google service is born... It's the circle of life.
- nickthegreek 3y ago
  The amount of people who use YouTube to listen to music around the world is massive.
  - watermelon0 3y ago
    I always assumed that the real reason YouTube Music was released was for Google to actually save on bandwidth.
    - reportgunner 3y ago
      They could actually just roll out a toggle that disables the video for that.
piperswe 3y ago
Typical fate for a Google product that consumes RSS feeds.
blrboee 3y ago
I hate that google shuts down their services so much. I was using Google Podcast a lot and then I switched to Pocket Casts a year ago. Luckily I have no dependency on it. I have so much notes on Google Keep that I am genuinely worried if they shut it down. They might give prior notice and I can easily export. I think except Search, Maps, Mail, YouTube anything else could be taken down any time. Same happening with their Domains. I was also using hangouts a lot. It just makes my so anxious to use any of their product. I have to use any google product keeping in mind that it could get shut down any day.
qwertox 3y ago
That's an odd thing to do. My parents use it because it has "Podcast" in its name so it's their go-to solution for listening to podcasts. I really doubt that they will click and go to a "YouTube Music" site or app in order to consume a simple podcast. Google Podcasts is simple to use, one thing made with a clear, specific purpose, with an easy to use interface. They should keep it just to improve their brand recognition. But no... YouTube Music it is.
HayBale 3y ago
One way to avoid the mess that is Google Music app is to subscribe to your podcast on your RSS feed which provides much better organization than whatever is happening in Google Music. Its truly astonishing how bad this app is.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nyanmatt 3y ago
For a good list of podcasting apps by platform and feature: https://podcastindex.org/apps https://podcastindex.org/apps
kyriakos 3y ago
Does this mean that to listen to a free podcast you need to have a youtube music subscription?
danhodgins 3y ago
Google is lucky they have so many monopolistic elements in their business model, otherwise customers would be leaving left, right and center due to non-stop shutdowns of serives they launch. Using a Google app, and investing any time whatsoever is a waste as it will be gone 6 months to 2 years down the road. Seems like brutal PR to me, but they can get away with it. It sounds like the service launches and shutdowns are incentivized anyway based on what other commenters are saying, so that would explain it. Follow the money!
etc-hosts 3y ago
Podcast Addict is a great Android app for playing and keeping track of podcasts.
lucasrangit 3y ago
<shameless>I made a JavaScript function that can export Google Podcasts to OPML since they don't have that feature. https://github.com/lucasrangit/google-podcasts-export-opml https://github.com/lucasrangit/google-podcasts-export-opml Please give it a try. Feedback welcome!</shameless>

265 points by FabianBeiner 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

sysadm1n 3y ago

https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/

yrro 3y ago
Google Listen (2009-2012) Google Play Music (2011 - 2020) Google Podcasts (2018 - 2024)
- xnx 3y ago
  Forgot all about Google Listen!

gdsdfe 3y ago

Another one bites the dust

Zetobal 3y ago

Ffs... I am a really good predictor for what Google is killing next. I just started using it because it was preinstalled on the pixel and I was lazy.

Filligree 3y ago
It’s getting rolled into YouTube Music, not killed off. The UI might not be as good. I guess we’ll see.
- pcthrowaway 3y ago
  It's getting killed off. Some features from Google Podcasts may make their way into YT Music, but I doubt all of them will (the Google Play Music 'migration' told me everything I need to know)
- p_l 3y ago
  As far as users are concerned, it is killed off. Especially considering how migration from Google Music to YT Music went. Personally despite looking to get into podcasts I ended up writing off Google Podcasts from the start, expecting it will stop working just like Listen did.
zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
Same. Simple app that I use to listen to a sleep podcast because I can't listen to the Patreon feed on Spotify.
- nevereveragain 3y ago
  They _still_ don't support adding a custom feed? That miss was what pushed me to google podcast in the first place, along with their absolute refusal to fix broken feeds for existing podcasts in their index.
TeddyDD 3y ago
Same here. Lazyness bit me. Back to antennapod I guess.

