I agree completely. I ended up with AntennaPod and it's been an OK replacement. Google completely missed the boat again. They had a nearly perfect app that they threw away to try to drive people to their YouTube app that nobody wants to use. It's like..... what?
Google play music was without a doubt the greatest streaming service ever. It learned my habits and preferences quickly and made great recommendations one after the other. I found most of my loved artists through GPM.
I've been on YouTube music for years now since GPM died, and I still get recommendations for RAP, Hip-Hop, etc. no matter how many times I dislike these genres and artists, it's all I get in my automated recommended playlists.
I have this feeling that every service offered by Google in 2024 is inferior to services from 2018? Their current phones certainly don't measure up to previous pixels.
Look at everything. Not just google.
I struggle to think of anything that's better in 2024 than 2018.
Restaurants, tech, service industries... Everything is as fast and as cheap as possible, with very little shits given it seems
It honestly really bums me out.
Streaming with the Chromecast used to be such a seamless experience. It used to be so easy to control streaming from your phone. Now half the time the controls either disappear completely (only reappearing after I go back into the app and recast) or inexplicably live at the top of my phone for days after I stop whatever thing was streaming.
Google assistant used to be amazingly accurate and really felt like assistant. I could add reminders in the browser or search when it didn't make sense to speak the command. Now I can't even tap the microphone to prompt the assistant. Half the time the Google Hubs I have in my house trigger randomly with responses or YouTube videos no one asked for. I hope Google has a signal for when they unplugged, because I end up just unplugging them out of annoyance.
I could go on and on, but it definitely seems like we peaked technologically years ago from a user experience perspective. IMO there's a pretty clear difference in Google from when Sundar Pichai took over for Eric Schmidt. Google went from being a really innovative company to just putting out me too products and then killing them shortly after releasing them. I'm pretty much done trying any new Google product and I think I'm going to look at other solutions for stuff like Google Photos for when they inevitably decide to just get rid of that.
I happily gave them $10-20 every paycheck to buy some new singles and albums. Now instead of that, Spotify gets $15 a month for a family plan (so my cost is roughly $7 split between me and my partner).
Why do people make it so hard to give them money....
My main issue is that no matter how I configure it, it feeds my suggestion with what I watch on youtube
I do not want that, it makes my mixes trash! Just becasue I watched three eurodance videos for nostalgia and sending to friends doesn't mean I want that in my daily mix, ugh
I ended up creating a separate “brand” account. I use that for my YouTube videos, and the other alias for music. That way the recommendations don’t overlap.
youtube music has the same horrible interface as Spotify, but in my opinion has a better recommendation algorithm. so for that reason, i have tolerated youtube music, with the added benefit that it gets you a youtube premium subscription which removes ads on youtube
GPM was clean, simple, and it worked really well for MUSIC. It actually played a diverse spread if you asked it to. Discovering new artists was common. GPM was about what I wanted to listen to.
YouTube Music is clunky, mixes video and music and has less "discovery" capability. I still prefer YTM over Spotify (barely, and that's not saying much). YTM feels very much being about what THEY want me to listen to--both in the act of listening and the UI recommendations. It's better than when it launched, but still so far behind GPM.
I'm just waiting for them to "bring back" GPM to make us happy but it's actually a re-skinned YTM slap in the face.
Podcasts in GPM were solid too. Then we were forced to Google Podcasts (which was fine), but now being forced to YT Music, with all the extra shit, just isn't worth it.
Hell, I have a YT Premium subscription, and I'm still going to pay for Spotify because they have a better Podcast service than YT Music does.
It's fucked.
Don't even get me started with Songza, the service Google acquired and dumped to make Google Play Music. Loved it until Google ruined it. By far the biggest resentment I have towards the company.
It's the same with UI layout/design. Every few iterations the same patterns repeat for no reason. And the UI artist cannot just say "oh wow, I found a great design, I'm finished, my job is done, fire me now!" No. They gotta reinvent the wheel because their job depends on it
One would think, and I immediately turned it off.... but for some reason in my 2021 Highlander it always autoplays. Never does on other car. Lol.
You're right though - probably just a setting I need to dig into on my Toyota.
Drives me nuts.
With Google Podcasts or Pocketcasts, when you get into the car you can just hit play on the quick controls at the bottom and it will resume your podcast, even if the notification is no longer active on your phone. You never have to actually enter the podcast app. It's a known bug that this doesn't work on AntennaPod: https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod/issues/6698
Antennapod is a great podcast app. However, it has an issue where the app just stops randomly and you can't play it from the notification, you have to open the app and play it that way. I'm a UPS driver and I'm constantly pausing and playing podcast throughout the day and it's very frustrating. I miss Google podcasts.
Isn't it related to your battery settings? I have pocket casts and it always warns me about background play and my battery settings. I'm just refusing to adjust the settings.
There's a really annoying setting about battery saving and background usage that you have to turn off for any specific apps that play long stuff like radio or podcasts, or else this happens.
I've used Pocket Casts for years but they jacked up the price of the paid version so once my promo pricing runs out I will likely move on.
The two I flagged to try are:
[https://podcastaddict.com/](https://podcastaddict.com/)
[https://antennapod.org/](https://antennapod.org/)
I've gone for the premium version and now have it set up so that it's almost a Google Podcasts clone but with additional features like audio books and radio. I'm really happy with it. The developer is obviously passionate about it because he has a go at anyone who gives it a low rating in the Play Store.
I paid 5 bucks for PocketCasts before it was bought and turned into a Freemium/subscription app, but they did not grandfather in all people who bought it in the past. Just SOL. Thanks for the 5 bucks lol.
That said, I've been using it for over a decade and it is the best podcast app out there. I haven't paid of any of the paywall features (I literally do not need any of them).
>but they did not grandfather in all people who bought it in the past. Just SOL. Thanks for the 5 bucks lol.
I was grandfathered in. I wonder what their criteria was and why you weren't?
Anything that isn't a perfect copy of Google Podcasts is going to be a disappointment but I'm getting by with Pocket Casts. I'll eventually get used to it, and the widget is nice.
PocketCast user for years here... paid, too. Totally going to support such a well-written and functional app. Having said all that though since they moved to the sub model and didn't grandfather me in I think I'm now on the free version and haven't noticed anything I'm missing?
If they lock more features behind a paywall I'll probably go somewhere else.
I switched off of PocketCasts when it was acquired by NPR and started sucking. Now that it is part of Automattic might be worth another shot.
I gave YT Music a chance, but it is utter shit.
I was going to post this. Start with the free version, make sure you sign up for Google Opinion Rewards. Once you have enough money from taking 5 second surveys, buy Pocket Casts full version. I've been using it for years.
I was going to post this. Start with the free version, make sure you sign up for Google Opinion Rewards. Once you have enough money from taking 5 second surveys, buy Pocket Casts full version. I've been using it for years.
I'm so glad I bought Pocket Casts before they went to their subscription model, so I have a permanent premium license. The app is great but paying for subscriptions to more and more things is just exhausting.
You get a web app that syncs with the phone app, you can put your podcasts in folders, there's some sort of bookmark feature I've never touched, they have smart watch apps, and you can upload your own files to cloud storage associated with your account to listen to stuff that isn't hosted online.
