Google Podcasts still sending out the new episode notifications that YouTube Music lacks

Abner Li | Apr 8 2024 - 8:36 am PT

Despite last week’s US shutdown, the Google Podcasts app is still sending out notifications for new episodes.

This is happening on both Android (which is powered by the Google Search app) and the standalone iOS client. I received an alert just last night, though tapping takes you to the same shutdown notice that only lets you export subscriptions.

Presumably, this is just an oversight, but Google should seriously consider keeping them active until YouTube Music gets comparable alerts. Looking at the landscape, Google Podcasts delivered the fastest new episode notifications presumably given the infrastructure advantage.

On YouTube Music, you find out about new episodes by manually scrolling through the Home feed for a “Your new episodes” carousel, or visiting the Library tab and opening the New Episodes auto playlist.

It’s a pretty bad workflow for a service that has a proven track record of delivering new video notifications and offers per-channel settings on the main app. YTM already sends new song notifications, while it’s testing a dedicated “Activity” feed in the top-right corner.

I think new episode alerts should be prioritized over “mark as played,” which was teased back in December and should really be available by now. Knowing when your shows have new content is a pretty vital part of a podcasting app and encourages repeat usage.