Google Podcasts for Android now lets you customize recommendations

Abner Li | Apr 21 2021 - 10:05 pm PT

As we first spotted last month, Google Podcasts is letting users customize and fine-tune recommendations as they’re listening to episodes. This feature is currently in beta on Android.

The Now Playing page, which was redesigned earlier this year, features a new heart icon to the right of the 30-second jump button. Tapping generates the following snackbar message:

Got it. You’ll see more episodes like this in your recommendations.

The overflow menu in the bottom-right corner also lets you “Show more like this,” as well as “Show fewer” and “Block show from recommendations” — when you’re not listening to a subscription. Those three actions also appear for episodes and shows recommended in the “Explore” tab.

You can see all your customizations to the Google Podcasts recommendations system by going into Settings > “More, less, & blocked shows.” This opens a Google My Activity page and offers a full history.

This ability to customize recommendations in Podcasts is currently rolled out to Google app users enrolled in the beta channel (12.15). In the past, suggestions were just based on what you have listened to with no ability to reject what’s offered.

Testing comes as Facebook and Apple this week detailed their upcoming podcasting plans. In comparison, Google this year has been relatively quiet about what’s next for its competing, Search-aligned offering.