Sundar Pichai-led Google initiated the integration of Google podcast, its online podcast platform, into the online music and audio-sharing platform YouTube music application by shutting down the service of the podcast application in the United States on April 2, later closing doors worldwide.
The subsidiary of Alphabet sent notifications to the Google Podcast users, where post the date, users will not be able to access any of its content. The company began to integrate podcasts into YouTube Music, a year ago.
The initiative is taken with the aim to build a product and single destination that rewards creators and artists as well as provides fans with the best podcast experience.
Online audio streaming platform Spotify, in late 2023, limited Indian users from accessing some of its basic features for free including, playing songs in a manual order, rewinding or forwarding a song, replaying songs, in order to attract more premium subscribers.
The Google Podcasts app is still available on the App Store and Play Store, and existing users will have some time to migrate to the new app, based on the report of Indian Express.
Google Podcast was launched in 2019 and currently has over 1 billion downloads in the Play Store application. The move to shut down in other countries across the globe is still unknown.
The company has withdrawn over 200 applications and services at various timelines including Jamboard, Google Jamboard, DropCam, Keen, and Google Podcasts, in 2024.
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