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Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

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Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#91

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

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#92

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.

Same here, I switched from apple podcasts after their home re-organization that ruined the experience for me. Guess I should have known better.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#93
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?

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#94
post #10

Not so much killed as being rolled into YouTube Music

A fate worse than death. (Joke but I was a heavy Google Music user before it suffered the same fate).

The way the Google Play Music vs YouTube Music crap played out is the worst (best?) example of "shipping the org chart" I can imagine. I worked at Google at the time, and it was just ridiculous to watch.

What kind of dysfunctional company deathmarches its users like this between two competing brands and products right in its own company, and is so committed to doing it wholesale that it's willing to mass-lose customers as well as features? The kind that puts its internal politics and product manager's careers and ideas ahead of customers' needs.

For at least a year after the transition you couldn't chromecast from YouTube Music on the web. The internal buganizer ticket on the matter was a shitshow. No accountability for the fact that we were killing something that worked and replacing with something that didn't even work with our own products.

Likewise, YTM on Android Auto was a similarly terrible backwards step in user interface and capabilities. It's been some years so I forget what irked me, but there was a laundry list of them.

At one point there were I think 3 Google product places where you could play podcasts; YTM, GPM, and Google Podcasts. None talking with each other about subscriptions, etc.

That and the whole idea of meshing a video recommendation system with a music recommendation system was just busted. My kids watched Minecraft or whatever videos on YouTube on the family (Android) TV So I started getting recommendations in YTM for video game music and what not.

The entire orientation of YouTube is around various random clips and the like. A music service like Spotify or (RIP) GPM is about albums and singles and EPs. YouTube's whole recommendation model wasn't built for it, IMHO.

GPM had a good recommendations engine. YTM pushed top 40 crap on me. I tried to tune it, but it failed.

I'd ask my Google display assistant device (I worked on them and had a couple around the house) to play some music, and it would spool up and start playing a video on YouTube instead. Because clearly that's what I'd want.

Harmonizing product lines and concentrating efforts and changing brands around etc is entirely reasonable. But you don't do it in a way that drops features and pisses off customers. You do it carefully and with respect. The way this played out was ... YouTube organization "won", Google Play team "lost."

I gave up, cancelled my sub, and bought Spotify.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#95
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an earlier article, if you're wondering the same as me: > Podcasts in YouTube Music will be available regardless of whether you have a YouTube Premium subscription.

Will they be available without a Youtube Music subscription though? Those are separate subscription plans

They already are

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#96
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" ?

"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.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#97
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.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#99

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

Second this. I tried Overcast and moved back. The availability of an Android app and web client that syncs your progress is amazing.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#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.
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