Google Podcasts Is Gone
Google Podcasts is dead. It has been dying for months, since Google announced last fall that it was killing its dedicated podcast app in order to focus all its podcasting efforts on YouTube Music. This is a bad idea and a big downgrade, and I’d be more mad if only I were more surprised.
The Podcasts app is just the latest product to go through a process I’ve come to call The Google Cycle. It always goes the same way: the company launches a new service with grandiose language about how this fits its mission of organizing and making accessible the world’s information, quickly updates it with a couple of neat features, immediately seems to forget it exists, eventually launches a competitor out of some other part of the company, obviously begins to deprecate it and shift focus to the new competitor, and then, years later, finally shuts it down for real. The Google Graveyard is full of apps like Reader, Duo, Inbox, Allo, Wallet, and countless others that have been through The Google Cycle, and it feels just as bad every time.
Via John Gruber:
I haven’t been bitten by Google killing an app or service since Google Reader, because I never again trusted them. I suppose this might be a lot more difficult for Android users, but I honestly don’t even remember the last time I added a new Google app or service to the set of tools I rely upon.
YouTube is irreplaceable. I wouldn’t want to be without Google Maps. Other than that, I use Google Search, Google News, Google Cloud Storage (with Arq), and Google Wi-Fi, all of which have decent alternatives. AdSense doesn’t, but it seems to have gotten a lot worse and isn’t doing much for me these days. I stopped using AdWords a while ago because it seemed untrustworthy. I also have a Nest Cam, which Google hasn’t supported very well.
See also: Sunset.
Update (2024-04-12): Tim Hardwick:
Google One VPN will be discontinued later this year, according to a customer email seen by Android Authority. The service was rolled out for Android in October 2020, before coming to iOS devices and Macs in 2022.
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I use YouTube, Gmail, Photos, Search and Maps.
I really like Photos, Maps used to be amazing but I find it has more and more issues. Bus lines that aren't correct, outdated restaurant listings etc. For the most part it's great though.
Gmail is just out of habit, can't say I care for it either way. If it wasn't free I don't see why I'd use it. YouTube through their web app using brave(no ads) is really good, but the content is getting worse due to ppl optimising for the algo.
Search is getting worse by the week it feels like. I hate their "shopping" section and their new ai generated cards are distracting.
Drive is a mess.
Photos is amazing and I love it. I remember trying to keep all photos backed up on a NAS back in the day. What a nightmare.
I never committed to Google Podcasts. Felt doomed from the get go.
I stopped using most Google products because of this, and then stopped using the rest of them because I want to take back control of my data. The only thing from Google left in my life at this point is YouTube, and these days I almost exclusively visit it through an invidious instance because it provides a much better experience than Google's godawful design, even with invidious's frequent breakages.