YouTube Music preparing ‘Trim Silence’ option for podcasts

Ben Schoon | Mar 13 2024 - 8:05 am PT

As Google Podcasts fades away, YouTube Music is bolstering its podcasts offering as a new update prepares to add a “Trim Silence” option.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

YouTube Music wasn’t designed from day one to be a podcasting app, but Google has been building out the functionality fairly quickly over the past year or so, adding needed features like adding podcasts via RSS and automatic downloads for new episodes. But, still, as our Abner Li brought out recently, it’s still missing a lot of podcast features, and all while the clock is ticking on Google Podcasts.

In the latest version of YouTube Music, v6.43.52, Google has set the foundation for support for a “Trim Silence” feature.

This feature, which is available in Google Podcasts and many other podcast apps, can find stretches of silence in a podcast and automatically skip past that, resulting in a slightly shorter runtime. We found the following strings in the latest update:

<string name=”trim_silence_label”>Trim silence</string>

<string name=”trim_silence_description”>Skip stretches of silence during episodes</string>

Unfortunately, the functionality isn’t currently live in YouTube Music. Likely, it’s either waiting on a server-side component or another future app update. Either way, it’s good to see this is on its way.