gmaster1440 3y ago

Not so much killed as being rolled into YouTube Music

ra7 3y ago
Is Google even serious about YouTube Music? The entire music experience, especially on TV with the YouTube app, is downright awful. On the Apple TV YouTube app, they don't even have proper music controls like repeat, shuffle and so on.
sf_rob 3y ago
A fate worse than death. (Joke but I was a heavy Google Music user before it suffered the same fate).
- delecti 3y ago
  That was an annoying and janky migration, but Youtube Music has a better interface than Google Play Music ever did. Though conceptually it's still just weird. A video that I like on youtube because of the video component isn't necessarily a song I want to listen to as music. Also it really needs the ability to block music from certain artists.
  - adhoc_slime 3y ago
    As far as the android app goes I disagree. While there are minor improvements, there are major steps backwards in offline playing, library management and account management. An entirely frustrating experience trying to use the app.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    I get that different products would be pretty siloed within their corporate structure, so I know that they weren't just going to use the YouTube code. However, why are products that are released well after plenty of other apps have forged a path so that the new app can research what works and doesn't work, what do people like/not like, and all of that type of basic information just so abysmally ignored so that this "new" thing is so inferior? If you're not the first pioneering version of something, you better be doing everything the others are doing, but better. Otherwise, what's the point of your product?

flybrand 3y ago

It will relaunch as part of Google+ in 2025, along with a competing add-in to gmail that you have to pay to remove.

bigfudge 3y ago
I know sarcasm isn’t very hn but this is hard to distinguish from a genuine prediction.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

matthewfelgate 3y ago

FFS. How do I subscribe to Podcasts on an Android phone now?

blfr 3y ago
I highly recommend AntennaPod[1]. If you need/want sync, it can be achieved though gpodder[2]. [1] https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ [2] https://gpodder.net/ https://gpodder.net/
ilyt 3y ago
PodcastAddict works fine
tobz1000 3y ago
Pocket Casts has been reliable for me for a few years.
TOMDM 3y ago
The functionality is being migrated into youtube music
- matthewfelgate 3y ago
  Youtube music has no functionality.
  - pcthrowaway 3y ago
    YT music is good for discovering new music, but otherwise pretty shit compared to Google Play Music (and I doubt it will be any better for Podcasts)
delecti 3y ago
TFA explains the situation pretty well. Google Podcasts is still around until next year, and the Youtube Music app will have that functionality added this year. It's all in the first paragraph.

pb7 3y ago

Original title: “Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music“

pwdisswordfishc 3y ago

There were Google Podcasts?

tinyhouse 3y ago
Yes, I'm using it. I first started using Spotify for podcasts but those idiots (sorry Spotify) don't let you disable the auto play so it automatically starts a new podcast after you finish one. At least on the free tier. I then switched to Google. The reason I care is that I often listen to podcasts when I'm in bed at night as it helps me sleep.
- sebdufbeau 3y ago
  For me, Spotify on Mobile has a sleep timer functionality and one of the options of "End of episode". I do have premium so cannot confirm if it exists on the free tier.
- thinkmassive 3y ago
  The autoplay is extra annoying when listening to an older episode too. When you go to the full list it automatically jumps to the one last played. Scrolling long lists in Spotify is very buggy. The only way to fix it is mark the newly-started episode as played, then mark as unplayed. So many extra steps that shouldn’t even be necessary in the first place.

mywacaday 3y ago

This is infuriating, I had just migrated from Stitcher to google Podcasts

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

shadowgovt 3y ago

Oh no, not that service I never used because I learned my lesson trusting Google with basic media organizational applications! Seriously, it's sad that they broke their reputation on this, but the writing was on the wall from day zero. If you're an Android user, I recommend BeyondPod (http://www.beyondpod.mobi/android/index.htm http://www.beyondpod.mobi/android/index.htm): it's simple, it's reliable, it integrates to a search engine, and it also supports pasting in links with authentication so you can get any Patreon exclusive feeds you have access to (something that, to my knowledge, Google Podcasts was never able to support).