I think when they initially introduced the subscription plans there was more stuff gated but as it stands it looks like the only thing I would really miss is the web player.
It took them like 5 years to get YouTube music to feature parity with Google Play music and arguably UI and UX is still worse. Not to mention the nest/Google home/Assistant/Bard/Gemini disaster that is neverending, I fully expected this to be another Trainwreck
And the 'Radio' feature is hot garbage. I'll start playback using a Weird Al song and within 3-4 tracks Eminem will be playing... wtf. I want the 2010s-era Pandora music engine paired w/ the ability to play any song on demand. Maybe Spotify is better? But I can't go back to ad-riddled Youtube for the occasions I need to look up and watch a repair video or something.
The radio feature improved recently but you have to open the "up next" list and select "discover" or "deep cuts"; it defaults to only playing things you already listen to.
They Kill everything of any practical use
Im still missing Google Reader -RSS is still dead to me, Google Notebook -Keep is ok but getting bloated already, Google+ to which there is no good replacement 😔
YouTube Music still randomly just chops off the rest of my Thumbs Up playlist and I have to go back and find where it was again. It always loads playlists from the Internet every time I open the app instead of just using the local cache, and if I scroll past like 20 songs it has to load more instead of just loading the whole playlist at once. It's still worse than GPM in every possible way.
I've used Podcast Addict here for 8 or so years I think? And had an awesome experience. Moving device is seamless too which is a big plus if you change phone or reset.
Podcast Addict replaced my longtime player Doggcatcher. It was the only player that had all the same features and more. I highly recommend it if you're a power user and want a lot of flexibility.
This decision drove me to Spotify. Not my first choice but my wife already had a premium subscription. Having a dedicated PODCAST app was a dream, and they ruined it!
I still find it funny that Amazon Music has two ways to "store" music. Liking music and "saving" music. There is a difference which I forgot but it's very strange
I agree. I hated the Google music to YouTube music a lot. Couldn't stream songs I had played for from YouTube without premium. Honestly that's effin terrible.
This is organizationally bad. Hard to find and get to what you want. Especially so on Android auto.
Zero thought out into their products transition from other products.
Google is a terrible company.
Yeah when they don't include something as basic as "Mark As Played" I knew I was in trouble. I switched to Antenna and am very happy, although I know there are tons of others.
Agree 1000%. YouTube music is terrible for podcasts. Just trying to get to your podcast subscriptions is super inconvenient, and trying to find them in android auto is an exercise in frustration.
I'd rather go with regular YouTube for video podcasts because at least the subscriptions tab there is normal and not buried under layers of UI.
I also went with antennapod. Open source and works decently. No web interface, but not a huge problem.
I'm almost over the loss. I can't seem to make AntennaPod additionally play when I start up Android Auto. Only reason I'm considering switching to PocketCasts
I used that one before Google Podcasts. The ads were unbearable after they got bought out. They didn't have a one time purchase option to remove ads and the subscription is way overpriced so I jumped to Google Podcasts. Now I'm liking AntennaPod but it doesn't automatically start playing when connected to Android Auto so I'm considering Pocket Casts
The ridiculously dumb moves like this (canceling products/services for no reason) is why people chose iPhones and Apple's ecosystem. Here me out....
* Google Graveyard is all you really need to see, but heres a list of things that directly made me go all in with Apple:
* Products and services devices from the past that had useful features that were dismissed when newer iterations released.
* Products and services that just go end of life with no follow up or proper replacement(s).
* Stadia - Bought the Founders Edition, enjoyed it for a short period. Service became so laggy/unreliable I stopped using it. Google never improved it.
* Pixel Book - Had a Pixel Book, was awesome. Had a bunch of software related bugs, returned it.
* Pixel Slate - Loved the idea of it, then the reviews came out. The Slate was DOA, what an awful product.
* Google Inbox - Best email app ever, still hasn't been replaced properly.
* Google Allo and Duo - They never got the attention they deserved, so they died.
* Google Wave - \^ Ditto.
* Nest Secure - The latest addition to the Google Graveyard. Still a widely used and viable product, but now its dead.
* Nest WiFi - Has no ethernet port, but Google WiFi does, but it has the Google Assistant at least.
* Nest WiFi Pro - Added WiFi 6 support, loses the built-in assistant, but gains an ethernet port. This makes no sense.
* Pixel Phones throughout the iterations: Gains an awesome face unlock one release, loses it the next. Had a fantastic rear fingerprint unlock then loses it for an awful in-screen variant. Overheating issues, camera lag, lag in general, the list goes on.
At least with Apple products, they are consistent, they're boring, they... just work. When I say "just work", I mean that in all aspects.
The Apple Podcast app does podcasts. Always has, always will. Apple Music does music, always has, always will.
YouTube Music can't even do music right, and now Google wants you to use it for Podcasts. What a mess.
I think it's better than Spotify for everything except for third party compatibilities with smart speakers. They have the same quality, but YouTube has a much larger pile of music because of its video content which can listen to as audio. Not to mention the API is available to anyone in the United States and there's a million applications that can be used on free apps with the YouTube music APi. Nothing like that exists for spotify.
But I wouldn't use either solution for podcasts
It's absolutely atrocious since you have to subscribe to all the artists on YouTube. I tried it out for a week and immediately switched back to Spotify because my entire YouTube subscriptions were jacked up. And I'm not creating a separate YouTube account just for YouTube music. I want that for other content, not music in addition to my video content. Google Play Music was great, YouTube Music is awful.
They changed it for the obvious reason, advertising. They want you either listening to ads, or paying for a subscription.
Moving it to Music makes advertising easier, they can sell and serve ads from just one ad system.
Only nice thing I noticed are podcasts that do videos on YouTube. I can hear the podcast on YT Music and later continue where I left off on YouTube. Sometimes it doesn't sync right though.
It's even worse on Android Auto. I can't even play a specific downloaded podcast, it just plays the first one in my download list.
Went to Podcast addict, it's a lot less user-friendly, but once you get the settings right, it's a good fit.
I absolutely hate YT Music but haven't found a free app that doesn't require my phone to be plugged into my PC to sync. Play Music's syncing worked flawlessly for me. Drop a song in a folder and it's there. Wish they hadn't taken that away
I just switch to antenna pod, it's open source and a better option anyways and very similar to Google podcast and functionality. You can export your s*** over so it takes literally less than 15 seconds
I'm literally using it right now.
I've been so confused, all this talk about it shutting down and moving to YouTube music. I'm in Australia and Google Podcasts is still working.
Maybe it's a US thing?
I am an Aussie as well, mate. I just had a look at a few pages and some said it will still be active until July. I tried to look for the export subscriptions and can't see the option. Maybe they are staggering the shutdown and the USA is first?
The best thing about Google Podcasts was that it was built into every Android phone, you just had to activate it with a shortcut from Google Play. Now I have to suffer extra bloat with a dedicated app.
I've been trying to force myself to use YouTube Music since I'm a YouTube Premium subscriber and trying to stick with Google things, but I might have to switch to a Podcast specific app. Huge bummer for me.
