Do you podcast ? Google hasa new appout for Android that ’s ready to download and play all your preferent pods . While the functionality is a little on the naked - bones side for now , it does have one sweep through up its sleeve — the ability to play your podcasts across all your devices with the help of Google Assistant . Here ’s how it work on .
The Google Podcasts app
A quick visit to the mise en scene blind emphasizes how lightweight Google has continue this app , at least for now — your only options are to select how long complete and bare episodes are kept around .
Google saysAI is used to fine - tune the recommendations users see in the app , but it ’s difficult to see how this might be operate under the strong-armer . If you sign to a few movie podcasts , you ’ll get recommendation for more movie podcasts , but that ’s hardly cutting bound artificial intelligence at oeuvre .
A more utile lotion of AI is coming soon , Google tell : reflexive subtitling of episode , similar to what ’s offered on YouTube , so you’re able to keep up with what ’s being said even if you ’re in a noisy environment .
Once you start playing a podcast , you ’ll see the playback controls are ransack - down and unsubdivided . There ’s a playback bar that you’re able to habituate to jump to specific points , buttons for jumping back ten seconds or onward 30 seconds , and a tool for hold in playback speeding ( 0.5x to 2x ) .
Listening across multiple devices
So far , it may seem improbable that Google could win over you to switch fromyour current podcast appof pick , but hold on for just a minute ; Google Podcasts works across other devices with the Google Assistant installed , so you should be able to express on where you left off on a Google Home , for deterrent example .
gather all our Google - power devices together , we put this to the mental test , and indeed it seemed to work as publicise — at first . Say “ hey Google , play [ podcast name ] , ” and it continues play from where you left off on your phone . you’re able to also say “ continue my podcast ” if you prefer , and also jump to the next podcast in the instalment tilt .
We successfully carried on listening via a Google Home Mini , a Pixelbook with Google Assistant integrate , and even the Google Assistant app for iOS — so while there is n’t a Google Podcasts app for iPhones yet , you may at least get at your current episodes in a roundabout manner .
What did n’t work so smartly was synching across all these machine . Listening through a Google Home Mini did n’t seem to record in the original Google Podcasts app for Android , which means when we went back to the app we heard the same part of our podcast over again — it was a dependable episode , but it was n’t that good .
When starting and resuming on Google Assistant devices and apps only , meanwhile , the syncing seemed hit or miss . Sometimes whatever arrangement Google has going on in the cloud seemed to log our hearing position , but at other times it did n’t . Presumably this will get fixed over time , but it ruin the magic if the original app does n’t realize you ’ve hear to half an episode on your smart speaker .
By the way , if you search for a podcast in the Google app for Android , episodes show up and can be played directly from the result screen , which is a nice pinch . This does n’t work ( at least not yet ) in Google search on the web or in the Google app for iOS .
How Apple’s devices compare
Apple has its own Podcasts app which is more sophisticated than Google ’s offering justly now — there are excess feature like sleep timers and chapter markers , while the breakthrough section seems to operate a little better than Google ’s .
Apple offer more ways to dig into podcasts ( via a feature podcasts department , category , trending appearance , and search ) and a more varied way of present them . you’re able to easily take heed to show from the find pageboy if you do n’t require to support straightaway .
And Apple has invested in podcast syncing , too , thanks to iCloud — it ’s suppose to mould across iOS , iTunes for Windows and Mac , Apple TV , and the HomePod . We have n’t try it extensively ourselves , butpostson thewebsuggest some substance abuser have problem suffer everything synced up .
We have tested Siri and the Podcasts app on the iPhone , and it works really well — even better than Google Assistant does with Google Podcasts . you may pick up from where you last listened , ascendence playback , pass over between episode , and more .
Arguably though , it ’s the ability to jump between gadget that podcast devotee really require , and to be fair to Google and Apple , this is something even the proficient podcast apps in the business have also struggled with . When you ’ve got such a mix of local and cloud contentedness , as well as multiple gadget to view , catch the same playback positions synced across all of them is n’t easy .
For now neither Google nor Apple can really gasconade about independently offer the good podcasting experience on their program — Google is patently playing snatch up decent now , but both service have their durability and weaknesses . What seems most promising are the feature film Google say it ’s project to lend to its barebones help . But until then , you may find yourself look elsewhere for a more sophisticated servicing .
Siri
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