A Google-centric blog has revealed evidence that the search giant will finally release its own podcasts app for Android.
As you may know, Google currently offers podcast access via its Google Play Music app. I use, recommend, and really like Google Play Music. But it’s not the right place for podcasts, and not just because of the name. Podcasts are different from song, or from audiobooks, for that matter, and it’s always been an uneasy fit.
So after evaluating the podcast support in Google Play Music a while back, I gave up. And went back to using the right tool for the job: Pocket Casts for podcasts, Audible for audiobooks, and Google Play Music for music. The motto here is the same as always: The right tool for the job.
But Google needs to have a presence in podcasts, just as Apple and other platform makers do. So it’s been extending the back-end podcast support it created for Google Play Music to include Google Home and Google Assistant, for voice commands. And now we know they are creating a standalone Google Podcasts app as well. This makes tons of sense.
“We’re seeing hints of Google preparing to debut its own standalone podcast application,” 9to5Google reports. “A snippet of code we spotted in version 8.7 of the Google app reveals an inactive prompt which asks users to ‘Get the Google Podcasts app’.”
thurrott.com
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