Google is to discontinue its podcasts app.
The search engine giant launched the platform in 2018 but has now announced the service will be shelved next year following a slump in users, but users will be able to access their podcasts on the YouTube music app.
In a blog post, Google - who bought video sharing website YouTube in 2006 - said: "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. Later in 2024, as part of this process, we’ll be discontinuing Google Podcasts. As part of this process, we’ll be helping Google Podcasts users move over to Podcasts in YouTube Music. This matches what listeners and podcasters are already doing: according to Edison, about 23% of weekly podcast users in the US say YouTube is their most frequently used service, versus just 4% for Google Podcasts."
The corporation went on to assure users that they will keep them informed of the mitigation plans over the coming months and want to remain as "transparent" as possible.
The post continued: "In the coming weeks and months, we'll gather feedback to make the migration process from Google Podcasts to YouTube Music as simple and easy as possible. Once we feel the migration tools are ready, we’ll release them along with clear guidelines on how they work.
"We know this transition will take time, but these efforts will allow us to build an amazing product and a single destination that rewards creators and artists and provides fans with the best Podcasts experience. For now, nothing is changing and fans will continue to have access to YouTube, YouTube Music and Google Podcasts. We’re committed to being transparent in communicating future changes with our users and podcasters and will have more to share about this process in the coming months."
