Google has revealed they will axe one of their popular apps to make way for a YouTube Music takeover.
The Google Podcast app will be shut down on June 23 this year despite a rating of 4.4 stars on Google Play from almost 750,000 users and more than 500 million downloads.
The tech giant is encouraging Google Podcast users to move on to the YouTube Music app — another one of Google’s ventures.
“We’ve seen creators and artists really embrace Podcasts on YouTube, and its incredible potential to boost audience growth across audio and video formats,” the booming business wrote on its YouTube blog.
“We’ll be helping Google Podcasts users move over to Podcasts in YouTube Music.”
Google revealed its Podcast app is not as popular as once thought.
“According to Edison, about 23% of weekly podcast users in the US say YouTube is their most frequently used service, versus just 4% for Google Podcasts,” it added.
The company elaborated on how users will be able to transition.
“For users, it means a simple migration tool and the ability to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library, including shows not currently hosted by YouTube,” it wrote.
“For those who prefer a different listening platform, the tools will also include an option to download an OPML file of their show subscriptions, which they can upload to an app that supports their import.
“For podcasters, this means providing robust creation and analytics tools, as well as RSS uploads, in addition to making your podcasts available everywhere YouTube Music listeners are already consuming their favourite content–in the background, in the car, offline, and more.”
The tech giant announced the major transition at the end of 2023, to many X (formerly Twitter) users’ dismay.
“I should have never migrated to Google Podcasts lol,” one wrote.
“The main reason I love Google Podcasts is that it’s an app that does one thing right,” another commented.
“Google Podcasts is dying in favour of booting its functionality to YouTube Music. Does anyone else prefer just having a dedicated app for podcasts? Just me? I’m annoyed,” wrote a third.