Contact Wondery Support

Although there are several Wondery podcasts I’m interested in listening to, the player itself is what is going to keep me from subscribing. Yes, the lack of ads saves time, but the limited options to speed up playback (1x; 1.25x; 1.5x; 1.75x and 2x) most of the time leave me feeling like I’m either listening too fast or too slow. There are several podcast apps and audioplayer apps that offer speed up in increments of .1. A lot of the time 1.3 or 1.4 is perfect when listening to Wondery podcasts on other apps. I really don’t understand the limited options especially from a brand as professional as Wondery. Something else that is very frustrating, is that when you play back episodes on the continuous setting where the next one automatically plays, if you had the speed set to 1.25x the next episode starts playing at 1x speed even though it shows that it’s 1.25. I thought maybe I was crazy so I played something through the end at 1.75x and the next episode automatically started but it was at 1x, not 1.75 as the app was showing. So every time a new episode starts I have to stop what I’m doing, go back to the app and click through the speeds one time until it resets and starts speeding up again. If these issues are addressed and rectified, I would 100% become a long term subscriber. Until then, I’ll probably listen in another app at an optimal speed. It’s not worth the headache and optimal speed is so important to me.

Bear with me. I subscribed to Wondery so I could download shows to listen to while I was out of service ... no wi-fi, no internet, no nothing ... in the bowels of the Alaskan wilderness. Imagine how disappointed I was to be in the wilderness and try to listen to my “Downloaded Episodes” but noooo ... Wondery wanted me to log in, like I’d never logged in before or even used the app. Ok, no problem ... I’ll play their silly game and log in again EXCEPT since I wasn’t on-line, logging in is impossible and you get the message, “an error occurred.” So I got NOTHING!!! I’d already signed in when I was in civilization so why Wondery needed me to sign in again is beyond me. The second I got BACK into service, Wondery didn’t ask me to sign in ... it just automatically connected me (as it should no matter where I am!!) Another HUGE negative to this app is that EVERY time you launch it, it searches and searches and searches FOREVER before you’ll see anything to listen to. Even if I’m using the Wondery app but switch to any other app (say, I want to look at my texts) switching back to Wondery starts the whole process over again. Fifteen seconds AT LEAST while it “boots up” again. If you don’t leave Wondery in the foreground 100% of the time and do NOTHING ELSE on your phone, it’ll be like the first time you’ve opened the app ... and the process starts all over. Just HORRIBLE. Absolutely the worst app I’ve ever used.

I have written to Wondery support many times over the last year. I am shocked by how awful this app continues to be. As a premium subscriber, I expect at least an app that works. The problems are too many to fully list here. Using an iPhone 11 Pro Max. Examples: open the app, app will take a full half a minute to render the home page (normal for this app). Click an episode to listen to, the app will crash. Force close, re open, click an episode (after waiting for the screen to render as if it’s on dial up internet.....) and it plays! Turn off the screen to pocket phone...content stops. Open phone again and click play. Turn screen back off- content stops again. Only plays if the screen is on. These are only 2 of several regular issues. The only reason I haven’t deleted the app is that I’ve paid for the full year of ad free and love Wondery’s content. They desperately need new app developers though.