Google Podcasts has been shut down in the US – with users asked to move their subscriptions to YouTube Music – and it won't be long before India follows suit
Google Podcasts hits the stop button. The announcement about the termination of the podcast app came in September last year. The service has been unavailable in the US since April 2 and users were asked to migrate their subscriptions to YouTube Music, which looks set to become Google's main 'pod catcher' going forward. While Indian users can still access Google Podcasts via both the app and the web, multiple reports suggest that it won't be long before other regions follow suit.
Launched in 2018, Google Podcasts has recorded more than 500 million downloads on the Play Store. For me, it was an early introduction to the podcast world through an app that was minimal in design and easy to use. It also had the option to add podcasts via an RSS feed. Six years later I still have subscriptions Answer all And Science weekly on Google Podcasts. For Android users, this was perhaps the go-to app before Spotify entered India in 2019.
The Mediamorphy 2024 A report published on April 1 by YouGov, a UK-based market research and data analytics firm, shows that Google Podcasts is the second most popular podcast app with 20% of Indian users, after Spotify (with 44% ). Audible (15%) comes in third. Spotify is popular among GenZ and has grown over the past two years, from 33% in 2022 to 44% in 2024. Google Podcasts saw a decline, from 24% to 20% in the same period. Seven in 10 Gen-Z respondents said they listen to podcasts every week (71%), compared to two-thirds of India's total urban population (67%).
“Like Apple Podcasts, which is native to iOS devices, there was a lot of hope when Google Podcasts came out because it was a native app on Android devices… I know a few people who preferred Google Podcasts because of its clear interface and searchability. It also meant one less app to download to listen to podcasts,” says Shaun Fanthome, producer and chief operating officer at Maed in India, a podcast production company and audio consultancy based in Mumbai.
Fanthome says the app's analytics also helped makers access interesting data points. “On the creative side, some of the data analytics that Google could provide are still not available on other platforms. It used to give you impressions and information about searchability… You could find keywords used for your podcasts when someone searched for them,” says Fanthome. “YouTube Music is an excellent option. The integration is great considering YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.”
If you're not a fan of YouTube Music, there are other podcast apps that can do the job: Spotify (for creators: Spotify for Podcasters, formerly known as Anchor), Pocket Casts, Overcast, and Podbean Podcast App & Player, among others.
Delhi-based Razi Hasnain, who is the Shuffle notes podcast about music, has relaunched its podcasts in video format on YouTube. “But most of the traffic I've seen comes from Spotify. Sometimes more than YouTube,” he says.
While the closure of Stitcher last year meant that we are slowly witnessing the death of the podcast aggregator app, Google Podcasts now joins an unwanted list known among internet history buffs as the “Google Graveyard” – a host of products that the technology giant has shelved over the years: Google Play Music, YouTube Stories, Google Stadia and Google Duo and Hangouts. Do you remember that one?
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