Time to get out of Google Podcasts for anyone that is still using the service.
For anyone getting this news here. On Android, one of the best replacements is AntennaPod.
Podcast Addict is not quite as streamlined, but has many more features.
My favorite feature is the “Automatic Rewind” combined with “Incremental rewind”. It adds a rewind everytime you pause and resume an episode that increases the longer the podcast has been paused. It means that if I briefly pause, for example to respond to. Some one in real life talking to me, then it will automatically rewind 5 seconds when I start the podcast again, so I can hear the sentence I was in the middle of in full. But if I leave a podcast alone for a week, then it will rewind 1 minute so I can get fully back into the context of what I was listening to.
The dev is also very responsive if you reach out with any issues.
I have used this for years now. It’s really great. I have it set to skip the first 7 minutes of only certain podcasts because they usually have 7 - 8 minutes of ads. I also have it skip silences, which speeds up listening more than I first thought it would.
Podcast Addict is exactly the kind of app I wish were in vogue again. Rather than dropping features and hiding options in a race to be “streamlined”, it’s a properly designed piece of software in the classic sense: its a tool first and foremost. It prioritizes usability first, aesthetics second, and gives you all the buttons and levers to make it your own.
Like, it’s the kind of app where if you’re using it and think “eh I don’t like this one thing”, if you look in the settings, there’s probably a way to turn it off. God damn what I wouldn’t give for this to be common place design philosophy again.
Dev is really cool and responsive, too.
This is exactly why I run Linux on all my computers, and run as much open-source software as I can, build my own home server, and set up my own home-automation. It does have a time cost, over convenience, but being able to tailor everything to my needs and wants is a wonderful feeling.
But yes, it would be wonderful if this was a more common mentality in software in general. Especially on mobile devices.
That time cost is spent optimizing, learning, and growing as an engineer. I wasn’t always a full time, highly paid system engineer. It started at home, and I marketed those skills.
Indeed!
What you describe is also a feature of AntennaPod.
Edit: AntennaPod is also open source.
Awesome! I actually downloaded Antenna Pod to compare, but I can’t seem to find this setting, could you point it out to me?
I don’t know if it’s actually a setting, I’ve only noticed the behaviour. Neat little feature!
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I’ve always been a fan of Pocket Casts personally.
I have a lifetime membership with PocketCasts, but I don’t know if I’d chose it today with the subscription. A few months ago, they shipped a buggy version and I temporarily switched to AntennaPod and was considering staying.
Oh yeah, forgot about that. I’m grandfathered into the lifetime too. Good point!
AntennaPod and was considering staying.
How do you deal with multi OS support?
I don’t use multiple devices anymore, so it’s not an issue for me.
I love Pocket Casts. Sadly I have a hard time recommending it to new people since they switched to subscription model payment. The reason I love it is because of what it was, not what it is. I’m grandfathered into the "pay once, own forever"and if I wasn’t I would probably be using something else these days. I’m still gonna throw it in as a recommendation though, because it’s damn good and people should make up their own minds in whether it is worth the payment.
I use the free tier and it is very good. Does everything I need. I won’t pay for a subscription for a podcast app, so it’s shame I can’t buy it to show my appreciation.
In any case, the free tier is really good.
I pay $10/year for my podcast app (Overcast). Considering it does everything I want it to do that a lot of other apps don’t (or didn’t, years ago when I started with Overcast), and I use it 8+ hours a day it seems reasonable.
I don’t mind their subscription model. All the subscription features – cloud storage, folders, desktop app, extra themes – really feel like bonus features that aren’t essential.
I guess. I don’t know what I would do without the desktop app and the cloud storage though. I just log in somewhere and everything is synced up and working.
It depends on your usage, for sure. For me, I’m more on the side of not seeing much there that’s valuable enough to subscribe to, though I’d probably pay a few bucks for the app just to support them. I think that if you’re happy with Google Podcasts, though, you’ll be happy with Pocket Casts without a subscription. It’s not like you have to pay for basic functionality, like downloading or queuing episodes, which is the evil version of the subscription model.
I really like this app, not so much paying a subscription. But I wanted access on both my phone and my PC and that was the only way to get it.
I recommend Podcast Republic. Maybe recommend that to people?
I can’t recommend something I do not use.
So use it for a week 😀 😀
I have pocket casts set up the way I want it and, as I previously said, own the full featured product for life without extra costs. I just don’t see a reason to.
That’s fine. I was just saying if you wanted to recommend any other options to your friends who ask you, Podcast Republic on Android is a solid choice to consider. That’s all.
Also a big fan of AntennaPod, I switched to it back when Google first announced they were axing Podcasts and thought I’d have a lot less time to abandon ship than I ended up with.
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I’m a big fan of Podcast Republic. Great dev, feature-rich, and a much improved UI from when I first started using it.
I feel like podcasts and their apps is what TV and movies should be.
Users pick the app they want to use. They optionally pay a fee or not. The app has any and all TV, Movies, music, etc. they want. In the back end, media rights holders have a pre-defined revenue split agreement.
