Google Podcasts officially launched in June with an Android app and integration with Assistant and Google Home. Over the past few months, features like Chromecast support and easier sharing were finally added. The latest properly renders links in episode show notes, along with improved text formating.

When Google Podcasts launched, it did not support links and other URLs in episode show notes. URLs are frequently used by podcasters to include websites, sponsors, link to topics discussed on shows, and provide other contact information. This omission from the makers of Google Search was quite baffling, with the only saving grace being how the main show page features a “Visit website” shortcut in the overflow menu.

Fortunately, this issue was resolved sometime over the past few weeks. Heading to an episode’s show notes will now properly display linked text. Links feature a standard blue font color and underline. Meanwhile, tapping automatically opens Google Chrome, and not a Chrome Custom Tab.

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Google Podcasts now also properly formats show notes with spacing, bolded text, and bullet points. When users first open an episode page, it will take a brief second for everything to properly render.

This feature was not available when we last checked in early November, but it appears to be tied to Google app 8.70 and above. That version just exited the beta channel this afternoon and should begin widely rolling out over the next few days.

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