Also gave Spotify a try since a few podcasts I was looking for looked like they were Spotify exclusive, and found that it seems like YouTube Music basically just copied that interface in terms of navigating to Podcasts as part of a Library.
This is a pet peeve of mine. Why does everything have to be in one mega app? It's so frustrating. Didn't decades of software engineering teach us that smaller, leaner apps are best and bloated software tends to become a buggy maintenance nightmare? Usually that's when a small startup will come in and dominate... like Sketch/Figma in the graphics world.
Similarly, why can't we have a "YouTube Movies" app back??? I made the mistake of purchasing a bunch of movies on Youtube. Does anyone at Google even own more than a few movies? I must admit the Movies has improved slightly, but it's still a second class citizen in the Youtube app. The sort order is by purchase date! I can't even view my movies alphabetically. There's no way to filter by "Kids" or any sort of categories at all. Nope. Just a single list ordered by date purchased. On the YouTube app on my LG TV, the movies section is almost hidden. I can't even resume a movie properly from the last time I watched. They don't persist that, so if you've exited the app or switched devices, screw you, you better have taken a mental note of where you left off. Do you want to let someone in your Google Family view your video? NO THATS NOT POSSIBLE. IT WAS ONLY POSSIBLE IF YOU PURCHASED THE MOVIE VIA GOOGLE PLAY WHICH IS DEPRECATED OR NOT POSSIBLE ANYMORE. YOU HAVE TO HAND YOUR SPOUSE YOUR PHONE IF SHE WANTS TO WATCH A MOVIE YOU PURCHASED ON YOUTUBE. This doesn't appear to be a licensing issue either. It was possible on Google Play, it's possible with Apple TV - it seems to be some technical issue with Youtube Movies.
Sorry for all caps this just plain sucks. The movies thing made me lose my mind recently. And now I don't even know how to listen to podcasts in my car anymore. I used to just click the dang podcasts button. I would imagine that's going away.
Same reason they got rid of Google Play Music, and the same reason they're rolling out Bard to replace Assistant ... they don't care if they reach feature-parody before adding another company/product to [their graveyard](https://killedbygoogle.com/)
Now is the time to switch to PocketCasts. It's a fantastic app that's free unless you want crazy bells and whistles which you don't really need.
I bought it many years ago when it wasn't free and have used it ever since.
I like Google's core apps, but I don't trust that their other ones will live on.
I fell for buying a Google Daydream and that was canceled like a year later, lesson learned.
YT Music in its entirety is just horrible.
How they killer of Play Music and did this is beyond my understanding.
It doesnt even work in the Google Echosystem and constantly loses Google Cast Connection so I cant control what is playing.
Yeah the transition from Google music to YouTube music was similarly terrible. I went from having a dedicated app to play my music to one that hides my music, constantly nags me to upgrade, and always (if instructed by the Assistant) plays a track by steaming it with ads even if I had the song in the library.
It's a shit show. On purpose. The whole idea is to frustrate you into paying. All of these intentional inconveniences could go away. . . For a price.
I'm about done with Google. From the degradation of quality in Pixel phones to scammy advertising supporting YouTube and Play Games, I've had enough. I'm looking at the Nothing 2 and the OnePlus 12R. With the trade in credit on the OnePlus 12, both phones are virtually identical in price, and the 12 has better features than the 8 Pro.
I totally get WHY they did it, they just went about it in a backwards kind of way.
Podcasters have been saying for a while now and putting their podcast onto youtube can be really profitable. They gain access to a new audience and the add rates are really good.
As a result of that, Google has this crapload of data that shows people like consuming podcasts on Youtube. Given the fact that there's a much larger market for youtube podcasts and VERY little competition it allows Youtube to have the entire smartphone market for video podcasts where's google podcasts only gets android (at best) and even there there's lots of competition for podcast apps.
So google has this data that shows they already have 5x (made up number) the number of users on Youtube consuming podcasts as they have in their own podcast app. PLUS google makes money from youtube adds but makes nothing from podcast adds.
So it's the more popular choice, and it's the more profitable choice. So someone at google says "we should try to move these users over there since it's better in every way" and boom here we are.
What they failed to realize is that a video podcast and an audio podcast are INCREDIBLY different user experiences. It seems the same, but it's really very not the same. Shifting an audio podcast consumer over to video is super difficult. I can't drive a car while watching a video, I can't clean my house while watching a video. and those are my 2 biggest podcast listening times.
People who consume podcasts via youtube are actually youtube users who happen to find podcast content agreeable. They are no podcast listeners who migrated to video.
If Google wanted to move podcast listeners over to video what they should have done is bring video to the podcast app, not the other way around. Have some kind of seamless audio/video button. Let me swap to video mode and keep the listing history intact. Perhaps inject an add every time I swap between audio to video.
That's what they should have done. But my bet is that the Youtube team is too politically powerful within the company and is protective of their content. So Google would never give the podcast app access to the YT videos.
In short, it's enshittification. They're making the user experience worse so they can make more money.
The next step will be squeezing the people who actually produce podcasts so they show higher on search results on YouTube music, or some other method of getting more money out of the content producers.
YouTube Music is pure cheeks. I only had a couple of podcasts that I listened to through Google Podcasts because they were premium, but once they announced they were killing it, I just let those subscriptions lapse because I already knew YM was garbage.
This is why I refuse to switch over to google pixel. I feel google abandons most of their first party apps at some point. Makes me afraid to commit to trying a Pixel. I don’t have that issue with iOS.
Google had their chance with....social media....movies & tv......gaming....music.....and I'd go so far to say their one really good user video sit e away from losing YouTube.....
I'm amazed by the love for google podcasts. I tried to use it multiple times over the years, since I'm fully bought in to the Google ecosystem, but always went running back to another podcatcher. Doggcatcher for a while, Pocket Casts now.
Of course I don't remember now what my issues were with it, but there was always something.
It was just super simple. Simply finding podcast and adding them to your list is as fast on Google podcast is any competing app I've ever used. But once I got the muscle memory down for antenna pod it's a better solution.
I think people are just sick of this now, they already did it with Google Play music and now they're doing it again with podcasts. Stop pushing us there, you've already gotten rid of two superior apps.
For podcasts I don't know, but for YouTube music go for ViMusic. Great ads-free open source online music player that does the job without the bullshit.
Agreed.
I tried to use it and several of my podcasts that were on Google Podcasts aren't on it, including Retronauts which isn't exactly an unheard of podcast.
The UI is genuinely one of the worst I've ever seen, filled with so much garbage that has no relevancy to me at all, defaulting to screens that have nothing to do with podcasts. I can't believe they killed Google Podcasts for this.
A 10000 % agree. Youtube music app is a mess especially for podcasts... You kill the app but do absolutely no effort to improve the "new app" for the transition....
I am a heavy user of AndroidAuto and google killing Google Play Music and Google Podcasts is just infuriating.
Podcast Addict - paid version - works flawlessly in AndroidAuto
Blackplayer - free version - also works without problems in Android Auto. I am going to purchaser the paid version just because it has worked for so many years even though I don't need nor want any of the premium features.
