In an announcement on the official Google blog, the company announced Friday its plan to kill Google Listen and immediately removed the long-suffering podcast app from Google Play search results.
We launched Google Listen through Google Labs in August 2009, to give people a way to discover and listen to podcasts. However, with Google Play, people now have access to a wider variety of podcast apps, so we’ve discontinued Listen. People who have already installed the app can still use it, but after November 1, podcast search won’t function. You can access your podcast subscriptions in Google Reader in the “Listen Subscriptions” folder and download them from the Import/Export tab.
This decision is not unexpected. Since the app’s initial release three years ago, Google has released a grand total of six revisions, most of them minor. The search function has been broken since day one, the presentation is lackluster at best, and adding podcasts to the queue is done through an incomprehensibly stupid workaround. Google put very little thought or work into the app, so it’s no surprise it failed so badly.
What’s next for Google Listen users? There are plenty of options, though few that work for people without 4G and who want a good free app. Out here in flyover country, spotty 3G reception is the best we can hope for when away from our home WiFi connections. Until mobile carriers improve 3G coverage (STOP LAUGHING IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN), the ability to download podcasts for offline listening is an essential feature. That immediately disqualifies Stitcher Radio, because the podcatching giant relies solely on streaming. I only listen to a few podcasts and I’m poor, so paid apps like BeyondPod, Pocket Casts, and DoggCatcher are out of the question. Although if you’re willing to pay for them, those may be good alternatives.
I’ve tried several other podcatchers since Google’s announcement, and for now, I’ve landed on OneCast. This solid podcatcher allows users to choose whether to stream or download, and the app is free. While I’ve only been using OneCast for a few days, it seems to be the winner. The search function even found an obscure unconventional podcast that I honestly thought I was going to have to add manually. OneCast is ad-supported, but I’ve found the ads to be unobtrusive so far.
The one Google Listen feature I wish was included on OneCast is the six-second rewind button. It’s insane how useful that was and how frustrating every other podcatcher’s 30-second rewind is. And because I won’t be notified of podcast updates through Google Reader anymore as I was with Google Listen, OneCast could use a widget to alert me to updates. Add those to the mix, and OneCast might just be perfect.
As I said in February, working Google Listen into Google Music would be an obvious and natural transition, but based on the tone of the company’s announcement, I doubt that step is even being considered. Google, it seems, has ceded the podcast wars to the iCompetition.
I have a strong feeling that if they put podcast capability into Google Music they will ruin it completely. It’ll probably remove the ability to play back podcasts off line or something. Every upgrade? seems to take something away that used to be easy to do offline. maybe I’ll have to delve into Amazon’s Cloud player some more as i like its integration with the Amazon music store which I’ve actually bought a fair amount of stuff from. unfortunately I’ve uploaded many gigabytes to Google music as a back-up, and would hate to have to do that again with Amazon.
Amazon recently added an auto-ID upload feature to Cloud Player, that means most uploads should go much faster, as it gives you a copy of the song that Amazon has already stored instead of actually uploading yours.