For anyone not in the US, using Podcasts in Google Play Music hasn’t been an option. Today Google is finally offering an easy way to get access to podcasts with a new app launching for Android.
The app is a front-end for the Podcasts player in Google Assistant and it leverages the reach of the Assistant on your various devices to let you search for and play podcasts on any of those devices. This means you can continue playing a podcast you had on your phone on your Google Home when you get home, or vice-versa when you leave.
Google intends to have more than 2 million podcasts available on the app, which is only for Android, at launch. Google’s AI will also tie-in offering recommendations from this library of podcasts based on your listening habits.
As part of the launch, Google has also promised to help promote podcasts from more diverse sources including encouraging more podcasts hosted by women and people of colour. They’ll be forming an advisory board with people in the podcast industry with the goal of ‘enabling skills development and experimentation from underrepresented voices, as well as cultivating ideas and processes that can scale throughout the industry.
Google sees themselves in the podcast game for the long haul, offering up examples of what users can expect in the future. Google says they’ll be offering automatic subtitling for podcasts in the future to aid hearing impaired users, or users in a noisy area without headphones. Google is also looking to provide automatic translations as part of the subtitling offering as they improve their technology.
The app is now live in Google Play, so head over and install it now and see what you think.
Doesn’t have built in cast support. I know you can cast from the OS, but that’s pretty choppy for me.
Seems to be exactly the same as the shortcut you could create from the podcast section of Google Assistant. Indeed both link to the same “app”
Given the short amount of time to download this sounds very likely!
potential is there – the list of podcasts available is the biggest draw.
Needs auto-download (on wifi) and it’ll take over Pocketcasts my daily podcast app.
Installed on my Pixel2 xl, Crashes on launch every time
Needs to allow speed up playback and an import from external sources would help kick it off as a migration attraction….. I’ll keep it installed but will likely stick to PocketCast as my primary playset the for the time being.
You can speed up playback, click the 1.0x button on the lower left of the now playing panel.
Awesome, thanks for the heads up! This could tip the scales for me…. Importing isn’t necessary as adding them only takes 10 mins….. But speedup is a godsend! Thanks again
No problem.
No signs of a silence trimmer or voice equalizer 🙁
Does it work with Android Auto?
Still has a long way to go before it replaces Pocket Casts for me.
Goodbye Pocketcasts!
To the down voters,
I’ve supported Pocket Casts from very early on in its android release, I’ve loved it, but the cons are outweighing the pros for me right now and I find the simplicity of google’s offering refreshing.