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The end of Google Podcasts is in June if you're not in the US
- nobody9999 3y agoI use Podgrab[0]. Light footprint, easy to use -- and no reliance on Google or anyone else. [0] https://github.com/akhilrex/podgrab https://github.com/akhilrex/podgrab
- riebschlager 3y agoSo what's everyone been jumping to? I've really enjoyed Podcast Addict. https://podcastaddict.com/ https://podcastaddict.com/
- Link512 3y agoI've been happily using PocketCasts[1] for years. [1] https://pocketcasts.com/ https://pocketcasts.com/
- sph 3y agoI've been a paying user of Pocket Casts for a while. I like that it also has a web version as well as a mobile app, so everything is always sync'd.
- causi 3y agoSeconding Podcast Addict.
- Latty 3y agoPodcast Addict has some niche features I really like, I like being able to have a different automatic playback speed per-podcast, as I tailor it to the talking speed of the specific podcasters. The UI can be a bit cluttered, but in a power-user "I can make this work exactly how I want for each podcast" way.
- chpatrick 3y agoWhat does HN think the best replacement is?
- rhdunn 3y agoI'm using a local audiobookshelf server to manage the podcasts I listen to.
- roland35 3y agoI've been using Pocket casts for years... But I'm still salty about Google reader!! >:(
- danesparza 3y ago"I'm still salty about Google Reader" You're not alone. I just came here to participate in this candlelight vigil for Google Reader myself.
- rpgbr 3y agoI use Apple Podcasts. If I were on Android, my choice would be AntennaPod.
- tehbeard 3y agoCan't say to how it compares as I never trusted the Google option to stick around, but I've used podcast addict for years and have no complaints.
- Dobbs 3y agoIf you are on iOS Overcast is really nice.
- bootlooped 3y agoSpotify if you already use it. I liked Beyond Pod, but haven't used it in a long time. The ability to schedule automatic downloads was great when I was more aggressive in reducing cell data usage.
- chpatrick 3y agoThat's probably what I'll use. I thought they only had their own podcasts.
- ksynwa 3y agoPitching AntennaPod as a replacement: - https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ - https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod
- sspiff 3y agoBeen my go-to podcast app for almost a decade now, never let me down. Great experience all around.
- JoshTriplett 3y agoSeconded. AntennaPod works very well, and it's Open Source so it isn't going anywhere.
- navane 3y agoI switched to this when I first heard Google podcast was stopping. Very happy with it.
- pjmlp 3y agoMany thanks for pointing it out, I was wondering where to go afterwards, because Google Podcasts was a sweetspot for me in terms of features, and all the alternatives seemed too much for me.
- luuurker 3y agoVery good option for Android users. Have been using it for the past 5 or so years.
- dadoomer 3y agoAntennaPod is so great. I have hundreds of hours. It's even available on F-Droid.
- squidgyhead 3y agoDoes it work with android auto?
- glenstein 3y ago
- Zizizizz 3y agoPocketcasts is what I have been using for over a decade and it's never let me down. It comes with a web player as well so you can listen from a web browser.
- donatj 3y agoPocket Casts is great. The Desktop app is what really sold me on it. I’m grandfathered in from paying for it when it was a paid app.
- KeplerBoy 3y agoI'm also grandfathered in but apparently they recently introduced a new tier above plus members called "patron". No idea why anyone would pay for this, but damn do I dislike all this subscription stuff.
- xeromal 3y agoSo I bought pocket cast in 2015 according to my Gmail history. Do you know how to activate a legacy app? Thanks!
- science4sail 3y agoTry logging in (or doing a password reset) with your old Gmail account
- gtirloni 3y agoYour account should have the lifetime Plus plan, just log in. https://blog.pocketcasts.com/2019/09/18/major-new-update/ https://blog.pocketcasts.com/2019/09/18/major-new-update/
- xeromal 3y agoAh, I think my purchase predates the web app so I'm not entitled to plus. Makes sense.
- yohannparis 3y agoIt's Google Reader all over... When do people will stop using Google products!? Anyway, https://overcast.fm https://overcast.fm have been here for 9 years and no reasons to go anytime soon.
- flanked-evergl 3y agoOvercast looks like it is only available on the Apple app store.
