Google Podcasts app is discontinued and replaced with YouTube Music

On April 2, 2024, the Google Podcasts app is closing, and users are advised to migrate to YouTube Music. Google discovered that despite over 500 million Android downloads, more users like podcasts on YouTube Music. Google offers a solution for a smooth transfer to YouTube Music or other apps via OPML files or RSS feeds, and users have a grace period to export data.

Opening the Google Podcasts app now shows a message which states, “After April 2, 2024, you will no longer be able to listen to podcasts on Google Podcasts. You can get podcasts, music, and more, all on the YouTube Music app as an alternative.” The company first revealed its plans to discontinue the app in September 2023, when in a blog post it added the feature to watch and listen to podcasts on YouTube Music in the US. Edison Research, a firm that tracks data on podcasts highlights that about 23 percent of weekly podcast users in the US prefer listening to the shows on YouTube Music as opposed to just 4 percent on Google Podcasts.

For those users who intend to switch to YouTube Music, Google has also created a support page with a step-by-step guide to make the transition easy. However, it should be noted that some podcasts may not be transferred using this process. If a podcast does not comply with YouTube's Community Guidelines, it will not be transferred automatically. If this happens, users can go to Library > select Podcasts > click Add podcast > choose Add a podcast by RSS feed.