Google Podcasts will close in 2024 – but there is a solution for users

Fashion and trends sure do change. Ten years ago, a podcast was quite a leftfield idea, but in the modern age you can't move for them.

Alongside that comes a whole host of podcast streaming platforms. These phone apps allow users to browse through a wide range of different topics to listen to.

One such app is Google Podcasts – and reports suggest that platform will disappear in 2024. The service will close in April next year, as the brand look to bring all of their audio offerings under the YouTube Music umbrella instead.

Users who currently have a subscription to the service will have until July 2024 to port their podcasts over to YouTube Music. Or, if you'd prefer to utilise another service, you can manually download the OPML files to transfer all of your podcasts to the new platform.

It's worth noting that the tool to move all of your podcasts over to YouTube Music is currently only on offer in the USA, too. That's expected to be made available globally in the coming weeks, though.

It's something of a shame for users of the platform. Google have made several attempts to create a podcasting app, with the outgoing Google Podcasts app representing the third iteration. That started out with the Google Listen app over ten years ago, before merging with Google Play Music later on.

The Google Podcasts app arrived later, as the brand attempted to separate the podcasting app from the rest of the music library. This move over to the YouTube Music platform might be seen as a waving of the white flag for a branded app.

Still, it shouldn't make too much difference from a usability perspective. The Google and YouTube Music podcasting apps are both relatively similar, which should make it nice and easy for users to migrate across.