Months after a leak revealed the company’s plans to create a “podcast destination page,” YouTube has added podcasts to its Explore page.
In addition to the existing Explore page, YouTube.com/podcasts is now live.
Podcasts are popularly streamed on YouTube, and it was expected that the service would become more optimized. The shift seems to have occurred in July, although other countries are gradually adopting it.
This feature can be accessed on both desktop and mobile applications, where the carousels can be expanded to display “Show all,” “Popular episodes,” “Popular podcast playlists,” “Recommended,” and “Popular podcast creators.”
Rather than defaulting to “Listening controls,” users can browse through regular video thumbnails, and with a simple tap, a regular player on Android will begin playing the video. There are larger buttons and shortcuts for like, save, and speed adjustment.
In the near future, YouTube will integrate podcasts on the same platform instead of creating a separate podcast app to optimize the podcast experience for end users.