Google Play Music Podcasts Available For Some Users

That Google was planning to add podcasts to its Play Music service isn't exactly news. We've known that since last year. That it would be coming this month, however, is the big thing, thanks to a slip of the tongue by sportscaster Bill Simmons. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it seems that Google is slowly, very slowly rolling out the service. Thanks to the new A/B testing feature for Google Play apps, some Android users have begun enjoying podcasts on the same app as their music.

Visually speaking, the new Podcasts section in Play Music isn't that distinctly different from the rest of the app. Which is, of course, a good thing for the sake of consistency. Unless you happen to have a dislike for the app's orange hue. The section has two tabs, one for featured shows of Google's own liking and another for your own subscriptions. Shows are displayed in the usual big tiles with cover art and titles beneath.

Drilling down to the details of a particular show will present the show's artwork, an expandable description, and the list of previous episodes. Subscribing to a show will pop up a dialog asking whether you want to download the last five episodes as well as be notified of any new episodes. The player controls have been tweaked a bit, swapping out thumbs up and down icons for 30 second backward and forward skips.

One probably apparently is that, at the moment, the search function searches through both music collection and podcasts, without an option to filter podcasts only. That might come soon, though, as the feature is still in its infancy. At least as far as public use is concerned.

As it stands, Google Play Music Podcasts is very, very basic, mirroring the also basic functionality of the app itself. That might be OK for those who want a no frills basic podcast app but might also be a deterrent for more seasoned listeners. But, again, we're just as the beginning, so who knows what's coming next.

VIA: Android Police