Google announces April 2024 shutdown date for Google Podcasts

flop_leash_973@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 577 points – Google announces April 2024 shutdown date for Google Podcasts
arstechnica.com

Time to get out of Google Podcasts for anyone that is still using the service.

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For anyone getting this news here. On Android, one of the best replacements is AntennaPod.

Podcast Addict is not quite as streamlined, but has many more features.

My favorite feature is the "Automatic Rewind" combined with "Incremental rewind". It adds a rewind everytime you pause and resume an episode that increases the longer the podcast has been paused. It means that if I briefly pause, for example to respond to. Some one in real life talking to me, then it will automatically rewind 5 seconds when I start the podcast again, so I can hear the sentence I was in the middle of in full. But if I leave a podcast alone for a week, then it will rewind 1 minute so I can get fully back into the context of what I was listening to.

The dev is also very responsive if you reach out with any issues.

I have used this for years now. It's really great. I have it set to skip the first 7 minutes of only certain podcasts because they usually have 7 - 8 minutes of ads. I also have it skip silences, which speeds up listening more than I first thought it would.

Podcast Addict is exactly the kind of app I wish were in vogue again. Rather than dropping features and hiding options in a race to be "streamlined", it's a properly designed piece of software in the classic sense: its a tool first and foremost. It prioritizes usability first, aesthetics second, and gives you all the buttons and levers to make it your own.

Like, it's the kind of app where if you're using it and think "eh I don't like this one thing", if you look in the settings, there's probably a way to turn it off. God damn what I wouldn't give for this to be common place design philosophy again.

Dev is really cool and responsive, too.

This is exactly why I run Linux on all my computers, and run as much open-source software as I can, build my own home server, and set up my own home-automation. It does have a time cost, over convenience, but being able to tailor everything to my needs and wants is a wonderful feeling.

But yes, it would be wonderful if this was a more common mentality in software in general. Especially on mobile devices.

That time cost is spent optimizing, learning, and growing as an engineer. I wasn't always a full time, highly paid system engineer. It started at home, and I marketed those skills.

Another vote for Podcast Addict. It works with Android Auto in my car :⁠-⁠)

Now to listen to all these shows I have downloaded...

What you describe is also a feature of AntennaPod.

Edit: AntennaPod is also open source.

Awesome! I actually downloaded Antenna Pod to compare, but I can't seem to find this setting, could you point it out to me?

I don't know if it's actually a setting, I've only noticed the behaviour. Neat little feature!

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I’ve always been a fan of Pocket Casts personally.

I have a lifetime membership with PocketCasts, but I don't know if I'd chose it today with the subscription. A few months ago, they shipped a buggy version and I temporarily switched to AntennaPod and was considering staying.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. I'm grandfathered into the lifetime too. Good point!

AntennaPod and was considering staying.

How do you deal with multi OS support?

I don't use multiple devices anymore, so it's not an issue for me.

I love Pocket Casts. Sadly I have a hard time recommending it to new people since they switched to subscription model payment. The reason I love it is because of what it was, not what it is. I'm grandfathered into the "pay once, own forever"and if I wasn't I would probably be using something else these days. I'm still gonna throw it in as a recommendation though, because it's damn good and people should make up their own minds in whether it is worth the payment.

I use the free tier and it is very good. Does everything I need. I won't pay for a subscription for a podcast app, so it's shame I can't buy it to show my appreciation.

In any case, the free tier is really good.

I pay $10/year for my podcast app (Overcast). Considering it does everything I want it to do that a lot of other apps don’t (or didn’t, years ago when I started with Overcast), and I use it 8+ hours a day it seems reasonable.

I don't mind their subscription model. All the subscription features -- cloud storage, folders, desktop app, extra themes -- really feel like bonus features that aren't essential.

I guess. I don't know what I would do without the desktop app and the cloud storage though. I just log in somewhere and everything is synced up and working.

It depends on your usage, for sure. For me, I'm more on the side of not seeing much there that's valuable enough to subscribe to, though I'd probably pay a few bucks for the app just to support them. I think that if you're happy with Google Podcasts, though, you'll be happy with Pocket Casts without a subscription. It's not like you have to pay for basic functionality, like downloading or queuing episodes, which is the evil version of the subscription model.

I really like this app, not so much paying a subscription. But I wanted access on both my phone and my PC and that was the only way to get it.

I recommend Podcast Republic. Maybe recommend that to people?

I can't recommend something I do not use.

So use it for a week 😀 😀

I have pocket casts set up the way I want it and, as I previously said, own the full featured product for life without extra costs. I just don't see a reason to.

That's fine. I was just saying if you wanted to recommend any other options to your friends who ask you, Podcast Republic on Android is a solid choice to consider. That's all.

Also a big fan of AntennaPod, I switched to it back when Google first announced they were axing Podcasts and thought I'd have a lot less time to abandon ship than I ended up with.

Looking at the data safety info, I think I'll go with Antenna Pod

Completely fair, it it however worth mentioning that you can disable this data collection in settings.

To be fair perhaps they want to make it possible to download the podcast unencrypted in MP3

I'm a big fan of Podcast Republic. Great dev, feature-rich, and a much improved UI from when I first started using it.

I feel like podcasts and their apps is what TV and movies should be.

Users pick the app they want to use. They optionally pay a fee or not. The app has any and all TV, Movies, music, etc. they want. In the back end, media rights holders have a pre-defined revenue split agreement.

It's like federated media.

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For iOS, Overcast is the only correct answer

I have come to rather like Downcast on iOS myself. Should check it out if you never have.

I still use the default app. What can be better there?

I like that I can create my own playlists with multiple sort options. It also has more speed options, as well as its own “shorten pauses” thing where it clips down awkward pauses and stuff.

Thanks for the recommendation. I was wondering what else to try as I sure as hell don't want to use YouTube and it doesn't seem like you can have a separate podcast playlist in Spotify.

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