Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#131

Post by mdaniel » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:14 PM UTC

azangru wrote: post #128

jlkuester7 wrote: post #118

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/ is incredible! 10/10, highly recommend!

> 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.

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.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

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#132

Post by jpeeler » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

xocdan wrote: post #36

xocdan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use PocketCast. Can't say I've investigated privacy or other concerns but it is free and seems quite functional with a good UI.

I use Pocket Casts [1]. Can't say I've investigated privacy or other concerns but it is free and seems quite functional with a good UI. [1] https://pocketcasts.com/

I wish there was an open source backend service for syncing. Since the clients are open source, should be technically possible to replicate the functionality of the cloud service. But maybe that's harder than just creating from scratch? Too bad though because pocket casts is definitely one of the best android clients around.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#133

Post by FabianBeiner » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:22 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #72

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" ?

The HN title has always been the current one, nobody changed anything here. When I wrote the title, I was actually about to post another link (https://www.androidpolice.com/google-podcasts-discontinued-a...), but I would rather not write “will die in” (as used in the headline of Android Police), so I went for “to shut down in”.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#134

Post by slantedview » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:29 PM UTC

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.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#135

Post by wetpaws » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:31 PM UTC

pentagrama wrote: post #123

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-…

[dead]

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#136

Post by mertd » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:32 PM UTC

mdaniel wrote: post #131

azangru wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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.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 sho…

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.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#137

Post by JeremyNT » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

fourseventy wrote: post #100

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.

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/

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#138

Post by Antip0dean » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:41 PM UTC

slantedview wrote: post #134

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.

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.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#139

Post by aport » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:50 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #91

treypitt wrote: post #39

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 qu…

Have you tried Pocket Casts? 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

I've used Pocket Casts for ~8 years. Can't recommend it enough, a really great app.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#140

Post by squeaky-clean » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 4:56 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #104

ghusto wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

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?

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.