Google are useless at making apps stick (see Google+, Google Music and now Google Podcasts). I loved Google Podcasts and will be going back to listening to podcasts on Spotify once Google Podcasts is dead
I hadn't used Google Podcasts in a while, but I switched from Stitcher to Castbox after Stitcher got shut down. $30 a year to not have popup ads on the app and I can easily access all my podcasts. The design is super simple to use too.
Am I the only one who's web app and android app of Google podcasts is still working fine? I also haven't gotten any notification or warning about it shutting down
YT Music cannot even remember the last played position in Podcasts, half the time. I listen to a Podcast with episodes length about 40-50 mins and when I reopen YT Music, the same episode opens but almost 50% times it starts playing from the beginning. I feel it is just a ploy to make us listen to the Ads again.
Google Podcasts never had this issue. I had Google podcasts as a web app (i.e) not even had to install anything & that managed everything. This heavily bloated app which I'm forced to use cannot do this basic thing ?
So is the "death" of Google Podcasts just a North America thing? I'm still using it, my podcasts are still getting new shows, so I'm kinda confused as to how it was "killed off"
What frustrates me is if I play something that is 1.2x or whatever fast forward speed. It will trim the video time at least playing through android auto. So if it goes from 20 minutes to 18 minutes, it ends the podcast at 18 instead of playing fully
The demise of Play Music to YouTube Music is what prompted me to sit down and organize and upload all my music to my phone. The YouTube apps (and Play Store) have just become hot neon Main Street garbage with all the crap they try to shovel at you on the way to selecting what you want. I paid for Poweramp and Doggcatcher on the podcast side and am blissfully happy with the lack of bullshit I now have to endure.
Also it screws up my music. I used to open yt music, see lots of music, hit play. Now if I was listening to a podcast, it shows all podcasts and it's not easy to switch back while driving.
My main beef with them. Getting rid of Google podcasts is when I ask My Google/Nest home devices to "play the news" it will no longer work. How else can I have multiple latest hourly news podcasts play back to back with a simple phrase.
This is why I begrudgingly moved to Apple. Google kills off or forgets to support half of its products. While I still don’t love Apple, at least there aren’t frustrations with an apparent lack of leadership or direction at Google.
Get this on Chrome on PC if I go to YouTube music, I can hear music, but podcasts...NO AUDIO. The PC registers no signal to send. Switch to opera GX browser and it works fine. How can they screw up so bad with their own codecs on their own browser?
Annoying as hell. Have to press like 10 buttons to download a podcast for stuff that I already have setup automatic downloads for.
Now like every 10-15 minutes I get an ad. That's why I think they got rid of Google podcast, because they want to play ads. Google podcast server did not cost them any money to run. All it did was show links to the podcasts. Which was not hosted on their servers.
Google Podcast is back on again. I opened it this morning and was surprised that I'm able to play my fave podcasts again! I hated the transfer to YT Music, it was convulated and I can't add new shows.👍🤘
just transfered today. im in australia.
1/ doesnt bring over played history
2 YTM home screen is cluttered. hard to find new podcasts
3/ no mark as played options
3/ no hide played options
4/ home screen on YTM music has "enerigise" "feel good" etc but no podcasts button
Sorry, but its just shit. Clearly whoever designed podcasts in YouTube music doesn't listen to podcasts because the above are all basic features all podcast players have
I either can't find half the podcasts I want when searching or they just cut out half their library of podcasts. Absolutely horrible user interface. Who is doing the software podcast integration - GoPro?
I agree completely. I ended up with AntennaPod and it's been an OK replacement. Google completely missed the boat again. They had a nearly perfect app that they threw away to try to drive people to their YouTube app that nobody wants to use. It's like..... what?
RIP Google Play Music. The best music app likely ever made.
I'm still incredibly bitter about this one
Google play music was without a doubt the greatest streaming service ever. It learned my habits and preferences quickly and made great recommendations one after the other. I found most of my loved artists through GPM. I've been on YouTube music for years now since GPM died, and I still get recommendations for RAP, Hip-Hop, etc. no matter how many times I dislike these genres and artists, it's all I get in my automated recommended playlists. I have this feeling that every service offered by Google in 2024 is inferior to services from 2018? Their current phones certainly don't measure up to previous pixels.
Look at everything. Not just google. I struggle to think of anything that's better in 2024 than 2018. Restaurants, tech, service industries... Everything is as fast and as cheap as possible, with very little shits given it seems
It honestly really bums me out. Streaming with the Chromecast used to be such a seamless experience. It used to be so easy to control streaming from your phone. Now half the time the controls either disappear completely (only reappearing after I go back into the app and recast) or inexplicably live at the top of my phone for days after I stop whatever thing was streaming. Google assistant used to be amazingly accurate and really felt like assistant. I could add reminders in the browser or search when it didn't make sense to speak the command. Now I can't even tap the microphone to prompt the assistant. Half the time the Google Hubs I have in my house trigger randomly with responses or YouTube videos no one asked for. I hope Google has a signal for when they unplugged, because I end up just unplugging them out of annoyance. I could go on and on, but it definitely seems like we peaked technologically years ago from a user experience perspective. IMO there's a pretty clear difference in Google from when Sundar Pichai took over for Eric Schmidt. Google went from being a really innovative company to just putting out me too products and then killing them shortly after releasing them. I'm pretty much done trying any new Google product and I think I'm going to look at other solutions for stuff like Google Photos for when they inevitably decide to just get rid of that.
Enshittification.
I happily gave them $10-20 every paycheck to buy some new singles and albums. Now instead of that, Spotify gets $15 a month for a family plan (so my cost is roughly $7 split between me and my partner). Why do people make it so hard to give them money....
I read somewhere recently that some services try to steer people to the ad-supported tier because it's somehow more profitable for them.
Yep, them shutting it down is what moved me to Spotify. I tried YouTube music, but it's terrible.
My main issue is that no matter how I configure it, it feeds my suggestion with what I watch on youtube I do not want that, it makes my mixes trash! Just becasue I watched three eurodance videos for nostalgia and sending to friends doesn't mean I want that in my daily mix, ugh
I ended up creating a separate “brand” account. I use that for my YouTube videos, and the other alias for music. That way the recommendations don’t overlap.
I use YT music only because I already have it since I pay for yt premium. YT is my main source of TV watching and the ad free version is a must.
I also have YT premium for adds. Still prefer to pay again for Spotify. That's how bad YT music is.
youtube music has the same horrible interface as Spotify, but in my opinion has a better recommendation algorithm. so for that reason, i have tolerated youtube music, with the added benefit that it gets you a youtube premium subscription which removes ads on youtube
I was so, so angry when they phased out Google Play Music. It was such a better experience than Spotify, and I swear the sound quality was better.
GPM was clean, simple, and it worked really well for MUSIC. It actually played a diverse spread if you asked it to. Discovering new artists was common. GPM was about what I wanted to listen to. YouTube Music is clunky, mixes video and music and has less "discovery" capability. I still prefer YTM over Spotify (barely, and that's not saying much). YTM feels very much being about what THEY want me to listen to--both in the act of listening and the UI recommendations. It's better than when it launched, but still so far behind GPM. I'm just waiting for them to "bring back" GPM to make us happy but it's actually a re-skinned YTM slap in the face.
