I swapped my podcast apps for YouTube Premium, and I’m not going back

For almost a decade, my daily podcast routine has been split between two apps. If I wanted to watch a video podcast, I would open up the main YouTube app, but if I just wanted to listen to audio while walking or doing chores, Pocket Casts and Spotify were my go-to combo.

While YouTube Premium does support background listening, it’s never been designed for pure, screen-off listening, even though the platform has quickly become the biggest home for podcasts, with almost every creator moving toward a video-first format. And so, I stuck to my tried and tested combo.

However, when Google rolled out a new set of podcast features for YouTube Premium subscribers, I decided it was time to change things up. I forced myself to drop my usual apps and use the main YouTube app for all of my podcast listening to see if it could actually handle the job. After spending a full week testing them out, I can tell you that these changes completely fix my biggest problems with listening to long talk shows on the app, and might just convince me to switch over.

The one feature I was looking forward to the most was the newfangled On-the-go mode. In the past, trying to listen to a podcast on YouTube while moving around was a bit of a mess. You either had to leave your screen turned on, which meant you would constantly tap random buttons by accident when the phone was in your pocket, or you had to use the background playback feature, which hid all your controls away in the notification shade.

This new mode fixes those old, annoying problems by giving you a clean, simple layout designed exactly for walking around. When you turn it on, the video disappears completely, leaving you with oversized buttons you can tap without even looking down at your phone. Simply put, it looks a lot like a dedicated podcast app UI.

During my daily morning walks and trips to the local store, this layout has made a huge difference. The screen focuses entirely on large buttons to skip forward or backward, change your current queue, and tweak the playback speed. Further, it builds on top of the chapter segmentation that YouTube already does, so you can easily skim forward without having to hit tiny timeline bars. It feels like Google finally understands that millions of people use its video app just like a standard audio player, and it has built an interface that matches how people actually use it in the real world.

The next feature I spent a lot of time testing was Auto speed, since I tend to speed up most podcasts in Pocket Casts anyway. Most normal podcast apps have a setting that lets you skip over silences, which just cuts out the empty spaces between words to save you a bit of time, or they let you speed up the overall podcast.

YouTube took a very different path here, using a smart system that adjusts the playback speed based on the actual pace of the conversation. The app listens to the talk show in real time, speeding up playback when the hosts speak slowly or during long introductions, then dropping back to normal when the conversation picks up and gets more exciting. Additionally, you can set a base speed. So, if you prefer to listen at 1.25x the default speed, auto speed will dynamically speed up slower sections even faster than that and drop down to 1.25x when the conversation gets dense.

It works surprisingly well, though it can throw you off a bit the first time you hear the change in pacing. I usually set my standard playback speed to 1.25x. When the hosts paused to think or slowed down in slower sections, the app sped up gently without making the voices sound weird or high-pitched. Even better, when the podcast got into a very complicated topic where the hosts were sharing lots of details quickly, the system automatically slowed down just a bit so I could understand everything without having to hit pause. I suspect more podcast apps will try to crib this feature, and they should.

The third big feature is the expansion of the Ask Music tool into podcast recommendations. This AI tool is an expansion of the Ask YouTube feature and is only available in a few regions. Although it was originally designed to let you create custom music stations by typing in simple descriptions, you can now use it to discover new podcasts as well.

That’s great, as finding a new podcast can often feel like a lot of work, since you usually have to look through generic top charts that list the same popular shows every single week or go digging for recommendations online. Now, you can simply type a specific sentence into the chat box to get a personalized list of recommendations that match your exact mood or interest.

I tried this out by typing in a few very specific ideas to see how smart the system actually was. I tested it out by asking it for mystery fiction podcasts, as well as some covering AI-related news. Instead of just showing me the most famous hits everyone already knows, the AI found relatively lesser-known shows that fit my request perfectly. You can also filter your choices based on how you feel, specific tech topics, or shows that are similar to the videos you already watch the most. It takes the guesswork out of finding something new to listen to, which is a massive help when you finish your favorite show and need something fresh.

Spending a full week using YouTube as my main podcast player really changed how I think about using the app for long-form listening. The platform is no longer just a place to watch my daily dose of funnies. It’s clear that Google is exploring ways to expand its features to include podcast listening as well. I do find it funny, however, since YouTube already has a full-fledged Music app and the two experiences should ideally have been converged into a single application. But that’s a discussion for another day.

By combining the benefits of video shows with features like On-the-go mode and Auto speed, Google has created a powerful tool for avid podcast listeners and even those who are just curious about the medium. Of course, it’s far from ideal that you have to pay $16 a month to access these basic features, since they are gated behind YouTube Premium. However, if you’re already a subscriber, these three features are excellent additions and go a long way toward making YouTube a good choice for all your podcast listening.