_fat_santa 3y ago

TBH this doesn't matter that much, as there are plenty of other great podcast apps that one can use. This is one of the things I love most about the podcast ecosystem is that (at least for now), it's a very open platform with the exception of Spotify exclusives.

resters 3y ago

How is it that we live in 2023 and apple’s native podcast app is pretty mediocre and now Google is killing one that was slightly better.

dcdevito 3y ago

[dead]

treypitt 3y ago

Good riddance, what a dumpster fire. The tiny buttons for pause, replay, skip buttons are all right next to each other on the lock screen, so you often skip podcasts when you really want to pause or fast forward. on the other hand, the rewind 10-seconds button has half the real estate of the widget. Downloads arent automatically deleted even after the episode is completed (even if you mark as played or remove from queue). There's no skip intro/outro options. Frankly, the Overcast app is one of the main things attracting me to iOS at this point, and a dearth of good native podcast clients is hurting the Pixel/Google ecosystem

klauserc 3y ago
I'm pretty happy with _Podcast Republic_ on Android. Its a bit of a "power user" app, but I have yet to find something that I want to tweak that it doesn't let me tweak via its vast settings menus.
wlesieutre 3y ago
Have you tried Pocket Casts? https://pocketcasts.com/ https://pocketcasts.com/ It's now owned by Automattic (of Wordpress.com and tumblr) and the clients are open source https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android
- alphabettsy 3y ago
  Second this. I tried Overcast and moved back. The availability of an Android app and web client that syncs your progress is amazing.
- aport 3y ago
  I've used Pocket Casts for ~8 years. Can't recommend it enough, a really great app.
- Fluorescence 3y ago
  I switched from iOS/Overcast to Android/PocketCasts and I found it had a number of benefits which I struggle to recall now... batch downloads might be one of them. My main bug bear is how how some screens are drawers and some screens are pages which makes navigation confusing. Even after years of use, I still keep accidentally closing the drawer screens when trying to scroll and trying to navigate backwards which isn't allowed. Please... just make them all pages so they behave consistently with the same navigation and gestures.

robertoandred 3y ago

> The move will leave only Apple among the major players that hasn’t consolidated music and podcasts into a single destination Apple just finished UNbundling everything from one monolithic app, now people want it back?

syncbehind 3y ago
As they say, those who don't understand / learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Apple learned that having them separate was more beneficial, a lesson Google and Spotify have not.
nkrebs13 3y ago
I've never understood this bundling. I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of music. I always know what I want to listen to. I don't need or want podcasts cluttering up my music app when I'm trying to play or discover music. I don't need or want music cluttering up my podcasts when I am trying work through my infinitely long podcast queue. It's never the case that I'm looking for _either_ a podcast or music to fill the silence. Different use cases. Different audio mediums. Different apps.

WesleyLivesay 3y ago

I'm not necessarily super surprised, the uptake on Google Podcasts always seemed very low.

karaterobot 3y ago

Does this mean that people who are paying for subscriptions to Youtube Music so they can listen to music will now be flooded with recommendations and ads for podcasts, just like on Spotify?

jack_riminton 3y ago

TIL Google had a podcasts app

dylan604 3y ago
the killedbygoogle list just grew a little bit longer
dirtyid 3y ago
They had one of the OG podcast apps, Google Listen from 2009, year after first Android phone release. Probably part of someones 5%. Which was surprisingly functional, and of course they killed it 3 years later.

m3kw9 3y ago

There it is.

noirscape 3y ago

Against better judgement, I was using that. Great... Remember kids, never build anything onto Google.

0xDEF 3y ago

Why did Google fail to turn "simple" apps like Google Podcasts and Google Reader into low maintenance apps? Google Podcasts is so simple it could even have been an open source reference app showcasing Flutter and some backend GCP services.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
Internal promo economy. Same reason Reader got killed. Nobody wants to work on that.

miohtama 3y ago

Please raise your hands, who is surprised?

Octabrain 3y ago

It's astonishing the strategy that Google follows with their products. This trend of releasing stuff and cancelling it later is reaching the point of being meme. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that markets are hard to predict and compete in and offering a competent product at those sizes requires a lot of economic and human effort but for god sake, I seriously think they should plan better and think twice because this is seriously damaging their image.

malermeister 3y ago
Nobody at Google ever got promoted for maintaining an existing product. Creating something new and half-baked is what promo packets are made of!

