Google to shut Podcasts app in the US within days. The company has begun notifying users of the app that they should migrate their subscriptions to YouTube Music  if they wish to continue listening and streaming to favorite shows. Users who do not act on transferring right away will still have time to make adjustments, but will no longer be able to stream from the Podcasts app directly after this date.

Already downloaded more than half a billion times on Android alone, the Google Podcasts app has served as an easy, streamlined interface to discover, follow and listen to podcasts for over five years and tools to add podcasts by RSS feed. Not so good news for the app's users: the technology behemoth announced last September to start the phaseout from early 2024 as part of the updated broader plan aimed at the centralization of all audio services offered by it on YouTube.

2020 also saw the launching of an identical displacement campaign by YouTube Music to shift music consumers away from Google Play Music in advance of the latter's end that year. However, the Google Podcasts app remained developed for years because YouTube Music wasn't ready to offer podcast support until just recently. By the end of 2023, YouTube Music could support podcasts worldwide, and, by February, could upload their RSS feeds, also.

Thus, the switch of podcasting to YouTube may further propel Google into a more significant player in the area, not only by combining efforts and sharpening focus but also because an increasing interest in video podcasts, already popular on YouTube, is at play here. For instance, this week, Spotify announced reaching a deal with Universal Music Group or UMG to bring video podcasts to the U.S. users of its streaming app after announcing early in March tests of video podcasts in 11 other markets around the world.

Bleeping Computer was first to discover the shutdown date for Google Podcasts in the United States, and a support page on Google's site verifies that users in the United States will be limited to use the Podcasts app only until the end of March 2024. For anyone missing out on the in-app pop-ups, Google is giving extra time to save their subscriptions with an extension allowing folks to use the app's export feature until July 2024.

Google did not get back in time to comment on this article. In response to this article, after we published it, the company said it is still "tracking toward" the April 2 deadline for the United States but hasn't commented on when it will implement the update globally.