Google Podcasts Gets Cast Button in Now Playing Page on Android

Sep. 9, 2020

As promised in a recent Reddit AMA, Google Podcasts has added a Cast button in the Now Playing screen on Android. Although this is a minor change, it should significantly enhance the user experience if Google Podcasts is your preferredAndroid podcast appfor listening to your favorite podcasts. The update is currently rolling out through the latest Google app 11.27 beta version.

While Google added the Cast button to the top-left corner of the home page as part of this year’s redesign andexpansion of the Podcasts app to iOS, there was no way to seamlessly cast once the user plays an episode or a show. With this update, Google has addressed that complaint.

As you would expect, tapping on the Cast button shows a pop-up that lists all the available smart speakers and displays. Thenew Cast button replaces the old Info buttonto view the details of the podcast. Users can replicate the Info button’s functionality by tapping on the podcast’s title above the Play/Pause button, which is arguably better than having a dedicated Info button.

As mentioned earlier, Google is rolling out this change through Google app beta. If you’re someone who extensively uses Google Podcasts and casting, you can get started right now byenrolling in Google app’s beta program. We could expect the software giant to roll out the feature to the stable version in the coming days. It should make its way to iOS as well in the future.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.