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

izacus 3y ago

HN moderators: why was title changed from more accurate "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music" to misleading "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" ?

asplake 3y ago
Title length can be a problem
zer0zzz 3y ago
This title was most charitable as rolling anything into YouTube is a fate worse than death.
ghusto 3y ago
"Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" isn't misleading, that's exactly what's happening. The fact that they're trying to force people onto YouTube Music isn't relevant for me.
- izacus 3y ago
  That's an utterly strange response - it's a difference between UI just moving somewhere else and losing service availability. It sounds like you just want to rant?
  - squeaky-clean 3y ago
    Except for some exclusive podcasts, which Google has zero, podcasts are an open standard. Google Podcasts is just one of many clients, so there was never a worry of service availability. All podcast apps except Spotify are just different UI.
  - ghusto 3y ago
    Google Podcasts, the app (and website?) is shutting down. It will no longer exist. Re-framing it as its UI moving somewhere else is a bit like if WhatsApp was to be shuttered and moved to Facebook Messenger, and you said "it's not becoming unavailable, its UI is being moved to to Facebook Messenger".

nytesky 3y ago

On a related note, we have a Google dot, and asking it to play a podcast, it ALWAYS resumes from the last episode I listened to in that podcast, often weeks old. I can’t get it to simply play the latest episode of random podcast

kstrauser 3y ago
Dot is Amazon. Do you have a Google or Amazon device?
- nytesky 3y ago
  Google Nest Hub, and a Google puck Nest Mini? I never know what to call them, I know they deprecated Nest name and pushed everyone to Google Home app so never know what it’s called today. But Google device, playing Google podcast and it ALWAYS RESUMES even when I try all sorts of verbal command iterations (play latest, play todays episode, etc)

bArray 3y ago

Would be good if Google made the URLs redirect for RSS feeds and libraries to seamlessly pickup. I would suggest that anybody creating their own media hosts this in a variety of locations, and not rely on a single point of failure.

booboofixer 3y ago

Unpopular opinion: i loved it and used it everyday, sad to see a lightweight app with no BS on any part of the screen die.

ceshm 3y ago
Same here, I switched from apple podcasts after their home re-organization that ruined the experience for me. Guess I should have known better.
- alphabettsy 3y ago
  Try Pocket Casts, that’s where I went from Apple Podcasts and haven’t looked back.
nabakin 3y ago
I love the balance between simplicity and utility. Ability to download podcasts for later, queue them up into a playlist, cast to a device, easily search through thousands of existing podcasts but able to add the RSS if needed, timeline for recent podcast episodes, etc
- 0x6c6f6c 3y ago
  Yepp. Google Podcasts hit the right spot in terms of auto playing my next podcast that I don't have with other apps I've used. Managing all podcasts across devices made switching phones seamless. I'll actually miss it. But I've wanted to switch to a more open option so I'll have to figure those things out elsewhere.
pjmlp 3y ago
Same here, now will either have to find something similar, or go back to downloading MP3 from RSS feeds.

rickdeckard 3y ago

(to migrate users to YouTube Music) YT Music seems to be where Google Media apps shift their users to when they retire. -- Must be fun to be on that dev-team: "We have a new high-priority ticket: Add podcast-support to inherit users from podcast app. Ok, so I guess we move the 'Compete with Spotify/AppleMusic' stories back to the funnel"

amadeuspagel 3y ago

I guess youtube music is youtube sound now?

zer0zzz 3y ago

This is why I scoff at folks who want rcs to be adopted everywhere. How can google be trusted to maintain anything past what seem like pretty consistent expiration dates?

bkanber 3y ago

I actually like the google podcasts app. It's simple, it works, no ads, does everything I need it to do. Sigh. RIP.

