YouTube Music promises Podcasts will get better on the platform

Google Podcasts is officially dead. That has been the case for a week now, and the designated replacement – YouTube Music – is just not cutting it yet. The YouTube Music podcasting experience is rough, and users aren’t holding back on the feedback.

Thankfully, the YouTube Music Podcasts team seems to be listening. They took to Reddit to let us know they hear us and are “working on a lot more improvements,” but also shared a short list of things that have already been achieved for podcasts, such as:

• Sorting options: You can now sort a podcast’s episodes from newest to oldest, oldest to newest, most popular, or default. It’s pretty puzzling that this wasn’t a day-one feature, though.
• International love: Non-US users now get podcasts on their Home feed, including the new “Recommended shows” shelf that is already available to U.S. users, making new episode discovery a lot easier.
• Search Tweaks: Improved search results, making it easier to find the podcasts you actually want.

These tweaks are a start, but it’s shocking these weren’t ready before Google Podcasts was sunsetted. YouTube Music is currently missing core features that even casual podcast fans are going to notice.

Many of the suggestions on that Reddit thread involve basic stuff that is still frustratingly absent. Having features like being able to search for an episode within a subscription, chapter navigation, and being able to mark episodes as played are some of the top ones.

Even though the transition from Google Podcasts to YouTube Music was just officially announced last year, we’ve known for quite some time that was the plan all along. Considering that timeline, it is a wonder why so many features that were previously on Google Podcasts have yet to be ported to its replacement.

Hopefully, Google takes the user feedback to heart and begin to implement these improvements as soon as possible. As users were left without an alternative, many could opt to flee to other platforms like Pocket Casts or Spotify, so it is of major importance that the experience be fixed expeditiously.