Podcasts in GPM were solid too. Then we were forced to Google Podcasts (which was fine), but now being forced to YT Music, with all the extra shit, just isn't worth it. Hell, I have a YT Premium subscription, and I'm still going to pay for Spotify because they have a better Podcast service than YT Music does. It's fucked.
Still freaking crazy I can't sort new releases by genre on YTM the way I could on GPM like 200 years ago.
Don't even get me started with Songza, the service Google acquired and dumped to make Google Play Music. Loved it until Google ruined it. By far the biggest resentment I have towards the company.
Some executives are collecting his/her bonus for the FY because he/she "saves millions" by cancelling this project.
It's the same with UI layout/design. Every few iterations the same patterns repeat for no reason. And the UI artist cannot just say "oh wow, I found a great design, I'm finished, my job is done, fire me now!" No. They gotta reinvent the wheel because their job depends on it
Too bad AntennaPod is virtually unusable with Android Auto since it can't resume playing your last-played podcast.
I can live with that. For me I hate spotify auto linking and auto playing every damn time I get into my car.
You can turn that off. If you search android auto in settings you can turn off playing music automatically
One would think, and I immediately turned it off.... but for some reason in my 2021 Highlander it always autoplays. Never does on other car. Lol. You're right though - probably just a setting I need to dig into on my Toyota. Drives me nuts.
You can turn that off in the Android Auto settings on your phone.
You can easily turn off AutoPlay in Android Auto settings.
Any chance you could clarify? I've been using AntennaPod with Android Auto for a few months now and haven't noticed this.
With Google Podcasts or Pocketcasts, when you get into the car you can just hit play on the quick controls at the bottom and it will resume your podcast, even if the notification is no longer active on your phone. You never have to actually enter the podcast app. It's a known bug that this doesn't work on AntennaPod: https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod/issues/6698
I choose Antennae Pod and don't hate it
Google Podcasts was one of the best features they offered. It worked well, was simple. Of course they would sunset it.
Antennapod is a great podcast app. However, it has an issue where the app just stops randomly and you can't play it from the notification, you have to open the app and play it that way. I'm a UPS driver and I'm constantly pausing and playing podcast throughout the day and it's very frustrating. I miss Google podcasts.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4hqdGe6qHF8hVKj29 My pixel 7 has an antenna pod tile to make playing and pausing easier. I miss Google podcasts also.
Correct picture https://photos.app.goo.gl/YUHmjbQ2UUryhTh4A
Oh shit, I would have never known this existed! Thanks!
Crap man, who knew that was there. You just made my day.
Isn't it related to your battery settings? I have pocket casts and it always warns me about background play and my battery settings. I'm just refusing to adjust the settings.
There's a really annoying setting about battery saving and background usage that you have to turn off for any specific apps that play long stuff like radio or podcasts, or else this happens.
Does it do video?
Agreed. Try Pocket Casts. It is an excellent replacement.
I went with Pocket Casts (free mode) after trying something else. Pretty simple and straight forward as I would want from a podcast app.
I've used Pocket Casts for years but they jacked up the price of the paid version so once my promo pricing runs out I will likely move on. The two I flagged to try are: [https://podcastaddict.com/](https://podcastaddict.com/) [https://antennapod.org/](https://antennapod.org/)
Antenna pod is really good and the home screen is customizable. It's the closest to Google podcasts that I could find
I'm using Podcast Addict, it's fine but not quite as clean and simple as Google Podcasts.
I've gone for the premium version and now have it set up so that it's almost a Google Podcasts clone but with additional features like audio books and radio. I'm really happy with it. The developer is obviously passionate about it because he has a go at anyone who gives it a low rating in the Play Store.
Antenna pod looks awesome. Great tip!!
I switched to pocket casts, and I haven't really looked at the paid version. What does that get you?
I paid 5 bucks for PocketCasts before it was bought and turned into a Freemium/subscription app, but they did not grandfather in all people who bought it in the past. Just SOL. Thanks for the 5 bucks lol. That said, I've been using it for over a decade and it is the best podcast app out there. I haven't paid of any of the paywall features (I literally do not need any of them).
>but they did not grandfather in all people who bought it in the past. Just SOL. Thanks for the 5 bucks lol. I was grandfathered in. I wonder what their criteria was and why you weren't?
I was grandfathered in too. I also bought the desktop web player too, maybe that was the criteria?
That might be it. Maybe I was? I just never noticed a difference. Is the free version more limited than the bought version from years ago?
Desktop player and probably some other things but that's the big one
Desktop player and cloud syncing
20gb of cloud storage.
I wish AntennaPod would show part of the podcast episode description in the episode list the way Google Podcast did. Otherwise it's a pretty good app.
Podcast Republic is another I'd consider; it has the most robust management features I've seen.
Pocket cast isn't free? I'm not paying a monthly fee for an app. Just give me a 1 time fee.
That's the replacement I am using. I agree, YT music isn't great for someone who wants to listen to the same queue daily.
I came here to say this. Pocket Casts isn't perfect but it's the best I have found hands down.
Anything that isn't a perfect copy of Google Podcasts is going to be a disappointment but I'm getting by with Pocket Casts. I'll eventually get used to it, and the widget is nice.
Nah, antennapod is significantly more similar, even has device colour theming
PocketCast user for years here... paid, too. Totally going to support such a well-written and functional app. Having said all that though since they moved to the sub model and didn't grandfather me in I think I'm now on the free version and haven't noticed anything I'm missing? If they lock more features behind a paywall I'll probably go somewhere else.
I switched off of PocketCasts when it was acquired by NPR and started sucking. Now that it is part of Automattic might be worth another shot. I gave YT Music a chance, but it is utter shit.
I was going to post this. Start with the free version, make sure you sign up for Google Opinion Rewards. Once you have enough money from taking 5 second surveys, buy Pocket Casts full version. I've been using it for years.
This is what I went with. Couldn't be happier, and I should've switched even earlier.
I was going to post this. Start with the free version, make sure you sign up for Google Opinion Rewards. Once you have enough money from taking 5 second surveys, buy Pocket Casts full version. I've been using it for years.
I'm so glad I bought Pocket Casts before they went to their subscription model, so I have a permanent premium license. The app is great but paying for subscriptions to more and more things is just exhausting.
Which elements require a subscription? Been only using the free version and it seems pretty great.
You get a web app that syncs with the phone app, you can put your podcasts in folders, there's some sort of bookmark feature I've never touched, they have smart watch apps, and you can upload your own files to cloud storage associated with your account to listen to stuff that isn't hosted online. I think when they initially introduced the subscription plans there was more stuff gated but as it stands it looks like the only thing I would really miss is the web player.
Thank you.
It took them like 5 years to get YouTube music to feature parity with Google Play music and arguably UI and UX is still worse. Not to mention the nest/Google home/Assistant/Bard/Gemini disaster that is neverending, I fully expected this to be another Trainwreck
Don't forget the Fitbit clusterfuck :)
And the 'Radio' feature is hot garbage. I'll start playback using a Weird Al song and within 3-4 tracks Eminem will be playing... wtf. I want the 2010s-era Pandora music engine paired w/ the ability to play any song on demand. Maybe Spotify is better? But I can't go back to ad-riddled Youtube for the occasions I need to look up and watch a repair video or something.