rickdeckard 3y ago

Off-topic: Would be great to have a way again to simply share links to podcast-episodes which work regardless of the used app. Before the podcast-hype one could simply share the direct-link to the audio-file. Now all you get are links which require Google/Apple/Spotify to open. (But realistically, I don't know who would be willing to drive this. It would need backing from at least Google/Apple/Spotify to maintain a central catalogue, and the incentive seems to be low...)

tantalor 3y ago
I would assume that's not too hard given most podcasts use RSS or similar for distribution. Whether each individual episode is a separately entity (like, with a distinct URI or whatever) within that format, I don't know.
- rickdeckard 3y ago
  It's not that trivial to do as an end-user. If I listen to a podcast on Spotify which I'd like to share with you (who doesn't use Spotify), I would have to Google that podcast and try to find a RSS-Link for it, which becomes more and more difficult as most pages now link directly to Spotify or Apple and provide no RSS-url. Ideal would be an URI like podcast:// which apps could simply register for on OS-level, but I frankly don't know which entity would actually want to drive such a standardization.
  - cxr 3y ago
    > Ideal would be an URI like podcast:// No, that would be far from ideal, for the same reason that the feed[1] URI scheme was flawed (cooked up by very confused people) from the beginning. And among other things, a podcast:// URI would now mean I can't open the thing in my browser unless my browser vendor adds support and I download the new version. The file is served over HTTP(S). Just use the http or https URI. Podcast players need to do their part[2] in dealing with them. 1. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_URI_scheme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_URI_scheme> 2. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37691360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37691360>

tivert 3y ago

Google executive leaders must have been worried that users might start trusting Google's apps again, so hatched this plan to maintain Google's well-known reputation. When looking at business leaders, it's best to assume scary competence and that they always know what they're doing. After all, if they weren't impossibly better than us mere mortals, why would the market have granted them such high-paid CEO jobs?

zer0zzz 3y ago
The way they keep killing apps (affects android) and the way they killed their line of pixel laptops is the primary reason why I will not be migrating off of the iPhone/Mac continuity combo anytime soon. I really like when my apps and services don’t get canceled and when a lot of them just kinda work consistently across the two computers I use most. Can’t get that from google and Microsoft gave up on phones so…

pradn 3y ago

Google Podcasts seemed to source its feeds from more sources, maybe even the open internet, since podcasts are just RSS feeds, more or less. This led to a wider selection, like pirate streams with all the episodes of paywalled podcasts.

throwawaaarrgh 3y ago

I definitely never saw this coming.

fourseventy 3y ago

We have gone full circle. I started with Google Music which had both music and podcasts at the time. Then they took podcasts out of Google Music and made me install a second Google Podcast app just to listen to my podcasts. Then they shut down Google Music and forced me to move to YouTube Music. Now they are shutting down Google Podcasts and integrating that back into YouTube Music. Like WTF.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
Gotta launch (and shut down) to get promos!
- politelemon 3y ago
  This is what really annoys me. For certain there will be people at g noticing this constant bouncing about so that some pointless product manager can get their promotion and bonus. They are noticing the damage this does to them. And it's even possible they are highlighting it. But they are completely unable to do anything about it.
- wildrhythms 3y ago
  Bingo. This is the reason. The higherups that approve promos are mostly tech-illiterate, so if you're a manager that oversees maintenance/fix work that isn't new and shiny and sexy and dressed up with marketing, you're never getting promoted and neither are your reports.
JeremyNT 3y ago
It's amazing how incompetent they seem in this area. They even shut down another podcast app before your journey began, called Google listen. Luckily, although you might want Google's proprietary music player to access their subscription content, there's absolutely no reason to use a Google podcast app. I am a fan of Antennapod[0], which is available on F-Droid. [0] https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/
- zer0zzz 3y ago

jjice 3y ago

The state of podcasting software is kind of sad now. The initial concept behind podcasts with RSS feeds was so neat and freeing, but podcasts have been reigned into private services due to user convenience and existing market share for audio. Having Spotify handle podcast management for me is great and it's handy but I would much rather have an agnostic app with inputs for RSS feeds. There are just so many podcasts that aren't available via an RSS feed anymore though, continuing to push us into private apps. I guess I'm not helping but I literally can't for many podcasts now.