It’s like federated media.
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Looking at the data safety info, I think I’ll go with Antenna Pod
To be fair perhaps they want to make it possible to download the podcast unencrypted in MP3
Completely fair, it it however worth mentioning that you can disable this data collection in settings.
PodcastAddict is better in my opinion
Yeah podcast addict was the shit
I went to download it, and apparently I already had! Now to start subscribing to everything again…bleh.
Oh, sweet! Thank you. I’ll see if I can figure this out this weekend.
Thanks for the recommendation. I was wondering what else to try as I sure as hell don’t want to use YouTube and it doesn’t seem like you can have a separate podcast playlist in Spotify.
Selfhost Audiobookshelf
Google killing a product? No way
Who did they kill?
The joke was that we’re Google’s products.
Ah got ya, I imagined there was a joke I there but it flew over my head lol. Good one though
Nah they done it before with chat
Your sarcasm detector requires calibration.
fuck it, do gmail next, force me to find a proper provider
who exactly thinks it’s good that things are this ephemeral? what’s the point of even using and enjoying and getting invested in something when they constantly pull this shit?
Gmail is too valuable a source of advertising data
In other words, Google won’t kill what they can use to harvest your data.
Proton mail!
Proton’s legit
I mean, before Gmail, I had a new email address every 2-3 years. I’ve had Gmail for what, almost 20 years? That’s not what I’d define as “ephemeral.”
Finding an alternative is the easy part. You can get yourself a domain on Namecheap, and get an email attached to it for pennies.
Issue is that a lot of services out there don’t consider alternative email providers as valid. Some as a protective measure against spam, some because… fuck knows why, honestly
Another day another piece of Google tech tossed in the trash
Google: Wanna see me create another great app and space then do no advertising and deep 6 it like, well whenever. wanna see it again?
they are like the bad version of valve with their IPs.
That’s not why they’re killing t though, it’s because they’re moving it to YouTube to get subscriptions.
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Tip: just don’t use Google products
Ty I was gonna post that link lmao
I was looking for you “OMG GOOGLE IS KILLING EVERYTHING!” people. They don’t have infinite money, stuff costs money to run and if it isn’t as popular as their other services obviously they’d shut it down. People use their products for free (monetarily) for years and then bitch and complain when something gets shut down, never having paid a cent.
People use their products for free (monetarily) for years and then bitch and complain when something gets shut down, never having paid a cent.
Click on the link before commenting, and where did I give a shit about google shutting their stuff down?
I see someone like him and block him instantly, knowing I just made life better.
Scared of differing opinions I see 🤣
Yeah, some things that cost money were killed off, but that’s what happens when they try making everything. Most people have never paid a dime to Google.
How long until they shut down Search? It’s been dog shit for years.
Every single thing I use gets changed, ruined, shut down, canceled, moved, merged. It never ends.
Wound up giving up and using Google podcast BECAUSE other ones I used kept getting shut down.
Pocket Casts has been reliable for me for years. I don’t even use their pro features, but I pay anyway because it’s so cheap. Highly recommended.
I will never shut up about pocket casts. Their multi-device sync is wonderful. I can pick up where I left off on any episode from any of their apps. They’ve even got a pretty decent UWP app that I use on my Windows installs. They also have rock solid Chromecast support.
I loved it so much I bought the lifetime pass a long time ago. At any rate, I can’t recommend pocket casts enough!
I need to check out the lifetime pass price, thanks for reminding me!
Unfortunately, I believe they stopped offering it some time ago. :(
Awh man. Oh well, I’ll keep paying.
Supported!
Thank you for ideas to look into.
My pleasure!
Another great app for podcasts I can recommend is Podcast Addict. Free and it’s full of great features.
To clarify, Pocket Casts is also free. 👍 I just recommend supporting them because the pro price is so cheap.
Cheap? Unless someone snagged Pocketcasts when it was still a one off payment app, it is NOT cheap. Heck, I can pay for YouTube Premium, Spotify Premium and still have money left for one more streaming service to plug into before I hit what Pocketcasts wants me to pay. The app is good but it is the very antithesis of cheap.
Wow, that’s odd.
I’m paying 119 SEK/year for the Plus tier, which is the result of a price raise some time ago as well. But I see now that it’s 533 SEK/year all of a sudden for new customers.
Still, that’s not too expensive, honestly. If you need the features, it’s pretty good.
I don’t, so I won’t pay that amount of my account is put on that price point…
Way of the world. At least the churn of enshitification means we get some new good stuff for a little while.
That’s why I never used it, because I knew it will happen. Better to use some other solution. I wish there was a third party option to google chromecast and all the home devices that works as well.
I just gave up and attached a small form factor PC to my TV.
What are you using for control? I wouldn’t mind scrapping my Roku for something a little more robust but using a mouse and keyboard on my home television seems kind of …awful.
A Trackball is a lot better than a mouse.
That said, I haven’t found anything beats both.
They make mini keyboard/trackball things but they’re all such low quality crap.
