What you need to know
- Google previously announced that Podcasts would shut down "after April 2," and the service started to shutter Thursday, April 4.
- Both the Android app and web client for Google Podcasts shows a "Google Podcasts is no longer available" pop-up, but the website can still play podcasts for the time being.
- YouTube Music will replace Google Podcasts in the Google ecosystem, and users have until July 30 to port their Podcasts data to another platform.
Another fan-favorite Google app is shutting down for good, as Google Podcasts is no longer available in the U.S. Google primed users for the discontinuation of Podcasts for months, saying late last year that the service would be closed "after April 2." Now, as of Thursday, April 4, both the Podcasts app and web client are displaying messages that "Google Podcasts is no longer available."
The Google Podcasts app for Android doesn't work anymore and only allows users to export their podcasts or learn more about the shutdown in a support document. Though the website shows the same pop-up message, you can close the message and keep using Google Podcasts on the web client for the time being. It's only a matter of time before Google blocks access to Podcasts altogether, and we won't count on the website working for much longer.
Google sees YouTube Music, the music streaming service that added support for podcasts last year, as the future of podcast distribution for the company. YouTube Music is trying to follow a similar model to Spotify, which hosts podcasts in addition to its main revenue source — music streaming. The general idea is that you're more likely to subscribe to one of these services if you can get all you need in one place, including music, podcasts, and even audiobooks.
The jury is still out on whether users actually prefer this because many have expressed their disappointment with the decision to kill off Google Podcasts. Having multiple media types in one place might sound like a good idea, but it also makes navigating an app like YouTube Music more difficult.
Google Podcast users have the chance to export their data to another service up until July 30, 2024. We have a guide on exporting Google Podcasts data to YouTube Music, as well as one explaining how to migrate Google Podcasts data to a third-party service. For what it's worth, people can listen to podcasts on YouTube Music without a subscription. However, the app is still less optimized for podcast distribution than Google Podcast was, lacking features like new episode notifications.
Google is infamous for killing off products and services early and often. After a nearly six-year run, Google Podcasts is now a part of that reputation.
