Your favorite Android app to replace Google Podcasts

If you live in the US, Google Podcasts will be shutting down after today, April 2nd. We’ve tested quite a few other podcast apps on Android and selected our favorite alternatives to Google Podcasts.

One of the key requirements for an app to be listed is support for importing OPML files. Google Podcasts offers an efficient way to migrate your podcast subscriptions to YouTube Music, but the app also offers the option to save standard his OPML files and open them elsewhere. . For years, podcast apps and his RSS readers have used his OPML files as a standardized way to export/import subscriptions.

Most voted: Pocket Casts

Used by 4 members 9to5Google The team’s (Abner, Andrew, Damian, and Kyle) favorite Android app to replace Google Podcasts is Pocket Casts.

Pocket Casts has been providing podcasts to Android and iOS users for over 10 years, and the app experience has been thoroughly refined in that time. Pocket Casts extends beyond the simplified feature set of Google Podcasts in many ways by offering unique features such as listening statistics.

Setup is easy as you can log in using your Google Account or traditional email address/password. Then, to take over your shows from Google Podcasts,[プロフィール]Go to the tab, tap the gear icon to configure,[OPML のインポートとエクスポート]Choose. Sign in with your account to sync your podcast library and listening history across your devices for free.

The Pocket Casts player’s interface is simple, but it does require some tweaking from Google Podcasts. Some features are now more prominent, such as viewing notes and the share menu. Meanwhile, the option to play podcasts via Chromecast is hidden in the menu. Otherwise, you’ll see the same controls to fast-forward/reverse a few seconds, adjust playback speed, start a sleep timer, and more.

The home page has a list of shows you’ve subscribed to, and you can sort them by name, date, or latest episode (or you can manually sort them to suit your preferences). In line with one of my favorite features of Google Podcasts;[フィルター]tab’s[新しいリリース]section, you can find a feed of the latest episodes to which you are subscribed.

The real star of the show is the Discover tab. In this tab, Pocket Casts presents many popular and award-winning podcasts from around the internet. The same tab also offers a handy search feature that lets you discover new shows or easily search for specific episodes.

That said, many of the recommendations in the Discover tab are prominently marked as sponsored promotions. In comparison, Google Podcasts was completely ad-free. Pocket Casts also offers some premium features that are only available to paid subscribers, but the free tier is sufficient for most people.

Runner-up: AntennaPod

Another popular Android app for podcasts is AntennaPod. This is the best option we’ve found that allows you to have a clean design while remaining completely ad-free (outside of the standard in-episode ads, of course). AntennaPod is a completely open source project powered by community contributions, so it remains free, private, and ad-free.

From the app’s home page, you’ll see your current queue of podcast episodes, the latest releases from your subscription, a list of what you’ve already downloaded, and more. Even better, you can turn all of these sections on or off to suit your needs.

However, what AntennaPod lacks compared to Pocket Casts is a reliable way to discover new shows you want to try. There’s also an online search option, but unless you already know the name of a particular show, it can be difficult to find gems among the results.

Moving into the player itself, the controls are easily placed, with the standard playback options (speed, rewind, play/pause, skip, next episode) at the bottom, along with snooze, cast, and favorites. It’s at the top.

Admittedly, AntennaPod is not without its drawbacks. Some options aren’t always where I expected them to be. The first adjustment you might want to make (assuming you have a good data plan) is to allow the app to both download and stream podcasts over mobile data.This option can be found by opening setting Proceed from navigation drawer download > mobile update And check all the boxes. You can also carry over your Google Podcasts subscription. Import/Export > OPML import Configuration options.

AntennaPod, on the other hand, offers cross-device sync options, but uses Gpodder, another free and open-source service. Because the servers aren’t free, Gpodder is community-supported and isn’t as reliable as the syncing features of most other podcast apps. However, for the tech-savvy, Gpodder allows you to host your own instance, giving you complete control over your data.

Honorable mention:

YouTube Music

If you’re not picky about which Android app you use to listen to your favorite podcasts, YouTube Music is officially meant to be a Google Podcasts alternative. The only big advantage here is that both your Google Podcasts subscriptions and listening history are seamlessly copied to YouTube Music and kept in sync across devices logged into your Google account.

That being said, we’ve talked at length many times about why YouTube Music is currently one of the least popular Android apps for podcasts. I won’t repeat all of that here, but the gist is that the interface is surprisingly cluttered compared to Google Podcasts.

spotify

We can’t not mention Spotify on this list. Because Spotify was one of the first mainstream music apps to introduce podcast functionality on Android. The company has also invested heavily in original content, including acquiring Anchor, a leading indie podcast publishing platform. With this library and steady design tweaks over the years, Spotify’s podcast and music combination is now more awkward than ever (see: YouTube Music). If you’re already paying for a Spotify subscription, using the podcast feature may be easy.

Oddly enough, despite the closures of two of its major competitors in the podcast space (Stitcher and Google Podcasts) and the resulting massive migrations, Spotify has so far delayed the launch of an official OPML import feature. I’m refusing. Thankfully, it appears that a third-party developer has created a web app, Pod Importer, to import the library.

With Google Podcasts on the verge of becoming nothing more than a nostalgic memory (at least in the US), where do you choose to continue listening to your favorite shows? Let us know in the comments below.