Google promises new features, but will they be enough?
Google promises a “lot more improvements” for podcasts in YouTube Music
Google Podcasts fans remain angry and frustrated by the app’s demise
Change has echoes of the Google Play Music shutdown in 2020
The latest unfortunate inhabitant of the Google Graveyard is the Google Podcasts app, which was officially canned on April 2 – and fans have been venting their frustration about being pushed to YouTube Music ever since. But now Google has tried to calm the unrest by promising that podcast-friendly fixes are coming to YouTube Music soon.
In a Reddit post on the YouTube Music subreddit, a Google employee confirmed that an update to the app (which rolled out on April 8) delivered a couple of useful features. These included the ability to sort a podcast’s episodes by publish date, plus some improvements to search results. Listeners outside the US also got a new ‘Recommended shows’ shelf, which was already available in the US.
But Google also admitted that more fixes are needed to make YouTube Music a better place for podcast listeners. It said those recent tweaks were “only the beginning” and that the Podcast team is “working on a lot more improvements”.
