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Google Listen review
Damien McFerran
We review Google Listen, a podcast-centric app which allows you to create your own unique audio magazine
Rating: ![]()
Verdict: Google Listen is a great way to keep on top of your weekly podcasts, but there's still some work to be done to make it 100% perfect
Platform: Android
Pros: Easy to use and once its setup it requires very little in the way of tinkering - you just press play and listen to your latest podcast subscriptions - simple
Cons: Google Listen currently only gives access to English-language podcasts, and keeping your SD card tidy once you start downloading shows is more difficult than it should be
Version: 1.0.0
Publisher: Google Labs
Price: Free
More Info: Google Labs Website
While the term “Podcast” can trace its roots back to Apple’s iPod, it has become a phrase that is used to sum up any audio show that is distributed via the internet. There are now podcasts for pretty much every subject imaginable, and unsurprisingly it can be a real effort to keep on top of them.
Google Listen is an application which has been developed by the company’s maverick Google Labs team, and aims to take the effort out of keeping up with your podcast favourites.
On the most basic level, Google Listen is an organisational tool for podcasts and other audio-based items. Using the app’s database you can search for practically any English-language podcast and add it to your unique list of subscriptions.
As you add more and more podcasts you begin to create an “audio magazine” which is filled with shows that are of particular interest to you. The idea is that once you’ve created a solid list of podcasts, you can simply press play and Google Listen will move through each one sequentially. Once a show is finished, the app will mark it as listened-to and will remove it from the queue. The only time you will hear that particular show again is when a new episode becomes available.
Of course, there’s the opportunity to be a little more hands-on, if you wish. You can download episodes to your SD card so they never get deleted, and if you’re in the mood for a particular podcast then you can override your subscriptions and create a queue of individual shows instead.
Conversely, for those moments when you don’t mind having a few random audio selections forced into your ears you can eavesdrop on the current popular searches to see what other people are listening to.
Google Listen is an incredibly powerful tool for podcast enthusiasts but there’s still work to be done; it’s currently restricted to English-language audio at present, and organising the files saved to your SD card can be slightly irksome.
However, we have no doubt that Google Labs will work to improve and augment the experience as time goes by. Android users don’t usually have much to smile about in the face of the iPhone’s App Store and its dominance of the digital download arena, but this is one program which is Android-exclusive for the time being and will make your iPhone-owning friends very jealous indeed.











