Google has an image problem, but a lot of it is its own fault. The company has a reputation for shutting down its services no matter how many people are using them; all this, in the name of progress, even if this is little consolation for those affected. It’s such an image problem that there are even people who think Gmail is going to shut down, and honestly, we don’t blame them.
This reputation for closing services is not unfounded, because Google has been killing very useful apps and pages for decades without spoiling; Some of us still remember Google Reader, one of the most used services on the entire Internet and which disappeared overnight.
It is now the turn of another very popular service, which has recorded more than 500 million downloads, but which has not been the victim of yet another reorganization within Google. We are talking about Google Podcasts, which will close today.
Google Podcasts is closing its doors
Google Podcasts was (and still is for many people) the best app for podcasts; It wasn’t particularly complete, but it also meant that it was very easy to use and exactly what less expert users needed. This will end today, when the service stops working completely.
The irony is that this isn’t Google’s first podcast app, nor the last; in fact, it’s the third, after Google Listen and Google Play Music Podcasts. Google Podcasts competed directly with the latter and became the only alternative after the closure of Google Play Music, another project appreciated by many people; It’s easy to see the trend, and with that, it’s easy to know what’s going to happen next.
And Google already has another podcast application, although it is not dedicated exclusively to this type of content. It is Youtube Music, which already supports podcasts in addition to music; We can now find our podcasts in our YouTube Music library, in a dedicated section, and we can add new ones from an RSS feed like in any other podcast application.
The YouTube Music search engine also allows find shows and episodes to play and add to our library. If we enter Google Podcasts, a pop-up window will appear that will allow us to export our subscriptions and use them in other services, such as YouTube Music.
The question many users will ask now is how long YouTube Music will last, which in turn is Google’s umpteenth attempt to create an alternative to Spotify, and how long it will take to launch another similar application. Love it or hate it, it’s Google.
