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Winners and Losers: YouTube Music expands to podcasts as Twitter hides Twitter Blue mention
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Another bank holiday weekend means another new edition of Trusted Reviews Winners and Losers.
This week saw the launch of theMotorola Edge 40,Star Wars: Jedi Survivorland on consoles and PC, and plenty ofPixel 7aandPixel Foldrumours ahead of next week’s annual I/O event.
Keep reading to discover our winner and loser from this past week.
Winner: Google
Our winner this week is Google after the company finally rolled outsupport for podcasts on YouTube Musicin the US.
The YouTube Music app now has a dedicated tab that subscribers can tap into to find podcasts – that is at least for those who have already received the update. Podcasts are rolling out slowly so you might have to check back later if you haven’t received it just yet.
Like Spotify, YouTube Music will allow users to move between the audio and video versions of a podcast directly within the audio streaming app. This feels like something that has long been missing from YouTube Music, especially considering how popular its video-focused counterpart has been for watching video podcasts.
Podcasts have been a huge area of investment for Spotify in recent years with 5 million podcasts currently available across the app. Apple Podcasts is also an incredibly popular destination for the format, with more than 2 million titles hosted on its own app.
£30 per month for the Google Pixel 7 and 100GB of data
The Pixel 7 is one of the best phones we’ve reviewed this year, especially for the price. Now you can get it for an incredible price that includes 100GB of data on the Three network for just £30 per month, making it even more affordable. If you’re a keen mobile photographer, it’s an ideal handset for you.
Unfortunately, there’s currently no word on when YouTube Music’s podcast tab will be available in the UK (or anywhere else in the world). Google first announced that podcast support would be coming to the US in February, so, hopefully, it won’t be long before the rest of the world is invited to get on board.
Loser: Twitter
This week’s loser is Twitter after the social platform made yet another questionable decision regarding its verification process.
Twitter has officially removed any reference to Twitter Blue next to its verification tick. That means there’s no longer any easy way to distinguish which users paid for the little blue icon.
Up until recently, clicking on the blue check brought up a message that read “This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number”.
Now, the message simply states “This account is verified”, leaving it up to users to distinguish celebrities and public figures from us regular people.
Twitter has changed the label for all verified accountspic.twitter.com/TZJSTFnS4q
This update comes weeks afterTwitter ended its Legacy Blue check system, taking the tick away from any users still holding onto it from last year or earlier.
You might think that getting rid of the Legacy Blue check would help drive subscriptions. However, according to a report byMashable, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all with the net growth of Twitter Blue subscribers continuing to fall in line with that of previous weeks.
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Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
