While radio talk shows are often lumped in with the 90s, the rise in podcast popularity is proof that people still want audio content with story and meaning. With their accessibility for both listening and creating, podcasts have become the next big platform for entertainment.
A podcast, or a pre-recorded discussion that listeners can download or stream freely, can be played anytime and anyplace. Utilizing a host of streaming service providers, both on their mobile devices or PCs, podcast managers provide users with an integrated way to queue, stream, download, and play podcasts.
Google also provides podcast managing service, which is free to all its users. Anyone who has a Gmail account can use Google Podcast to access thousands of podcasts available on the internet. The Google Podcast app is available on both Android and iOS.
Downloading Google Podcast
On an Android device, if the Podcast app is not already installed, simply go to Google Play Store and search Google Podcast. It will be displayed in the search results. Click on it to install. iPhone users can find the Google Podcast app on the iOS App Store.
We will discuss the rich features of the Google Podcast app that makes it the most popular podcast app on Android.
Find A Podcast
On your android device, open your podcast app and tap on Search. There will be a magnifying glass beside it. Enter the name of the podcast you intend to find and tap the magnifying glass icon. Your search results will show up below the Search box. Tap the podcast and click on Subscribe.
On a computer, you can do the same by logging into your Google account on a browser and going to podcasts.google.com. This is the desktop web version, and you can also search for a podcast using the search bar. Google is focusing on Podcasts for Android and Google Home Devices, so the desktop web version is limited in features.
If you do not have a specific podcast in mind and just want to see the various podcasts available, tap on Search without typing anything in the search box, and you will see recommendations. You can also choose any of the podcast genres at the top e.g., Comedy. Various podcasts will be displayed. You can tap on any one of your choices to subscribe.
To find the episodes of a subscribed podcast, Open the podcast app and click on the podcast at the top of the home page. All subscribed podcasts are located there. The podcast you have tapped on will open, showing its episodes. You can then tap on the name of the episode get more details.
Podcast Queue
The queue is a quick way to select different episodes you want to download automatically. You can play the downloaded episodes in any order of your choice. To add a podcast episode to a queue, go to the episode and click on Queue. The icon is a plus sign with three horizontal parallel lines, located between play and download. To remove an episode from the queue, go to your Activity, the three horizontal lines at the bottom of the page. To remove a single episode, tap the three lines next to the episode. To clear all the episodes, click More at the top of the page and tap clear your queue.
Google Podcast App Settings
To make changes to the default settings on your Google Podcast app, open the app, and click on your profile picture to the right of the podcast page. A popup will show with your Google account settings. At the lower end of the popup, click on Podcast Settings.
Auto-Download
One of the newly added features of Google Podcast is the auto-download. With this new feature, you can set your podcast app to download new episodes of podcasts you have subscribed to automatically. You can choose to auto-download on Wi-Fi only or even with your mobile network.
To set Auto download, go to settings as described above. At the top of the page, click on Auto Download. Tap on the toggle switch beside Auto-download new episodes. The color should change to blue.
Your subscriptions will be shown below. Choose the subscriptions you want to auto-download new episodes from by tapping on the toggle switches beside them. Immediately below Auto-download new episodes, there is Only on Wi-Fi, which is on by default, meaning that new episodes will only download on when the phone is connected to Wi-Fi. Toggling it off means that your cellular data will also be used for auto-downloading.
Remove Completed or Unfinished Episodes
To set the duration for episodes to stay on your device, go to settings, and click on remove completed episodes. You can select to remove after 24 hours, which means that the episode will be cleared after 24 hours of listening to it. You can choose never to remove them.
You can also remove unfinished episodes by clicking on Remove unfinished episodes, and in the popup, choose the duration which unfinished episodes should last on your device.
Theme
Under Settings and Appearance, you can also choose the theme you prefer. Click on Theme, and in the popup that will appear, choose either Light or Dark or Set by Battery Saver.
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