Google launches Podcasts app for Android
Google has never really shown much interest in podcasts -- despite their age and popularity -- but today this changes. The company has launched a new Android app called simply Google Podcasts complete with ubiquitous AI for personalized suggestions.
Available in 47 languages, the app currently provides access to a collection of around two million podcasts, but this number is likely to grow very quickly. Google boasts of integration with Google Assistant and Google Home, the main benefit of which is being able to start a podcast on one device and continue on another.
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Despite having had so long to work on the app, Google has left Podcasts as a relatively simple affair; there's little in the way of fancy extras. Browsing and searching for the podcasts you know and love -- and discovering new ones -- is incredibly easy, and playback controls are limited to play pause and jumping back and forth 10 seconds at a time.
You can see what's trending, but there's no option to create playlists; closed captions are on the cards at some point in the future.
In the description of the app, Google says:
Google Podcasts is a new way for Android users to discover and listen to the world's podcasts. You can subscribe to any show for free and download episodes for offline listening. All your listening is automatically synced across devices so that you can pause on one device and resume on another with the Google Assistant.
The app is -- for now at least -- exclusive to Android, so iPhone users will have to get their podcast fixes catered for elsewhere.
You can download Google Podcasts free from Google Play.