YouTube product lead Steve McLendon has confirmed that the platform will add support for RSS (Really Simple Syndication) uploads for podcasters by the end of the year, among other updates.
The new feature has been in beta testing as a strategic, invite-only pilot since earlier this year, reports TechCrunch.
An RSS feed is an online file that contains details about every piece of content a site has published — simply a file that contains all your podcast’s information.
The company also confirmed that it’s rolling out support for podcasts on YouTube Music by the end of the year.
The company earlier announced that podcasts would be added to its music streaming service in the US across iOS, Android, and the web, but it had not yet expanded to other markets, the report said.
Moreover, YouTube announced that users will be able to add RSS feeds to their library within YouTube Music, including private feeds.
According to the report, this would put YouTube Music on par with standalone podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, and others. It also puts YouTube Music ahead of Spotify in terms of private RSS feed support.
Meanwhile, YouTube has announced that it is testing a new feature on Android that will allow users to search for a song on the platform by humming.
“We’re experimenting with the ability for folks to search for a song on YouTube by humming or recording a song that’s currently being played,” the company wrote on the ‘YouTube test features and experiments’ page.
Users in the experiment can toggle from YouTube voice search to the new song search feature, and hum or record the song they are searching for over three seconds in order for the song to be identified.
