The best part of Google Podcasts was its simplicity. Google built a service that was fairly basic in terms of layout/navigation and functionality, but the app didn’t feel barebones. It had everything a podcasting client needed and those that wanted something more advanced could easily switch to another application thanks to the openness and portability of RSS.
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Last May, I called YouTube Music a laid back podcasts app that reflected the casualness of the broader music streaming service:
I previously said YouTube Music is a streaming app for the YouTube generation that’s content with ceding their queue to Up Next and enjoys hearing songs recorded by concert attendees, which might have far from perfect quality, as much as the actual recorded version. I’d summarize this trait as casualness.
I think there’s an audience for a simple podcasting client, but I don’t think YTM has that balance eight months later.
The thing YouTube Music always had working against its podcast ambitions is that it’s trying to jam an entirely different audio medium into an existing (shorter-form) service. (I joked about the app getting renamed to “YouTube Audio.”) I see the appeal of having one app, with people clearly not minding as seen by Spotify’s success, but I think the podcasts experience suffers for not being as prominent or optimized as the music side.
There’s simply no way to translate Google Podcasts’ navigation simplicity into YouTube Music. (An amusing and horrifying aside: Imagine a Podcasts tab in the YouTube Music bottom bar with a second floating bar, a la Google Chat in integrated Gmail.)
My next issue is with the feature set. Since YouTube Music introduced the ability to manually add podcasts via RSS in November, I’ve been using the app a great deal more since most podcasts have not been creating video versions just for YouTube. I’m fine with YTM’s Now Playing UI, especially after the gradient redesign, but the lack of other basic features is getting ridiculous.
I’ve been asking for the ability to mark episodes as played since May, and Google in December said to expect that in the coming months. It’s really a basic podcast client feature to help manage your library. Playing a podcast and dragging the scrubber all the way to clear it from the “New Episodes” playlist is a ridiculous hack.
A more minor ask is support for podcast chapters, which I’m actually hopeful for given that there’s an equivalent video feature.
Meanwhile, YouTube Music needs new episode notifications. One underrated feature of Google Podcasts was that the parent company’s vast server/cloud infrastructure meant episode alerts were instantaneous. YTM needs per show notifications instead of just relying on the “Your new episodes” carousel in the Home feed. I’m surprised YouTube decided to expand internationally without something as basic as this since it would encourage people to keep using the app for podcasts.
What features do you need?
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Top comment by matteventu
I am a YouTube Premium subscriber and I use YTM as my main music streaming app.
But as long as they don't offer a whole separate queue management system for podcasts, I'm never going to use YTM for podcasts.
That simple.
It's absolutely mind blowing how Google always manages to copy the worst features of competitors (podcasts in one app from Spotify, restrictions always growing from iOS) and never the best ones (iOS lockscreen widgets and new customisation options, Apple Music and Apple Podcasts being separate...).
This podcasts integration in YouTube Music feels the exact same way Allo, Google Assistant Driving Mode felt.
Give it a couple of years and it's going away. Nobody is going to use it.
Hopefully they'll give us back an improved Google Podcasts, or a separate (and decent) YouTube Podcasts app.
Tip: You can scroll through the At a Glance widget
YouTube Music redesign tackles the overflowing overflow menu
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