ANDROID users have been left absolutely gutted after plans were announced to close down a free Google app within a matter of days.
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The search engine giant is shutting down its Podcasts app and has already started warning users to migrate their subscriptions to YouTube Music by April 2.
Those who don’t make the move immediately will no longer be able to stream from the Podcasts app directly after this date.
However, there will be additional time to migrate subscriptions elsewhere, Techcrunch reports.
The Google Podcasts app has been installed over 500 million times on Android devices globally.
For more than half a decade, the beloved app has offered a simple and streamlined interface for discovering, following and listening to podcasts, as well as tools to add podcasts by RSS feed.
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Google’s decision to shut down the app comes as part of its broader plan to centralise its audio services under YouTube.
The change will take place next week, with Google confirming that it was still “tracking towards” the April 2 timeline for the US.
While a timeline has not been shared for the rest of the world yet, the company plans to discontinue Google Podcasts globally in 2024.
A support page on Google’s site confirms that users in the US will only be able to use the Podcasts app until the end of March 2024.
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For users who miss the in-app pop-ups, Google will offer additional time to save their subscriptions by allowing them to use the app’s export feature through July 2024.
App users have been left devastated by the news and have voiced their opinions on the decision to switch to YouTube Music.
One person said: “Very dumb move. YouTube music is not good so I just picked a different android app.”
A second person commented: “This is just bad business by them again. People don’t even use YouTube music they use Apple and Spotify.”
It comes after viewers who were late to the BritBox game – or simply want to watch it before it disappears – were told they could no longer subscribe to the standalone service.
Launched in 2019 by ITV and BBC Studios, it will shut down at the end of April.
In October, budgeting app Money Dashboard Neon and Classic abruptly shut down despite being used “religiously” by fans.
In an email sent to users, the company said it “could not find a sustainable business model for the apps” and are was therefore “unable to continue supporting the services”.