- latexr 3y agoYes, Overcast is iOS-only, though the developer does allow the iPad version to run on macOS and visionOS and will fix bugs. An Android version (or anything outside the Apple ecosystem, really) is explicitly not planned. He has mentioned that multiple times publicly.
- thrdbndndn 3y agoThere is nothing wrong to be iOS only but I believe OP's point is that an iOS app can't replace Google Postcasts.
- latexr 3y agoMy comment was meant as neither criticism nor support, only as clarification for those looking for alternatives and considering Overcast.
- wildrhythms 3y agoOn Android I switched to AntennaPod. It's FOSS, works great, and I can plug in my Patreon RSS feeds. https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod
- seam_carver 3y agoOvercast has the best audio quality. Volume normalization so all voices are the same volume and smart speed to shorten silences but still sounding natural is amazing. Antennapod and pocket casts implementations of those features aren't good enough.
- latexr 3y ago> Those who trust the Google’s app to listen to podcasts have almost three months to export their subscriptions to another app. Alternative take: Those who trust any Google app or service to do anything should reconsider or at the very least keep a permanent and up-to-date contingency plan for when Google inevitably discontinues it. Fooled you once, shame on Google. Fooled you 294 times, shame on you. https://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com
- ghaff 3y agoThe more nuanced take is that Google tries a lot of different things and, at least on a percentage basis, most of them don't really take off and it kills them. I didn't even know Google had a podcast app. I'm not sure that keeping apps/services around in some half-dead state maintained by one developer who pissed someone off supporting it is necessarily a better alternative. The service I'm sort of amazed is still around is Blogger which is actually a decent option for free blogging.
- latexr 3y ago> The more nuanced take is that Google tries a lot of different things and, at least on a percentage basis, most of them don't really take off and it kills them. The even more nuanced take is that that’s a self-perpetuating cycle of Google’s own fault. It‘s constantly killing off stuff, so whatever users any app has feel burned and they are less likely to try Google’s next thing. Which means fewer users, which means the new thing doesn’t take off, so it’s killed. Rinse and repeat. > I didn't even know Google had a podcast app. Neither did I. Because I already know it’s not worth investing any time trying any of Google’s stuff and as a consequence pay no attention to their releases, thus I’m never a user. Thus the cycle continues. I’m far from alone in that. > I'm not sure that keeping apps/services around in some half-dead state maintained by one developer who pissed someone off supporting it is necessarily a better alternative. Maybe not. Or maybe they need to bite the bullet for a while to regain trust.
- kevindamm 3y agoAnd 270+ products and services that are still alive and resourced. I've got an alternate take -- don't depend on _any_ other company's service without a contingency plan for if/when it disappears. Attend to possible lock-in regardless of the source, unless you have direct control over its existence. Nothing is permanent. At the risk of sounding like a Google apologist, I'll even suggest that I'd rather a company be willing to retire products and move around resources. Especially if the application has limited available growth and there are several alternatives. Holding on to every product like it's precious is how you acquire some very insidious technical debt. I'm sure there are more than a few of those 294 applications whose time had come for them to go. Were some gone too soon? Perhaps. Some were definitely loved. Does killing off loved products threaten the positive sentiment of users? Of course. But so does stagnation. It's a trade-off decision that neither of us had any ability to alter.
- rob 3y agoGoogle’s recommendation to switch to YouTube podcasts has been pretty lackluster in our experience. Every podcast episode gets uploaded as a video and included in the main “Videos” tab of your channel in addition to being under “Podcasts.” So when you have dozens of podcasts with thousands of episodes, your main video feed really gets messed up unless that was your intention to mix the two.
- AndrewStephens 3y agoI have ranted about Google dropping products before and I will continue to do so. Google keeps fumbling the opportunity to own large swathes of the web experience while cutting into competitors. Although Google Podcasts probably looked like a minor loss on the quarterly balance sheet, the intangible brand benefits and especially the analytics that could be garnered from having a large population using your product are hard to overstate. Even apple realized this when they relaunched their podcast app.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoExperienced people know better, newcomers get burned and end up learning through experience or knowledge transfer from others. If you’re investing your time or resources into using a new Google product at this point, that’s on you. To help others you know DeGoogle their life is a public service. https://github.com/tycrek/degoogle https://github.com/tycrek/degoogle
- haunter 3y ago>To help others you know DeGoogle their life is a public service Half of the recommended alternatives are not even alternatives, like recommending TeX/LaTeX as a Docs recplacement. It's just a no go. I know the intentions are good but that's not gonna work for the regular userbase outside of the HN and adjacent circles. >It's an open-source (and offline) document processor using TeX/LaTeX. It's different than Docs or Word but amazing, once you get used to it.
