The biggest web firm has put its weight to podcasting on the biggest smartphone OS.
On June 19, Google launched Google Podcasts in the Play Store. Rather than the past podcasts add-on to Google Play Music, the new Google Podcasts is a standalone endeavor.
Although there are many podcast apps for Android, the world’s most popular operating system for smartphones, this one has Google’s muscle behind it. As such, it will become a podcast destination and create opportunities for your station.
Another plus comes for owners of the Google Home smart speaker. Google Podcasts interacts with Home via Voice Assistant. The current catch is that, while you can ask your smart speaker to resume playing a podcast, it may not sync back to one’s app. One can expect this may be fixed in updates. Nevertheless, you may wish to educate your audiences about this functionality.
Also of interest may be the keywords and content are written in your podcast notes. Like many other podcast mobile resources, Google Podcasts gives the user an array of podcasts in many categories. The difference with Google Podcasts is that, unlike apps that offer you a list of podcast categories, this one uses artificial intelligence based on your subscriptions and listening to offer recommendations.
If your station has a podcast or wants to list in the app, there’s a Google preview generator here. Bear in mind Google wants a particular bit of code in your RSS feed in order to list your podcast. It may take Google a few weeks to get your podcast listed.
Need a Google Podcasts badge for your website? Google Developers has a zip file with all the graphics you need.