I picked up a Logitech K400, it’s working well enough for now. I’m still evaluating the best use cases and access methods for everything but it’s good enough for when I need to just toss a browser up on my screen. Much more convenient than going to my PC in another room to cast a tab; I got tired of getting off the couch just b/c a stream needs to be refreshed.
Thanks for the response
Yeah, I have one of those at work on a central presentation machine. It does ok
Maybe my problem is more getting away from windows and moving to kodi or something. Trying to run a regular desktop GUI from across the room is just an uncomfortable thing.
FWIW I’m dealing with that issue, too. You can size things up and make it work okay but it’s not an amazing experience. I’m also looking at an alternative UI since the vast majority of what I want it for is browser based. I’m exploring some flavors of linux, but I have yet to encounter something that gives me the TV-like interface with PC functionality behind the scenes.
Steam Deck ftw.
It is my everything. Seriously.
Pocketcasts is great and supports Chromecast
Thanks, I know.
I use it, I like it and it works with zero issues. It also easily works with my Google Home speaker. So of course it gets shut down. Because obviously. Sigh.
That said, Pocket Casts on iOS is also quite decent.
Same I pivoted to PocketCasts
Odd, I use the same on mobile and max hub and find they only sync on way. If I listen to one on the hub I have to manually remember where I left off.
Pocket Casts has both an Android and iOS version. If you pay for their “subscription” their web app also works, though I’ve never used it I’ve heard good things.
10 Google: We’re so rich! Let’s make a product!
20 Google: kills product
30 goto 10
Another service that I didn’t know google even offered until they announced it was dying. There are so many sources that podcast apps can pull from that we don’t need half as many as we have.
I actually really enjoy it. It’s my go to no frills podcast app that isn’t paired with music or other extra stuff
I used podcast addict. It does what I need it to do.
It does what you need it to do because it does everything. Podcast Addict is one of the most feature rich apps.
podcast addict is fantastic, I tried a lot of different options before settling on it
I’ve been using AntennaPod and it is no frills and works flawlessly.
Podcasts are just mp3s (or whatever other audio format like ogg). Authors/pod casters should just host them on their site and be done with it. Why let some other company take a lion share of your ad profit. We need less centralized services and more distributed services. Use lemmy or mastodon to promote them. :)
There is value in aggregate discoverabilty via these sites. They also post to all of them not just one. Podcast advertising is dying across the board.
Another one in the Google graveyard.
Anyone have a suggestion for a alternative simple light weight podcast app for android?
Edit: I installed antennapod and it’s exactly what I was looking for. Very light weight and even open source. Thank you for all the suggestions.
Pocket casts. Also, you might be able to export your podcast subscriptions from Google Podcasts in opml format.
Antenna pod is great. I switched to it from google podcasts a couple months ago figuring this would happen.
Seconding AntennaPod, it’s been my daily driver for years. Open source, good community, continual improvements.
Thirding! (is that a thing?)
I recently noticed it has the option to import/export your subscriptions, which is useful for backups or if the podcast app you’re migrating from supports the .opml file format too.
Great suggestion. Thank you both!
Podcast Addict
This was my favorite but I thought it shut down
No, they got acquired by Automatic (AKA that Wordpress company). They’re still plugging along though.
I recently stopped using this. I prefer paying for things so I know they will be taken care of, but their price increases came without any improvements to the service for a while. If you are okay with paying though, it’s pretty good.
AntennaPod is free and has worked well for me so far as a replacement. It isn’t as intuitive with its discovery feature, but it works well enough.
Pocket casts, fucking amazing!
I’ve been using the BeyondPod app. Simple and has a cast feature.
It’s the only one that I’ve found that has Smart Play. I’m not sure why not all podcast players have this, it’s such a great feature. Going back to something without it, would feel like going back to the stone age.
Podcast addict
Another +1 for AntenaPod. It’s fantastic.
I’ve been using BeyondPod for years.
Podkicker
Room to give a shout out to Podverse, free and open source!
AntennaPod is another great option. I’ve already switched after the initial announcement.
Absolutely love AntennaPod
I gave AntennaPod a try and was blown away at the granular control you are allowed over everything. Its a fantastic app that set a new standard for what I look for in an other apps now.
They say it’s crazy YouTube could end. I’m not so sure.
YouTube is too big and dominates too much of certain spaces for streaming. Shutting it down would be stupid. If Google no longer wanted it, it would make WAY more sense to sell. Someone would pay billions for that.
Edit: also, YouTube made $8billion in ad sales last quarter. YouTube ain’t going anywhere right now.
Well, to be more clear, I was trying to say that YouTube could end as a business for Google. I’m not sure if YouTube is doing well right now, financially, and these whole ad management looks like a desperate move.
YouTube has recently been exceeding street expectations and made $8billion in ad sales last quarter alone. Even when revenue took a 2% dip a while back, that business is still a damn cash cow.
Yeah, I still doubt it long-term. It’s become truly annoying to watch YouTube videos without workarounds/Premium these days. Their membership is also more expensive as time goes by. I guess, as long as it is a monopoly, they may keep pushing this. Maybe it’s just me, but feels tired.