- vouaobrasil 3y agoWell, sending LibreOffice documents back and forth is not too bad. Yes, it's not a real-time collaboration but it works surprisingly well if both parties are open minded enough to go back to a slower workflow. Apple with iCloud also has some basic collaboration features for pages. Yes, Google docs has become dominant and people use it because it's there. But we'd definitely get along fine without it too.
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- mococa 3y agoThis kind of news coming from Google doesn't surprise me anymore, it's been a decade, I wouldn't vouch for their products.
- logro 3y agoI didn't even know Google Podcasts was a thing. How times have changed. I used to get excited about all Google products but now I generally see them all as toxic.
- StephenSmith 3y agoI recommend switching to any of the apps that support Podcasting 2.0 - The features are better and the index is not controlled by Apple/Spotify. https://podcasting2.org/ https://podcasting2.org/
- posterguy 3y agoI was annoyed by this but I pay for YT Premium already. The music service has more of what I like supplemented by user uploads (great for underground music not readily available on Spotify or w/e), and ad-free YT on all of my devices (looking at you, iPads) is worth it. If the podcasts are integrated well enough then I don't really know if I care that much.
- fourseventy 3y agoI'm so annoyed by this. I used to listen to my podcasts through Google Play Music. Then they removed podcasts from that app and forced us to install Google Podcasts. Now they are shutting down Google Podcasts and forcing me back to Youtube Music to get my podcasts... Whats next? I'll probably move to a non-google product for podcasts.
- bjoli 3y agoI just bought an old dell server and started self-hosting. It saved me some money on a VPS and Dropbox (although this thing GOBBLES electricity, so the savings argument is pretty moot). Docker (or podman in my case) makes this extremely easy. I can even manage my VMs using virt-manager on my main computer. I solve remote access by having wireguard running on my phone. It uses minimal amounts of data and battery, and I don't have to expose more than one port to the Russians (although lately I have had a bunch of logon attempts from Australia...)
- dboreham 3y agoIt will make an interesting business school study one day as to whether the Google EOL policy ended up being a net positive or negative for their bottom line.
- ksec 3y agoAt this point I am looking forward to the end of Google as a whole. Or Alphabet. Although arguably speaking I wanted that since 2008/09. Although it took 15 years for the mainstream to gain enough traction on it.
- vouaobrasil 3y agoI would also love to see Google fail and lose its dominance. Google more than any other business is responsible for SEO garbage. It's time for space to be created for newer, smaller solutions.
- throwaway5959 3y agoAnother example of why I switched to Apple. I know Apple isn’t going to just ditch the Podcasts app.
- ghaff 3y agoI use Overcast personally on iOS but, honestly, who cares? It's an app for listening to podcasts. If I switch apps or get a new phone, I go to a directory and repopulate with the podcasts I listen to. There's pretty much zero lock-in.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- throw7 3y agoMan. Google Music and Google Podcast were fine simple apps. I think Music was better than fine actually. Youtube Music is filled with dark patterns. I use it only because of the music I had already uploaded before and I'm lazy to switch, but it would be a cold day in hell if I used it for podcasts. I switched to antennapod.
- jonnycomputer 3y agoGoogle Podcasts was a pretty decent app, and this is pretty annoying. Switched to Pocket Casts on my phone. It's decent.
- a0123 3y agoPocketCasts or nothing.
- alebyz 3y agoAnother google product killed. I always remember the catchy googlighting song lol “Google killed of Gears and Wave, they buried to Buzz the same way. If Google Apps meets its grave, your business is hosed” https://youtu.be/vl9S9X9FqyI?si=cb-DXVUaylNhzt6C https://youtu.be/vl9S9X9FqyI?si=cb-DXVUaylNhzt6C
- rosiecliff 3y ago[flagged]