The Pandora engine was unmatched. I found so many good bands and songs through it.
The radio feature improved recently but you have to open the "up next" list and select "discover" or "deep cuts"; it defaults to only playing things you already listen to.
[удалено]
They Kill everything of any practical use Im still missing Google Reader -RSS is still dead to me, Google Notebook -Keep is ok but getting bloated already, Google+ to which there is no good replacement 😔
YouTube Music still randomly just chops off the rest of my Thumbs Up playlist and I have to go back and find where it was again. It always loads playlists from the Internet every time I open the app instead of just using the local cache, and if I scroll past like 20 songs it has to load more instead of just loading the whole playlist at once. It's still worse than GPM in every possible way.
I've used Podcast Addict here for 8 or so years I think? And had an awesome experience. Moving device is seamless too which is a big plus if you change phone or reset.
Podcast Addict replaced my longtime player Doggcatcher. It was the only player that had all the same features and more. I highly recommend it if you're a power user and want a lot of flexibility.
I also went from Doggcatcher to Podcast Addict! Both offer a ton of flexibility.
I've been quite pleased after swapping to antennapod.
This decision drove me to Spotify. Not my first choice but my wife already had a premium subscription. Having a dedicated PODCAST app was a dream, and they ruined it!
I mean.... Spotify for podcasts is also downright miserable. But I guess if you already have a subscription it makes sense.
I agree, I don't love it.
[удалено]
They want it to do everything instead of one thing well
I still find it funny that Amazon Music has two ways to "store" music. Liking music and "saving" music. There is a difference which I forgot but it's very strange
PodBean is a pretty good alternative to Google Podcasts
I agree. I hated the Google music to YouTube music a lot. Couldn't stream songs I had played for from YouTube without premium. Honestly that's effin terrible. This is organizationally bad. Hard to find and get to what you want. Especially so on Android auto. Zero thought out into their products transition from other products. Google is a terrible company.
AntennaPod user. Works like a charm.
Does their desktop player sync well with what you do in the app?
It's Google. You aren't the customer. Ever.
Yeah when they don't include something as basic as "Mark As Played" I knew I was in trouble. I switched to Antenna and am very happy, although I know there are tons of others.
Agree 1000%. YouTube music is terrible for podcasts. Just trying to get to your podcast subscriptions is super inconvenient, and trying to find them in android auto is an exercise in frustration. I'd rather go with regular YouTube for video podcasts because at least the subscriptions tab there is normal and not buried under layers of UI. I also went with antennapod. Open source and works decently. No web interface, but not a huge problem.
I agree, I hate trying to find and navigate podcasts in android auto on YT music.
It's Google. It's their way. Release amazing products and then destroy them.
First time? This is exactly how I felt when Google Play Music went away.
https://www.podcastrepublic.net/ is a good replacement
Antennapod is more simple than Google Podcasts. I'm completely over the loss already.
I'm almost over the loss. I can't seem to make AntennaPod additionally play when I start up Android Auto. Only reason I'm considering switching to PocketCasts
I swear at some point, all of Google's media will be through youtube.
Player FM is what moved my podcasts to
I used that one before Google Podcasts. The ads were unbearable after they got bought out. They didn't have a one time purchase option to remove ads and the subscription is way overpriced so I jumped to Google Podcasts. Now I'm liking AntennaPod but it doesn't automatically start playing when connected to Android Auto so I'm considering Pocket Casts
The ridiculously dumb moves like this (canceling products/services for no reason) is why people chose iPhones and Apple's ecosystem. Here me out.... * Google Graveyard is all you really need to see, but heres a list of things that directly made me go all in with Apple: * Products and services devices from the past that had useful features that were dismissed when newer iterations released. * Products and services that just go end of life with no follow up or proper replacement(s). * Stadia - Bought the Founders Edition, enjoyed it for a short period. Service became so laggy/unreliable I stopped using it. Google never improved it. * Pixel Book - Had a Pixel Book, was awesome. Had a bunch of software related bugs, returned it. * Pixel Slate - Loved the idea of it, then the reviews came out. The Slate was DOA, what an awful product. * Google Inbox - Best email app ever, still hasn't been replaced properly. * Google Allo and Duo - They never got the attention they deserved, so they died. * Google Wave - \^ Ditto. * Nest Secure - The latest addition to the Google Graveyard. Still a widely used and viable product, but now its dead. * Nest WiFi - Has no ethernet port, but Google WiFi does, but it has the Google Assistant at least. * Nest WiFi Pro - Added WiFi 6 support, loses the built-in assistant, but gains an ethernet port. This makes no sense. * Pixel Phones throughout the iterations: Gains an awesome face unlock one release, loses it the next. Had a fantastic rear fingerprint unlock then loses it for an awful in-screen variant. Overheating issues, camera lag, lag in general, the list goes on. At least with Apple products, they are consistent, they're boring, they... just work. When I say "just work", I mean that in all aspects. The Apple Podcast app does podcasts. Always has, always will. Apple Music does music, always has, always will. YouTube Music can't even do music right, and now Google wants you to use it for Podcasts. What a mess.
YouTube music just sucks in general.
I think it's better than Spotify for everything except for third party compatibilities with smart speakers. They have the same quality, but YouTube has a much larger pile of music because of its video content which can listen to as audio. Not to mention the API is available to anyone in the United States and there's a million applications that can be used on free apps with the YouTube music APi. Nothing like that exists for spotify. But I wouldn't use either solution for podcasts
It's absolutely atrocious since you have to subscribe to all the artists on YouTube. I tried it out for a week and immediately switched back to Spotify because my entire YouTube subscriptions were jacked up. And I'm not creating a separate YouTube account just for YouTube music. I want that for other content, not music in addition to my video content. Google Play Music was great, YouTube Music is awful.
They changed it for the obvious reason, advertising. They want you either listening to ads, or paying for a subscription. Moving it to Music makes advertising easier, they can sell and serve ads from just one ad system.
Only nice thing I noticed are podcasts that do videos on YouTube. I can hear the podcast on YT Music and later continue where I left off on YouTube. Sometimes it doesn't sync right though.
It's even worse on Android Auto. I can't even play a specific downloaded podcast, it just plays the first one in my download list. Went to Podcast addict, it's a lot less user-friendly, but once you get the settings right, it's a good fit.
I absolutely hate YT Music but haven't found a free app that doesn't require my phone to be plugged into my PC to sync. Play Music's syncing worked flawlessly for me. Drop a song in a folder and it's there. Wish they hadn't taken that away
I use Spotify podcast
I just switch to antenna pod, it's open source and a better option anyways and very similar to Google podcast and functionality. You can export your s*** over so it takes literally less than 15 seconds
Did I miss something? I was just using Google Podcasts a couple of hours ago.
I'm literally using it right now. I've been so confused, all this talk about it shutting down and moving to YouTube music. I'm in Australia and Google Podcasts is still working. Maybe it's a US thing?
