Podcast lovers are in mourning this week. Google Podcasts has officially followed the path of Google Play Music and has been integrated directly into YouTube. This Tuesday, April 2nd, Google Podcasts stopped working in the United States. The company will allow its users to migrate their data to YouTube Music or the podcast app of their choice through the Google Podcasts app until July.
Before the launch of Google Podcasts in 2018, podcasts were linked to Google Play Music. At its launch, the service focused primarily on integration with Google Assistant and using the information collected from your listening habits to offer more personalized recommendations. The service improved over time and became one of the most popular podcast apps, boasting over 500 million downloads on Google Play Store alone.
“We will help Google Podcasts users switch to Podcasts on YouTube Music,” Google said in a blog post published last September. “This aligns with what listeners and podcasters are already doing: according to Edison, around 23% of weekly podcast users in the United States say that YouTube is their most used service, compared to only 4% for Google Podcasts“.
Google states that “listeners can enjoy podcasts on demand, offline, in the background, while they are being broadcasted, and seamlessly switch between audio and video versions on YouTube Music. This podcast listening experience is different from our music listening experience, where a Premium or Music Premium subscription is required to enjoy some of these features”.
With this move, Google Podcasts will officially enter the Google graveyard with only six years behind it. Users outside of the United States will continue to have access to Google Podcasts for a while longer: the company has not announced when it will no longer be available for the rest of the world, but it will be at some point in 2024.
