It’s about time that Google launched an app for podcasts in Android. The company is betting hard on AI and audio focused content and this is showing it. We already submitted our podcast and the process seems fairly straightforward. Besides the podcast RSS URL, it is required to verify ownership of the email associated with the RSS feed. After that the approval process begins. We’ll report back when we hear from them.  

Continuing with the trend in naming service as literal as possible the app is called Google Podcasts and will recommend shows that users may like based on their listening profile. Google is predicting a lot of growth for podcast listeners. The coolest part, for us anyway, is that the app will come integrated with Google Assistant meaning you can search for and play podcasts wherever you have Assistant enabled. The company will sync your place in a podcast across all Google products, so if you listen to half a podcast on your way home from work, you can resume it on your Google Home once you’re back at the house. Google is playing Apple with this move to integrate across their products, which seems smart. And Apple is playing no one in this movement. To be fair, Apple has had podcast app for ages and played audio way before Google, exactly the reason why their silence and relative lack of action is telling.

According to an article by The Verge, in the coming months, Google plans to add a suite of features to Podcasts that are powered by artificial intelligence. One feature will add closed captions to your podcast, so you can read along as you listen. Eventually, you’ll be able to read real-time live transcriptions in the language of your choice, letting you “listen” to a podcast even if you don’t speak the same tongue as the host.

If I had one complaint is that they do not have a plan to release it on IOS, which, with them becoming Apple, makes sense.

Thanks for listening. Leave a comment on Twitter @voicefirstlabs or Instagram @voicefirstweekly and let us know what you think about the format of the flash briefing, the content or drop a question you will like us to discuss. Till next time!

Referenced:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/19/17475878/google-podcast-app-android-download-launch-date