YouTube Music rolls out automatic podcast downloads

Following the news that Google Podcasts will be shutting down next year, YouTube Music now has the ability to automatically download podcasts.

To enable, visit the View page and tap the new settings gear icon to “Save/D to Library”. This moves the Turn Automatic Downloads button up and it will instantly download the latest episode to your device for offline listening.

Starting today, episodes you’ve finished listening will no longer be automatically deleted. It is possible that files will be deleted after a new episode is available/downloaded or after a specific increment of time, such as a full day, but we are unable to test this yet.

There is no setting for automatic removal at this time, which is essential for other customers. For example, Google Podcasts has a “Remove completed episodes” preference that lets you set an increment: after 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days. This application also provides control to “remove incomplete episodes”.

Automatic downloads work on a per-view (and per-device) basis, so you have to enable them individually. Google Podcasts offers a dedicated auto download page to quickly toggle downloads on/off. The rough equalizer in YouTube Music goes to the Library tab > Podcasts > Downloaded filter for management with individual lists.

We’re seeing automatic podcast downloads with YouTube Music version 6.21 for Android And internal control Department.

The big feature that many have been waiting for is subscription via RSS as this would turn YouTube Music into a live podcast player that doesn’t require demos to create and upload video versions first, although Google is also working on auto-streaming. Hopefully the first will come soon.

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