So far, none. Google podcast is pretty basic (feature-wise) to be honest. But being forced to give access to location and web history was a big turn off to me. However I found PodByte on the PlayStore that fit my small podcast needs without giving away all my personal data.
Many thanks for pointing it out, I was wondering where to go afterwards, because Google Podcasts was a sweetspot for me in terms of features, and all the alternatives seemed too much for me.
> What is it that these apps offer that the default Google podcast doesn't?
For one, donating directly to the podcaster herself instead of to Spotify/Google/Anchor/Apple or whoever else runs the app.
> Does it give better discovery options?
Sort of, yes. Let me explain: All podcasting apps rely on the Apple podcast index. [1] One of the very early podcasters, Adam Curry, was worried about this index being run by Apple, who may or may not one day decide to censor the index or ask money for it. So he set up his own [2].
I actually really liked Google podcasts. It had a rough start but after a few years of polish the only complaint I have is there's no episode search capability within a series.
Google Podcasts is TERRIBLE compared to Google Play. The UX is just so bad. You'd expect at least some podcast-specific features like mark podcast as listened.
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