Google Podcasts for Android is a joke
Google revealed the initial release of Google Podcasts recently, a new attempt by the company to establish a podcasting application for Android.
Google Podcasts is available on Google Play; unlike other apps by the company, it is available for all users right away so that you can give it a try right now and don't have to wait weeks or months before it becomes available.
I made the decision to give it a try but had to delay the review until today as the application crashed on several devices that I tried to run it on.
Googled fixed the issue recently which gave me the opportunity to give it a try. Is Google Podcast the start of something beautiful as Tristan Greene over at TNW thinks? Let's find out.
Google Podcasts
Google Podcasts displays a list of top and trending podcasts on start, and top podcasts of categories such as comedy, news & politics, or religion & spirituality when you scroll down.
A tap on a podcast displays a short description and available episodes. You can play any right away with a tap on the play button.
The first issue that you may run into is that you cannot subscribe to any podcasts if you don't turn on the Web & app activity. Google Podcasts states that it is used to give "personalized recommendations based on your listening history". While Google Podcasts does display a "dismiss" option, doing so won't subscribe you to the podcasts and tapping on the subscribe button again displays the same permission notification.
So, if you don't give Google permission to save the activity on Google sites and apps, including searches, you cannot use one of the essential features of any podcasting application: subscribing to podcasts.
While you can still play podcasts directly, you'd have to check any podcast you are interested in regularly to find out if new episodes have been published.
You are in for another disappointment when you check the available options and settings. The settings page lists just two options right now: the two define when episodes get deleted.
That's it; no option to change the download location for podcasts, and no option to define auto-downloading behavior.
The rest of the application is as bare-bones as its settings. Google Podcasts does not support playlists or custom podcast URLs. If a podcast is not included in Google's directory, you cannot add it to the application.
Playback quality is good and Google did implement some useful features such as changing the playback speed or skipping forward or back.
Closing words
When you compare Google Podcasts to popular podcasting apps for Android such as Pocket Casts (paid) or Podcast Addict you will notice that these offer better functionality.
Google Podcasts could get there eventually but Google would have to improve the app across the board. As it stands right now, there is no reason to use Google Podcast as you find plenty of better alternatives on Google Play.
Now You: What is your take on Google Podcast?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?