Wave Bye to Google Podcast App, Here’s How to Transfer Subscription to YouTube Music

Google Podcasts, a popular app with over 500 million downloads on the Play Store, is shutting down its streaming service in the US on April 2. Google’s decision to close the app comes as the tech giant looks to focus more on audio and video podcasts through YouTube Music. The closure of Google Podcasts was announced in a blog post last year, and while it’s currently being phased out in the US, users in other regions can expect the app to stop working later this year. In this article, we will also tell you how to transfer your Google Podcast subscription to YouTube Music.

To notify users of the impending shutdown, Google has been sending in-app notifications for several weeks. Additionally, the app’s home page now displays a warning advising users to transfer their data to YouTube Music or another podcast service.

Wave Bye to Google Podcast App, Here’s How to Transfer Subscription to YouTube Music

Despite the shutdown, the Google Podcasts app will still be available for download from the Play Store and Apple Store. However, after April 2, users will no longer be able to stream podcasts using the app. They will have until July 2024 to migrate their data to another podcast application.

Explaining the rationale behind shutting down Google Podcasts, Google stated in a blog post, “Looking forward to 2024, we’ll be increasing our investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music — making it a better overall destination for fans and podcasters alike with YouTube-only capabilities across community, discovery, and audio/visual switching.”

To transfer subscriptions to YouTube Music, users can follow these steps:

1) Open the Google Podcasts app and navigate to the Home tab.

2) Click on the Google Podcasts app shutdown notification and select “Export Subscriptions.”

3) Choose “Export to YouTube Music.”

4) The process will redirect you to the YouTube Music app, where you will need to select a Gmail account. Your subscriptions will then be added to the YouTube Music app, although it may take a few minutes for all subscriptions to be transferred.

However, you can not transfer all podcasts to YouTube Music, and some users may see a “Content is unavailable” message. In such cases, users can manually add a podcast by entering the show’s RSS feed link.

For those looking to migrate their podcasts to a third-party app, the process is more complex and requires downloading via an OPML file through Google Takeout.