coldpie 3y ago
Huh? I use Apple Podcasts, and used Google Podcasts before I switched to iPhone. Haven't seen an issue like that. Everything I care about seems to be available on everything, and it's easy to add RSS feeds (e.g. from Patreon) in both apps. Maybe you should try using a less hostile app?
- Trumpi 3y ago
  That doesn't refute the original point, though. Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts are products that embrace the open podcasting model. Spotify and Youtube Music do not, and these are the products that the original comment is referring to, where you are not able to add a subscription using an RSS feed. > Maybe you should try using a less hostile app? Great advice.
jlkuester7 3y ago
> There are just so many podcasts that aren't available via an RSS feed anymore though If I need a proprietary app to access a show's feed, then IMHO it should not be considered a podcast (and I refuse to listen to it). That being said, I remain cautiously optimistic about the podcasting ecosystem. A huge number of high-quality shows remain freely available (and many shows sustain an independent revenue stream). Despite the creeping centralization, podcasting still feels very independent when compared to things like Youtube/Tiktok.
CharlesW 3y ago
> Having Spotify handle podcast management for me is great and it's handy but I would much rather have an agnostic app with inputs for RSS feeds. What about the Spotify app keeps you using it, even though (1) they're a parasitoid on the open podcasting ecosystem and (2) have successfully destroyed the original, open meanings of "podcast" and "podcasting"?

hiidrew 3y ago

Add it to the list: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/

jlkuester7 3y ago

Why anyone would use a proprietary podcasting app is beyond me! (Particularly one from Google with basically had a 100% chance of getting canceled....) https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ is incredible! 10/10, highly recommend!

azangru 3y ago
> Why anyone would use a proprietary podcasting app is beyond me! It's preinstalled on Android. Easy to get started... Defaults are a powerful thing. Thanks for the recommendation! I was just looking for another app to switch to.
- mdaniel 3y ago
  AntennaPod is good if you value FLOSS over UX, but I continue to get my money's worth from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.podcastaddict https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.po... (it's IAP, so you don't have to pay to try it) I just happen to still have my notes where I was evaluating players a while back and here's why I chose Podcast Addict over AntennaPod, with this written from the perspective of "why not AntennaPod" * auto download should be configurable per podcast, ideally with number of episodes to retain * auto skip intro, outro seconds should be configurable per podcast * delete from Queue view doesn't remove it from the queue nor even mark it as played * ui treatment makes currently playing overlap with the played marker on queue items * bamboo menu for an episode should offer delete * delete and remove from queue doesn't clear it from the now playing bar * it should stop after episode if sleep timer is active <-- this one is a solid, 100% deal breaker for any app that doesn't support it
  - mertd 3y ago
    I had moved from Podcast Addict to Google Podcasts. PA is slanted way to heavily towards the power user. I just want to see my feed chronologically, pick one and hit play.
  - azangru 3y ago
    I've just tried AntennaPod. Unless there's some setting I am missing, I think it doesn't let you search for podcast episodes and then play them without subscribing to a podcast. In that respect, Google podcasts is better.

pentagrama 3y ago

I really like the simplicity of Google Podcasts, it does one thing and pretty well. I'm also a Spotify user and despise have podcasts mixed with music, so bloated and clunky (also Spotify performance isn't good), music and podcasts are different usecases for me, I'm on different mood. I don't want to jump to YouTube Music, and the last time I did a research, I can't find a simple Podcast app that is free, simple, ad-free, and has desktop web+native phone app support like Google Podcasts. I guess I have to have to pay _other_ subscription now :/. Will try YouTube Music but I'm quite sure will not like it. Note aside: I have YouTube Premium subscription for the ad-free experience, and has YouTube Music included, but to listen to music I prefer Spotify Premium _only_ because has a desktop app, I just can't have Spotify on my browser tabs, and since I use Firefox I can't install the pwa-webapp. If I can have installed the desktop app/pwa-webapp I'm sure I will dich Spotify for sure. Sorry for the unrelated rant but I just remember that.

