Kate Mills 
Apr 05, 2024
An undated image displaying Google Podcasts logo. — Apple Store
Only days after revealing its plans, Google has finally pulled the plug on its Podcasts in the United States in the wake of YouTube Music leading the company's spectrum of audio streaming services.
While Google podcasts shutting down after six years of its inception, introduced in 2018, YouTube Music was developed only a year ago, with entire 2023 for the latter involving feature drops and global expansion.
It was announced in September last year that Google Podcasts would be discontinued. However, signs of this decision had been evident since late 2021, as the app did not receive any significant updates in 2022.
Read more: Google Podcasts to shut down — Here's the alternate
In December 2023, Google stated that the deprecation in the US would occur after April 2. As of April 4, a message stating "Google Podcasts is no longer available" now appears on Android and iOS devices. The same message is displayed on podcasts.google.com, although the website is still operational at the moment.
Although specific timelines have not been provided, the shutdown will soon extend to other regions. Google Podcasts has introduced an Export subscriptions feature which allows users to migrate to YouTube Music or download an OPML file to transfer their subscriptions to another app. This feature will be available until July 30, 2024.
Despite the shutdown, YouTube Music has yet to implement the "mark as played" functionality it had previously mentioned. The platform still lacks other basic podcasting features, such as new episode notifications, offered by rival audio streaming giants.
YouTube Music will never copy the simplicity of Google Podcasts, which was appreciated for its user-friendly interface and accessibility on all Android devices through the Google app. Currently, the app icon/shortcut has been downloaded over 500 million times on the Play Store.
