Google Podcasts will stop working in the US this April, and the migration tool to YouTube Music or other podcasting apps is now live.
For those in the US, Google Podcasts on Android, iOS, and the web has a migration banner explaining the situation. It provides a more precise date (April 2, 2024) with the ability to “Learn more” or start the “Export subscriptions” process.
If you select “Export to YouTube Music,” be sure that YTM is installed (and updated). This will open the app and have you confirm the email address of the account. You have to agree to “Adding RSS feeds,” and this process might take a few minutes. Google will note how many shows were transferred, and you can see them at Library > Podcasts.
Your other option is “Export for another app” to download an OPML file. This opens the system file picker to complete the process.
Google Podcasts users in the US have until July 2024 to migrate, while the international/regional timeline has yet to be shared.
The YouTube Music team said it would add the “ability to mark a podcast as listened to so listeners can easily identify podcasts with which they’ve previously interacted.” This will be available “in the coming months,” which is a bit silly as the feature is a staple of podcasting clients. It will hopefully arrive much sooner than April.
Meanwhile, another feature that YouTube Music should add but has yet to announce is new episode alerts. YTM does offer “Podcast recommendation notifications” that “cover new episodes for shows you’ve subscribed to, but this doesn’t mean that you’ll see a notification for every new episode.” This underwhelming toggle can be found in Settings > Notifications.
If you’ve listened to a podcast in the last 30 days, you can now get push notifications for personalized episode recommendations based on your Podcasts listening habits.
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