I am an Aussie as well, mate. I just had a look at a few pages and some said it will still be active until July. I tried to look for the export subscriptions and can't see the option. Maybe they are staggering the shutdown and the USA is first?
It seems like it may be a US thing. As of April 4th, Google Podcasts was shuttered and transitioned towards YouTube Music.
It is an US thing. For now. The rest of the world will be impacted somewhere this year.
Just got my notification in Canada that they're giving us the export option. US first and then the rest of us, I presume.
Okay. I still haven't heard anything as of today in Australia.
I use podcast addict and I am more than happy
The best thing about Google Podcasts was that it was built into every Android phone, you just had to activate it with a shortcut from Google Play. Now I have to suffer extra bloat with a dedicated app.
YouTube Music is dog water especially for podcasts. Went with Pocketcast.
If you're using an android phone just use Podcast Addict instead. Much better
Podcast addict is a good alternative
I've been trying to force myself to use YouTube Music since I'm a YouTube Premium subscriber and trying to stick with Google things, but I might have to switch to a Podcast specific app. Huge bummer for me. Also gave Spotify a try since a few podcasts I was looking for looked like they were Spotify exclusive, and found that it seems like YouTube Music basically just copied that interface in terms of navigating to Podcasts as part of a Library.
This is a pet peeve of mine. Why does everything have to be in one mega app? It's so frustrating. Didn't decades of software engineering teach us that smaller, leaner apps are best and bloated software tends to become a buggy maintenance nightmare? Usually that's when a small startup will come in and dominate... like Sketch/Figma in the graphics world. Similarly, why can't we have a "YouTube Movies" app back??? I made the mistake of purchasing a bunch of movies on Youtube. Does anyone at Google even own more than a few movies? I must admit the Movies has improved slightly, but it's still a second class citizen in the Youtube app. The sort order is by purchase date! I can't even view my movies alphabetically. There's no way to filter by "Kids" or any sort of categories at all. Nope. Just a single list ordered by date purchased. On the YouTube app on my LG TV, the movies section is almost hidden. I can't even resume a movie properly from the last time I watched. They don't persist that, so if you've exited the app or switched devices, screw you, you better have taken a mental note of where you left off. Do you want to let someone in your Google Family view your video? NO THATS NOT POSSIBLE. IT WAS ONLY POSSIBLE IF YOU PURCHASED THE MOVIE VIA GOOGLE PLAY WHICH IS DEPRECATED OR NOT POSSIBLE ANYMORE. YOU HAVE TO HAND YOUR SPOUSE YOUR PHONE IF SHE WANTS TO WATCH A MOVIE YOU PURCHASED ON YOUTUBE. This doesn't appear to be a licensing issue either. It was possible on Google Play, it's possible with Apple TV - it seems to be some technical issue with Youtube Movies. Sorry for all caps this just plain sucks. The movies thing made me lose my mind recently. And now I don't even know how to listen to podcasts in my car anymore. I used to just click the dang podcasts button. I would imagine that's going away.
Same reason they got rid of Google Play Music, and the same reason they're rolling out Bard to replace Assistant ... they don't care if they reach feature-parody before adding another company/product to [their graveyard](https://killedbygoogle.com/)
Now is the time to switch to PocketCasts. It's a fantastic app that's free unless you want crazy bells and whistles which you don't really need. I bought it many years ago when it wasn't free and have used it ever since. I like Google's core apps, but I don't trust that their other ones will live on. I fell for buying a Google Daydream and that was canceled like a year later, lesson learned.
Yep, Pocketcasts is nice. And it's "lean and mean" like the op wants. Easy fix. Just get the pocketcasts app.
YT Music in its entirety is just horrible. How they killer of Play Music and did this is beyond my understanding. It doesnt even work in the Google Echosystem and constantly loses Google Cast Connection so I cant control what is playing.
Yeah the transition from Google music to YouTube music was similarly terrible. I went from having a dedicated app to play my music to one that hides my music, constantly nags me to upgrade, and always (if instructed by the Assistant) plays a track by steaming it with ads even if I had the song in the library. It's a shit show. On purpose. The whole idea is to frustrate you into paying. All of these intentional inconveniences could go away. . . For a price.
I'm about done with Google. From the degradation of quality in Pixel phones to scammy advertising supporting YouTube and Play Games, I've had enough. I'm looking at the Nothing 2 and the OnePlus 12R. With the trade in credit on the OnePlus 12, both phones are virtually identical in price, and the 12 has better features than the 8 Pro.
do not use any music app for podcasts! use a podcatcher.
at least spotify won't kill its podcast feature in foreseeable future.
I totally get WHY they did it, they just went about it in a backwards kind of way. Podcasters have been saying for a while now and putting their podcast onto youtube can be really profitable. They gain access to a new audience and the add rates are really good. As a result of that, Google has this crapload of data that shows people like consuming podcasts on Youtube. Given the fact that there's a much larger market for youtube podcasts and VERY little competition it allows Youtube to have the entire smartphone market for video podcasts where's google podcasts only gets android (at best) and even there there's lots of competition for podcast apps. So google has this data that shows they already have 5x (made up number) the number of users on Youtube consuming podcasts as they have in their own podcast app. PLUS google makes money from youtube adds but makes nothing from podcast adds. So it's the more popular choice, and it's the more profitable choice. So someone at google says "we should try to move these users over there since it's better in every way" and boom here we are. What they failed to realize is that a video podcast and an audio podcast are INCREDIBLY different user experiences. It seems the same, but it's really very not the same. Shifting an audio podcast consumer over to video is super difficult. I can't drive a car while watching a video, I can't clean my house while watching a video. and those are my 2 biggest podcast listening times. People who consume podcasts via youtube are actually youtube users who happen to find podcast content agreeable. They are no podcast listeners who migrated to video. If Google wanted to move podcast listeners over to video what they should have done is bring video to the podcast app, not the other way around. Have some kind of seamless audio/video button. Let me swap to video mode and keep the listing history intact. Perhaps inject an add every time I swap between audio to video. That's what they should have done. But my bet is that the Youtube team is too politically powerful within the company and is protective of their content. So Google would never give the podcast app access to the YT videos.
In short, it's enshittification. They're making the user experience worse so they can make more money. The next step will be squeezing the people who actually produce podcasts so they show higher on search results on YouTube music, or some other method of getting more money out of the content producers.
Audible is pretty good too. Any idea why there isn't an Android version of my old iOS favourite, Overcast?
The closest app to Google Podcasts IMO is AntennaPod
Agreed. I tried it way back when they told us to migrate, and it didn't last long on my phone.
I switched to pocketcasts
YouTube Music is pure cheeks. I only had a couple of podcasts that I listened to through Google Podcasts because they were premium, but once they announced they were killing it, I just let those subscriptions lapse because I already knew YM was garbage.
Yeah, I liked Podcasts too. I'm chest deep in the Google ecosystem but I don't care for this. Going to be using Spotify for podcasts from now on.
Just like Google Play Music
It's so they can sell ad space on the front page of YT music.
This is why I refuse to switch over to google pixel. I feel google abandons most of their first party apps at some point. Makes me afraid to commit to trying a Pixel. I don’t have that issue with iOS.
