YouTube Music promises a ‘lot more improvements’ for podcasts

Abner Li | Apr 10 2024 - 1:02 pm PT

Google Podcasts was deprecated in the US last week and the intended replacement is not good enough. YouTube Music’s Podcasts team today said it is “working on a lot more improvements.”

Shared on Reddit today, the Podcasts team says it sees the feedback and points to recent updates:

you can now sort a podcast’s episodes from newest to oldest, oldest to newest, most popular, or default (the order set by the creator)
if you’re a listener outside of the United States with podcasts in your Library, you’ll see podcasts on your Home screen, including a new “Recommended shows” shelf (this is already available to US users)
improved search results now make it easier to find YouTube podcasts you love

That first improvement rolled out in February, while podcasts in the Home feed for international users should help surface when new episodes are available in the absence of dedicated notifications. The YTM team says this is “only the beginning.”

Stepping back, podcasts in YouTube Music officially launched last April in the US. It rolled out to the rest of the world over the course of 2023, while we got auto-downloads that September. However, the biggest post-launch update came in November with the ability to manually add shows via RSS. This was followed by YouTube letting Creators upload podcasts via RSS feed this January.

I had no doubt YouTube Music was working on updates to the podcasting experience. (They previously announced “mark as played.”) However, I’m surprised that they didn’t roll them out before killing Google Podcasts.

The current iteration of YouTube Music is missing too many basics and even casual users — which Google Podcasts courted — are noticing the absences. Hopefully, the features will be launching very soon.

What podcast improvements would you prioritize for YouTube Music? Chime in below.