wetpaws 3y ago
[dead]
jaderobbins1 3y ago
I think the point about separation of Music and Podcasts is an important one for me as well. I really don't like mixing the two, they have two different use cases imo. Drives me nuts how much Spotify pushes podcasts when I just want to listen to some tunes.
- KoolKat23 3y ago
  I once tapped on a podcast link that someone sent me that opened in Spotify. I was haunted by podcast recommendations for months, if not years afterwards. I honestly wouldn't care if there was a completely separate tab in the app that didn't influence recommendations.
- xp84 3y ago
  Spotify thinks if they can get you into Podcasts, which they don’t have to pay a dime for, it will improve their bottom line, since you (probably) can’t simultaneously listen to music that they do have to pay for. Kind of a funny motivation to enter the podcast market, but probably a good business move, as awkward and annoying, and seemingly irrelevant to their brand and core competency as it is.

dalbasal 3y ago

Podcasting, like wikipedia, Linux, WWW and a few other relatively "free" objects are such an important counterexamples. There's so much to learn from all of them, like theoretical devices come to life. The inability of big services (EG, google, apple) to monopolize or gatekeep podcasting relates directly to their failure to make money.(1) the protocol's minimal snooping options relates to the failure to implement digital adtech... and to the lack of good discovery/recommendation services. The unique freedom capabilities podcasting seems to have. The barriers(2) to entry... all so interlocked. Spotify's big money attempt to make money off podcasting is/was all about buying exclusivity. Paying big podcasters (eg rogan) to remove their podcast from other players... podcasts spotify already had free access to. Not shocking or surprising, but instructive. They very big money... more than anyone would likely invest on podcasting proper. The market panic when netflix realised it was in a competitive market with price pressure from both consumers and producers because competition. How are you supposed to have 50% profit margins like that! Google would rather walk away from a market than concede anything short of full price setter mode on either end. There's this point where Peter Thiel and Karl Marx are finishing each other's sentences and drinking Rum. I'm starting to think that point is a certain type of prevailing market condition. The rest is derivative. "Google says it plans on further increasing its investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music and making it more of a destination for podcast fans with features focused on discovery, community, and switching between audio podcasts and video. The latter is something rival Spotify has also" Anyone remember the "HD video race?" Online video was obviously a big thing. Bandwidth & quality were big problems receding as fast as broadband expanded. Google had an in-house video hosting service. They bought youtube. Other services still existed. Google effin plowed forward. They smoked everyone with their ability to implement HD streaming at massive scale. No one could keep up. Now Google's PR statements refer to breakthrough features like "backgrounding video" as a multi-year effort to reach feature parity with spotify. oy. Google can successfully do many things. The are capable of making excellent products. I think they're also capable of making many more economically viable products. However... the enormous profit margins they enjoy make anything short of monopoly pointless. (1)Google literally sell ads on those same podcasts via youtube. (2) At some point, "barrier to entry" goes negative. Early blogging tech lowered barriers to entry. Referring to modern social media's "barriers" feels like discussing the "challenge" of eating caramel popcorn dusted with coke.

slantedview 3y ago

Is nothing sacred at Google? Podcasts is a great simple app that does one thing well. I suppose that means Google had to kill it.

Antip0dean 3y ago
I'm likewise surprised that Scholar, Alerts and Translate still exist. The expectation really is that if it's great at what it does, but isn't flagship, then it must be killed.

tibbydudeza 3y ago

Remember Google Videos ???. Could for the life not understand back then why Youtube and this existed at the same time. It make sense - move all consumer content under the Youtube brand - hopefully the teams working on these products don't have the same "I got to start a new team to launch another shitty duplicated product in order for top management to notice and promote us. The folks working on Youtube are doing great work even if most Googlers higher up might think it is so mundane and boring - it pays the bills.

