Summary
- YouTube Music is in the process of adding a “Trim Silence” feature for podcasts, finally catching up with the soon-to-be-dead Google Podcasts.
- Trim silence cuts out long pauses to make podcast episodes shorter and more efficient for listeners.
- YouTube Music is also working on other changes in the meantime, such as enabling offline listening on the web.
YouTube Music officially started supporting podcasts in its apps almost a year ago. Although Google said at the time that its standalone Podcasts app wasn’t going anywhere, we now know that it didn’t pan out. Ahead of the service’s expected closure in April, the YouTube Music team is busy giving the final touches to the podcast experience in the app. With this in mind, developers are working on adding a feature that’s pretty common among the best podcast apps, including the soon-to-be-dead Google Podcasts.
YouTube Music still needs these crucial features to compete with Spotify and Apple Music
While YouTube Music offers some unique advantages, there are still several key features that it’s missing
Thanks to code spotted within YouTube Music (v6.43.52) by AssembleDebug, we know that Google is working on adding the Trim Silence functionality to the app. Designed specifically for podcasts, the string reads – “Skip stretches of silence during episodes.” AssembleDebug notes that the feature isn’t visible even with the aforementioned version of YouTube Music installed, suggesting that it could arrive in the future as part of a server-side push.
Trim silence works exactly as it sounds, cutting out long pauses or silences from the podcasts. This has the benefit of trimming down the playtime of each episode and letting you run through podcasts quickly. Third-party apps like PocketCasts have multiple trim silence options for additional customization. It will be interesting to see what YouTube Music’s version of trim silence will look like and if there will be a toggle in the media player to enable/disable this functionality, similar to Google Podcasts.
Interestingly, Google Podcasts has supported the ability to cut periods of silence during podcast episodes since 2018. So it’s hard to understand why it has taken this long for YouTube Music to adopt this functionality. But it’s better late than never, as the saying goes.
Some other changes are in the offing for YouTube Music
In a bid to ensure a seamless experience for YouTube Music users on the web and mobile apps, the platform recently started supporting offline viewing on the web. The only caveat is that the user needs to be connected to the internet at least once every 30 days for the downloaded content to remain.
While Google hasn’t officially announced this offline viewing functionality for the web, offline downloads will be limited to YouTube Music Premium subscribers. However, podcast downloads don’t require a subscription, as mentioned on the Google support page.
