As YouTubes role in podcasting increases, Pocket Casts announced today that its web, Mac, and Windows apps are now free with a subscription no longer required.The Automattic-owned Pocket Casts has long offered web and desktop clients, but this previously required a Plus ($3.99 per month/$39.99 annual) or Patron ($9.99 per month/$99.99 annual) subscription to access.As of today, the Pocket Casts Web Player is now accessible to all, no subscription required: play.pocketcasts.com. It follows Apple Podcasts launching a web app last August.These changes also apply to ourMacandWindowsDesktop Apps, giving you more ways to listen on your terms.The Mac and Windows apps were redesigned in June. Additionally, you can be signed out and use the apps to browse/play. Making an account will allow: Syncing playback progress across devices, Managing your podcast queue seamlessly, and Saving subscriptions and preferences.As for why Pocket Casts is making this change:Podcasting was built on an open, decentralized standard, RSS, which means that anyone can create, share, and listen to content freely, without needing a specific platforms approval. But today, major platforms are shifting away from open standards, moving creators into proprietary systems that limit distribution and control discovery through algorithms.By making our Web Player available to everyone, were reinforcing our belief that podcasts belong to the people, not corporations.The Pocket Casts Plus subscription offers: Folders organization, Smart Shuffle, Bookmark creation, Chapter Preselection, Apple Watch and Wear OS app access, 20GB of cloud storage, and more app customization (themes + icons).Meanwhile, Pocket Casts for Android is getting a new header design after just adding pull-to-refresh. It helps modernize the app, which recently went edge-to-edge, but a Material 3 redesign is also needed at this point.Add 9to5Google to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Google experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel