The podcasting industry is at a high after moves by Apple and Spotify. One player that has yet to detail future plans is Google Podcasts…
Activity and investment in the podcasting industry is currently at an all-time high after Facebook, Apple, Spotify, and others detailed their latest efforts last month. One major player that has yet to respond with new plans of its own is Google Podcasts. Google relaunched its podcast offering in 2018 after a failed start two years prior that involved surfacing shows and episodes in Play Music. The current effort is much more of a dedicated experience and closely aligned with Google Search and, by extension, Assistant. Google Podcasts launched on Android three years ago and then came to the web, as well as Search results, in 2019. An iOS app was introduced last year as the web client became more full-featured. The last major announcement came at the tail end of 2020 when the app gained support for private RSS feeds, while the past few months have seen a redesigned Now Playing screen and the ability to better customize (and block) recommendations. Meanwhile, recent weeks have seen the founding product manager rise up to focus on Search features for desktop/laptop, while its product lead left Google for payment company Stripe. The former’s move coincided with the broader reshuffle of the Search organization. The biggest advantage for Google Podcasts today is its integration with Search. In 2019, as announced at I/O, the search engine began surfacing playable episodes “based on Google’s understanding of what’s being talked about on a podcast.” The company is going beyond episode name and description to index and transcribe. Soon, you won’t necessarily need the term “podcast” in your search to see episodes, making podcast discovery simpler across Search. This gives users a natural introduction to Google Podcasts. Meanwhile, on Android, the Podcasts experience is technically part of the main Google app — much like Assistant. Given the pre-installed nature of the Search app, all Android users have a podcast player out of the box to start listening to things they just discovered. You can download “Google Podcasts” from the Play Store but that essentially places an app icon on your homescreen. That approach is most similar to how Apple Podcasts is pre-installed on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, while Facebook now has a mini-player in its main app and is building a fuller experience.