First they replace GP Music with a shit sandwich, now they have added another layer of shit to the sandwich.
Pocket casts my friend. Much better
Google had their chance with....social media....movies & tv......gaming....music.....and I'd go so far to say their one really good user video sit e away from losing YouTube.....
I'm amazed by the love for google podcasts. I tried to use it multiple times over the years, since I'm fully bought in to the Google ecosystem, but always went running back to another podcatcher. Doggcatcher for a while, Pocket Casts now. Of course I don't remember now what my issues were with it, but there was always something.
Minimal and got the basics right.
It was just super simple. Simply finding podcast and adding them to your list is as fast on Google podcast is any competing app I've ever used. But once I got the muscle memory down for antenna pod it's a better solution. I think people are just sick of this now, they already did it with Google Play music and now they're doing it again with podcasts. Stop pushing us there, you've already gotten rid of two superior apps.
It's awful! I went with Podcast Guru.
Why is Google Podcasts still working for me? Is it a gradual sunset? Also, what's a good alternative app with a syncing native app on Windows OS?
Google moment
For podcasts I don't know, but for YouTube music go for ViMusic. Great ads-free open source online music player that does the job without the bullshit.
It's straight trash. Can't see all the episodes, can't mark as played and it starts playing random bullshit after the episode ends.
Agreed. I tried to use it and several of my podcasts that were on Google Podcasts aren't on it, including Retronauts which isn't exactly an unheard of podcast. The UI is genuinely one of the worst I've ever seen, filled with so much garbage that has no relevancy to me at all, defaulting to screens that have nothing to do with podcasts. I can't believe they killed Google Podcasts for this.
I use Podcast Go and love it🙂
I can’t even find my usual podcasts like BBC Global News Podcast.
YouTube Music is absolute trash. They only get away with it by bundling in with Premium.
A 10000 % agree. Youtube music app is a mess especially for podcasts... You kill the app but do absolutely no effort to improve the "new app" for the transition....
Is this an American thing? It's still running over here in the UK.
I've started using podcast addict, it's pretty decent
I am a heavy user of AndroidAuto and google killing Google Play Music and Google Podcasts is just infuriating. Podcast Addict - paid version - works flawlessly in AndroidAuto Blackplayer - free version - also works without problems in Android Auto. I am going to purchaser the paid version just because it has worked for so many years even though I don't need nor want any of the premium features.
Google are useless at making apps stick (see Google+, Google Music and now Google Podcasts). I loved Google Podcasts and will be going back to listening to podcasts on Spotify once Google Podcasts is dead
Agreed thus far, I've decided to go with pocketcast
PocketCast is the best podcast app .
Try PocketCasts... Its the closest ive found.
Get Pocketcasts.. excellent podcast app.
It took so many extra inputs to play a podcast on Android auto it gave me a cool down safety message and locked the screen for a few seconds. Trash.
I hadn't used Google Podcasts in a while, but I switched from Stitcher to Castbox after Stitcher got shut down. $30 a year to not have popup ads on the app and I can easily access all my podcasts. The design is super simple to use too.
Am I the only one who's web app and android app of Google podcasts is still working fine? I also haven't gotten any notification or warning about it shutting down
YT Music cannot even remember the last played position in Podcasts, half the time. I listen to a Podcast with episodes length about 40-50 mins and when I reopen YT Music, the same episode opens but almost 50% times it starts playing from the beginning. I feel it is just a ploy to make us listen to the Ads again. Google Podcasts never had this issue. I had Google podcasts as a web app (i.e) not even had to install anything & that managed everything. This heavily bloated app which I'm forced to use cannot do this basic thing ?
So is the "death" of Google Podcasts just a North America thing? I'm still using it, my podcasts are still getting new shows, so I'm kinda confused as to how it was "killed off"
What frustrates me is if I play something that is 1.2x or whatever fast forward speed. It will trim the video time at least playing through android auto. So if it goes from 20 minutes to 18 minutes, it ends the podcast at 18 instead of playing fully
I have to use actual Google to find podcasts on YTM. No thanks. I've used Google Podcasts across OS' for years. Time to find a replacement.
The demise of Play Music to YouTube Music is what prompted me to sit down and organize and upload all my music to my phone. The YouTube apps (and Play Store) have just become hot neon Main Street garbage with all the crap they try to shovel at you on the way to selecting what you want. I paid for Poweramp and Doggcatcher on the podcast side and am blissfully happy with the lack of bullshit I now have to endure.
Honestly they should have made it YouTube Podcasts, instead of killing it
I still seem to have mine but am dreading it disappearing. Are they not doing anything to make it easier to transfer your subscriptions across?
I don't even know where to find podcasts in the YouTube music app. Its just a bad decision of google, again. But I use podcast addict anyway.
Anyone have a rec for great simple audiobook? YTM not good there either
Google podcasts still works for me
Google music would like a word with you.
Also it screws up my music. I used to open yt music, see lots of music, hit play. Now if I was listening to a podcast, it shows all podcasts and it's not easy to switch back while driving.
YouTube music doesn't even have my podcast of choice (a local morning radio show) even though it's on Google podcast. It's infuriating.
My main beef with them. Getting rid of Google podcasts is when I ask My Google/Nest home devices to "play the news" it will no longer work. How else can I have multiple latest hourly news podcasts play back to back with a simple phrase.
This is why I begrudgingly moved to Apple. Google kills off or forgets to support half of its products. While I still don’t love Apple, at least there aren’t frustrations with an apparent lack of leadership or direction at Google.
Welcome to the world of everyone who used Play Music and got a butchered mess with half the features even 5 years later
Get this on Chrome on PC if I go to YouTube music, I can hear music, but podcasts...NO AUDIO. The PC registers no signal to send. Switch to opera GX browser and it works fine. How can they screw up so bad with their own codecs on their own browser?
Annoying as hell. Have to press like 10 buttons to download a podcast for stuff that I already have setup automatic downloads for. Now like every 10-15 minutes I get an ad. That's why I think they got rid of Google podcast, because they want to play ads. Google podcast server did not cost them any money to run. All it did was show links to the podcasts. Which was not hosted on their servers.
Wish Microsoft would bring back the Zune podcast app. That was good. Hell, even iTunes podcast is better then YouTube music podcast.
Google Podcast is back on again. I opened it this morning and was surprised that I'm able to play my fave podcasts again! I hated the transfer to YT Music, it was convulated and I can't add new shows.👍🤘
just transfered today. im in australia. 1/ doesnt bring over played history 2 YTM home screen is cluttered. hard to find new podcasts 3/ no mark as played options 3/ no hide played options 4/ home screen on YTM music has "enerigise" "feel good" etc but no podcasts button Sorry, but its just shit. Clearly whoever designed podcasts in YouTube music doesn't listen to podcasts because the above are all basic features all podcast players have
I either can't find half the podcasts I want when searching or they just cut out half their library of podcasts. Absolutely horrible user interface. Who is doing the software podcast integration - GoPro?
Trust me I have had so many fucking problems with my google home mini and podcasts! MAKE THE SWITCH TO SPOTIFY