Google Podcasts app to cease operations: How to transfer your subscriptions?

Google Podcasts app, youtube music — Image Source : FILE Google Podcasts app to cease operations- How to transfer your subscriptions?

Google Podcasts, a widely-used application which had more than 500 million downloads on the Play Store will cease streaming in the US starting from April 2 (today). It was in the last year when Google announced the closure of Google Podcasts via a blog post, as the company intended to focus more on audio and video podcasts via YouTube Music. Although the app is shutting down in the US, it will stop functioning for users in other regions of the world, by later this year.

The tech giant has been pushing reminders via in-app notifications, and Google has placed a warning on the app's home page as well- urging the users to transfer their data to YouTube Music or another podcast service of their choice.

Google Podcasts app will remain available for download from the app stores of Android and iOS, as users will further lose the ability to stream their favourite shows from April 2 onwards. However, only in July 2024, they will be able to migrate their data to another application.

Google has further explained the rationale behind discontinuing the Google Podcasts app via a blog post, which has cited an increased investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music. The main aim is to enhance the platform for both fans and podcasters, which will be offering unique YouTube-only features which are related to discovery, community, and audio/visual switching by 2024.

Here are the steps to follow to transfer your Google Podcast subscriptions to YouTube Music.

Open the Google Podcasts app on your device- Android or iOS
Click on the Home tab.
Locate the Google Podcasts app shutdown notification
There, click on Export Subscriptions
Click 'Export to YouTube Music’ which is under the Export Subscriptions option
Then you will be redirected to the YouTube Music app and will further be asked to select a Gmail account
Once done, the subscriptions will be added to the YouTube Music app
You need to remember that the process will take a while for all your subscriptions which will be transferred to the YouTube Music app.

However, not all the podcasts which you might be listening to will be migrated to the YouTube Music app. In a few content, users will receive a 'Content is unavailable' message. But you could manually add a podcast by adding the show's RSS feed link.