Scoring6931 3y ago
Google Video was YouTube’s competitor. Only after some years Google acquired YT

iteratethis 3y ago

Google drastically needs portfolio management. The qualifications for this position should be very low, some very basic common sense would do. I suppose they can get away with all of this because the concept of competing for a customer doesn't really exist at Google. They can toy around without any consequences because they have a money printer. Also, at Google's current size, anything producing less than 1B in revenue per month is frankly not that interesting. Small stuff.

pcurve 3y ago
I think part of the problem is, almost all their products have been free... launched as free and remained free without clear monetization plan, except to grow userbase. There was no strong disincentive for pulling the plug on products without paying customers. For the past few years, they've been trying to 'correct' that and in the process pissing everybody off.
tistoon 3y ago
Google is an advertisement company. Not a tech/app company. Google creates free apps solely on the incentive to gather and sell your data.

ashishb 3y ago

After the demise of Google Play Music, I wrote https://musicsync.ashishb.net https://musicsync.ashishb.net When the rumors of Google Podcasts being killed started circulating, I added podcast support to my app. In many cases matching or doing better than the Google Podcasts in terms of useful features.

12907835202 3y ago
Podcasts doesn't seem like something I would want to manage myself. An album I grab once and keep forever. A podcast I grab everyday and keep until I've listened. Your link seems to mostly talk about uploading and managing it myself. I'm guessing podcasts don't actually work like this?
- ashishb 3y ago
  You just have to add RSS feed URL or you can even search and subscribe to podcasts inside the app. And the new episodes will be fetched regularly to your phone. The media file won't be downloaded unless you enable that. Sorry the unclear description. I'll fix it.

smsm42 3y ago

In a year or two somebody would realize that YT is for videos and it doesn't make sense to keep music and podcasts there, and a new Google service is born... It's the circle of life.

nickthegreek 3y ago
The amount of people who use YouTube to listen to music around the world is massive.
- watermelon0 3y ago
  I always assumed that the real reason YouTube Music was released was for Google to actually save on bandwidth.
  - reportgunner 3y ago
    They could actually just roll out a toggle that disables the video for that.

piperswe 3y ago

Typical fate for a Google product that consumes RSS feeds.

blrboee 3y ago

I hate that google shuts down their services so much. I was using Google Podcast a lot and then I switched to Pocket Casts a year ago. Luckily I have no dependency on it. I have so much notes on Google Keep that I am genuinely worried if they shut it down. They might give prior notice and I can easily export. I think except Search, Maps, Mail, YouTube anything else could be taken down any time. Same happening with their Domains. I was also using hangouts a lot. It just makes my so anxious to use any of their product. I have to use any google product keeping in mind that it could get shut down any day.

qwertox 3y ago

That's an odd thing to do. My parents use it because it has "Podcast" in its name so it's their go-to solution for listening to podcasts. I really doubt that they will click and go to a "YouTube Music" site or app in order to consume a simple podcast. Google Podcasts is simple to use, one thing made with a clear, specific purpose, with an easy to use interface. They should keep it just to improve their brand recognition. But no... YouTube Music it is.

HayBale 3y ago

One way to avoid the mess that is Google Music app is to subscribe to your podcast on your RSS feed which provides much better organization than whatever is happening in Google Music. Its truly astonishing how bad this app is.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

nyanmatt 3y ago

For a good list of podcasting apps by platform and feature: https://podcastindex.org/apps https://podcastindex.org/apps

kyriakos 3y ago

Does this mean that to listen to a free podcast you need to have a youtube music subscription?

danhodgins 3y ago

Google is lucky they have so many monopolistic elements in their business model, otherwise customers would be leaving left, right and center due to non-stop shutdowns of serives they launch. Using a Google app, and investing any time whatsoever is a waste as it will be gone 6 months to 2 years down the road. Seems like brutal PR to me, but they can get away with it. It sounds like the service launches and shutdowns are incentivized anyway based on what other commenters are saying, so that would explain it. Follow the money!

etc-hosts 3y ago

Podcast Addict is a great Android app for playing and keeping track of podcasts.

lucasrangit 3y ago

<shameless>I made a JavaScript function that can export Google Podcasts to OPML since they don't have that feature. https://github.com/lucasrangit/google-podcasts-export-opml https://github.com/lucasrangit/google-podcasts-export-opml Please give it a try. Feedback welcome!</shameless>