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New Google Podcasts — Google Podcasts is launching a redesign on iOS and Android
The redesigned Google Podcasts is now available for iOS, Android and web. With new podcast discovery features, we're making it easier to find and enjoy your new favorite shows and episodes.
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@rrhoover Product-wise, the thing that has surprised me the most over the past two years has been how much more prepared people are to listen than they used to be—or at least how quickly that's evolved. Wireless headphones like AirPods, along with smart speakers from Google and Alexa, have given us so many more opportunities to listen without preventing us from other activities like exercise and cooking.
Personally, my biggest learning has been how important it is to me that I'm passionate about what I work on. Part of that is intrinsic, but a big part also comes from our broader team on Google Podcasts who make it fun to show up each day, and probably most of all from seeing users and creators engage with and benefit from our products.
@zackrw the iOS app is great and the UI is intuitive. It matches my workflow of scrolling through new podcasts for the day and queuing the ones I want to listen to. The discovery/recommendation is also really nice. Probably my favorite feature is the ability to search for a term not only by podcast show title, but within episodes. That's huge! So if I find a podcast guest I really like, I can search and see what other shows that person has appeared on. Huge!
I did notice some iOS bugs that are dealbreakers for the moment
- next/previous double tapping on airpods doesn't work. I use this all of the time when listening to podcasts to skip over ads, or rewind a part that I missed. would also love the ability to customize the next/previous duration like you can on other players (e.g. 30 sec instead of 90 secs)
- noticed some glitches with pausing/playing an episode and losing it's place on the podcast
- changing the speed of the podcast, the podcast would frequently skip/stutter in a loop for 1-2 seconds
Anyways, overall i'm optimistic and pending those bug fixes can't wait for it to be my daily podcast driver :)
Hey folks, Zack here from Google Podcasts. Today, we're announcing a redesigned Google Podcasts app, with a dedicated Explore tab to help people discover podcasts they'll love. You can download our app on iOS and Android, and also listen on web where we've added support for subscriptions.
Excited to hear from you here! Full blog post detailing the announcement is here.
New feature summary
- Discover show and episode recommendations just for you on the Explore tab.
- Browse popular and trending shows in comedy, news, sports, and more.
- Queue up episodes for a seamless listening experience.
- Easily keep track of your listening history, downloads, and subscriptions in Activity.
- Listen on multiple devices—phone, laptop, smart speaker—without losing your place.
- Auto-download shows to listen offline and on the go.
- Get notifications for new episodes.
- Subscribe and manage subscriptions from the web at podcasts.google.com
Availability
- Available globally in all 39 App Store languages today.
- Rolling out globally in all 50+ Play Store languages this week (around 50% rolled out as of this post).
- Over 2 million podcasts indexed.
Guidelines for podcasters
- Find your podcast by searching on podcasts.google.com.
- Follow our guidelines to ensure your podcast is eligible for inclusion in Google Podcasts.
- Download "Listen on Google Podcasts" badges by clicking here. Use the badges to link directly to your show or episode on Google Podcasts wherever you market your podcast. The badges are available in 49 languages.
@zackrw I am struggling with the new redesign on Android. I have unsubscribed to more podcasts in the last day than in the previous year it feels like. Considering a move to Spotify or another podcast app service due to the update.
- Completed ones are showing up on my Home screen. Can't tell if that is a feature or a bug
- Every podcast that I had listened to before August 2018 has been marked as unplayed
- There is no way I can tell to bulk update them to Played/Completed
I listen to a lot (too many potentially) of podcasts. Perhaps other users don't fit my use case but disappointed in the update so far.
@zackrw Pocket Casts has a neat feature that parses show notes for time stamps. It would be useful if that's implemented. https://support.pocketcasts.com/...
@zackrw looks great! please consider adding playlists and/or ability to save an episode for later...I use Google Podcasts daily but also use other services some just for those features. Thanks!
@awt Good idea re:playlists, thanks for this feedback. In terms of saving for later, you mean in addition to the queue functionality?
@zackrw I think either the playlist or a saved list would be nice...probably wouldn't need both. Just looking for a way to come back to an old/obscure/random episode without searching. Thanks!
@zackrw Yesterday when i updated the app on my Pixel the queue was not there...thats why i requested the playlist. Today the queue is showing up and that's really all I was hoping for. Looks like an awesome upgrade!
One other thing - I can't seem to find any way to subscribe to a new podcast on the web. Am I missing something? I am super glad to be able to use the web version though!! I have been switching to a competitor any time I want to listen on web...
@awt Subscriptions on web will roll out this week. Could be Friday, but my guess is you'll see it starting tomorrow.
@zackrw One small thing too: when I delete and listened to all podcasts the player keep showing the last episode I played. I expect to remove the player once no episode is in the queue. (or swipe to remove player)
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Reson being... player annoys me when I'm not playing anything and I'm only exploring.
Couldn't agree more with @rrhoover. We're all spending so much time on our laptop these days. And rather than switching devices or applications, it's so much more convenient to switch a Chrome tab. Now listening to "The Daily Popcast with Lance Bass" :)
@zackrw new look is clean! Nice job with this. The main reason I use Google Podcasts is because it is not as feature bloated as other podcast apps, so please consider that for the future :)
I'm also looking forward to the web UI additions. Any word on when that's going live @zackrw? The announcement just says the iOS app is live now and the Android app will roll out later this week.
HATE, HATE the new look. Thank heavens it's not the only option. Easy to go back to Stitcher.
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