Google revealed on Tuesday that, as part of a larger transition to switch its streaming listeners to YouTube Music, the Google Podcasts app would be discontinued later in 2024.
Earlier this year, the company claimed YouTube Music would start supporting podcasts in the United States; this support would spread to other countries by year’s end. More recently, the company said it would add support for podcasters to submit their RSS feeds to YouTube by year’s end.
With features centred on discovery, community, and switching between audio and video podcasts, Google says it aims to continue investing in the YouTube Music podcast experience and make it a destination for podcast fans.
The company added it will provide Google Podcast users with a migration tool and the option to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library in order to ease users’ move to YouTube Music.
If users choose not to switch to YouTube Music, Google will also enable the ability to download an OPML file of their show subscriptions from Google Podcasts, which they can upload to any app that supports importing.
In an effort to make YouTube Music more of a rival to services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and others, Google has been gradually converting consumers away from earlier offerings.
