Airshow: Lightweight Podcasts Reviews

by @docuguy

While promising at first, with a clean interface, I found Airshow hard to use. I could not keep track of the episodes I'd played. If there was a way to play at 1.5 speed I never found it. It always opened with a blank screen, never the last episode I played or the next one in a series that I should be playing. A disappointment from this developer who is usually good.

by Mattlantis

It’s almost the killer feature of a feeding subscription. As is, huge features are missing, no option to listen to a feed oldest to newest, or to drop old, unlistened episodes (like a daily news show I’ve fallen behind on) or to find episodes I haven’t listened to yet in a given feed.

There are also a fair number of bugs. I haven’t been able to add a new show for about a month. The dialog just hangs loading the list of episodes.

by SkipDB

-1 star for missing audio enhancements.
-1 star for issues with feed directory / refresh.
I know UI is subjective, but I like it, a lot.
I would really love to be able to add this app feed inside Feedbin on my desktop.

All in all, an OK app. Audio enhancement would make it great.

No Apple Watch support, I can forgive that one. What I can’t forgive is the missing audio enhancement. Trim silence, audio boost, etc. are pretty much standard for any podcast app now.

by Skisulli

Love the simplicity of Airshow , but it needs audio controls like trim silence, speed controls, and voice boost to compete with the other podcast apps. Would also benefit from some download control options.

by Deathtouber

Like the title says, this is a solid podcasting app. And with the added benefit of Feedbin sync, you can't beat the value. But some features are sort of expected now with any podcast app, that this one is missing. Things like:
- trim silence
- speed controls
- voice enhancing
- stereo/mono audio
- sleep timers
- continuous playback

I think that with the addition of those, Airship would be my top podcasting client.

by Brierrabbit3030

First the positive, love the player display, shows episode art very well, que works great, imports opml well generally. Search works well, can’t search by episodes, but finds podcasts well. Now I am rewriting my review, as k be cause my complaint about playlists, I have taken back because I figured out how to use them. One thing about Airshow, compared to many others, I haven’t met a bug, or freeze, crash etc. yet. Very impressive!

by Rtteachr

One of the simplest podcast apps you can find and CarPlay is the addition I was looking for. The CarPlay interface is perfect. Just a running list of episodes, no hunting through menus and no settings to mess with. Steering wheel controls automatically move the episode forward and back. Great implementation. Airshow itself is a little tricky to use, but once you figure it out it is good to go.

by MaxG00

I’ve been used Feedbin for years, really love it. If this app can sync my Feedbin subscriptions that’d be awesome, some of my RSS subscriptions are podcasts, I used to listen on Feedbin, so if this app can detect these subscriptions and sync them here.

by 11hawkinst

As Castro increasingly becomes unreliable, I was looking for a good alternative. this app seems to fit the bill pretty well. I really like how easy it is to set up your queue and that you can sort them into playlist. It’s a fairly intuitive system that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

That said, there are at least two features that I would love to see added. I would like to see the ability to add episodes to the bottom of the queue not just the top of the queue. it would be great to be able to adjust the skip speed so that instead of only being able to go backwards 15 seconds I could do 10 seconds instead. Down the road, it would also be great to be able to customize listening preferences for each podcast like setting the playback speed and being able to trim the silence.

by Annsterly

The best way for me to keep on top of my podcasts and even set myself a sleep timer each night.

by UnfadingLight

I’ve used Castro, Overcast and the stock podcast app. They’ll all have their strengths but this app is by far my favorite. It’s wicked fast and full featured. I’m personally a big fan of the clear and simple playlist paradigm they’ve implemented. The care, polish and small details make all the difference!

by NcFoCo

This is an excellent idea to sync podcasts with a feed reader. The first version has been flawless so far and sounds great on both my iPhone and iPad. It does not have some of the fancy features that other podcast players have. But, the data model matches how I listen to podcasts. There is a queue of episodes and that’s it. I pick what is automatically added to the queue and everything else get’s added when I want to listen. Simple.

I imagine that Feedbin will roll out additional features in the future, but the current version works great for me.

by DavePBass

Please add smaller tiles in tile view for all my podcasts and app to default open to new episode view in Library.

Then it will be 🧑‍🍳💋

by IPhone_3GS_was_best

I am another long time Castro user trying this app as a replacement. So far so good :) My one, humble feature request is to have episodes “jump” to the top of the queue when you play them. Stepping back, I hope Airshow is gradually improved over time, but truly Airshow is doing a great job as-is. Plays podcasts in a queue. Displays show notes. Exposes chapters. Love it. Every person is different, but I do **not** miss the fad/advanced features like SmartSpeed, share clip, “Discover” tab. Keep Airshow lean & reliable and it’ll be a standout. Good luck Feedbin!

by Jennifo0614

I used Castro for a bunch of years, but it stopped working and I switched to this app. After using it a few weeks and figuring out how to use playlists, I like it even better than Castro. Thank you for making the podcast app I’ve been looking for!

by Laura1713

Castro used to be my go-to player for its queue system, but the recent server issues sent me looking for a replacement. this app’s been pretty easy to use - it doesn’t overcomplicate itself like every other app I tried! If I could leave some requests, I’d love to have the option to add episodes to the top of a queue, and more specific speed options (1.1x or 1.15x are usually my go-tos). But above all else, please keep Airshow simple and straightforward! It’s a breath of fresh air :)

by Mdwittenberg

I am another long time Castro user trying this app as a replacement. So far so good :) My one, humble feature request is to have episodes “jump” to the top of the queue when you play them. Stepping back, I hope Airshow is gradually improved over time, but truly Airshow is doing a great job as-is. Plays podcasts in a queue. Displays show notes. Exposes chapters. Love it. Every person is different, but I do **not** miss the fad/advanced features like SmartSpeed, share clip, “Discover” tab. Keep Airshow lean & reliable and it’ll be a standout. Good luck Feedbin!

by Luthor522

this app is a wonderful app that I hope to use as my podcast player for years to come. Previously, I have used Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts and Castro. Castro was my favorite among those, as I really liked its design and I the elegant simplicity of its inbox and queue system. That served me well until Airshow stopped working reliably due to lack of updates. Fortuitously, around the time I was starting to be frustrated by Castro, this app was released. I have been a happy Feedbin user for years, so I was excited to see a podcast app by its creator. It does not disappoint. Like Castro, it takes a simple approach to managing podcasts (yet provides flexibility with playlists if needed). You can either subscribe to a podcast and have new episodes automatically added to your queue, or you can “bookmark” a podcast and add individual episodes to your queue as you like. This system works very well for me. I also find the interface to be beautiful and logically organized.

While this app is working great for me so far, I would welcome the addition of customizable notifications for individual podcasts. I like to receive notifications when some of my favorite podcasts release new episodes. However, I also subscribe to an hourly news podcast and do not need notifications for each new episode. Other than that, it would be nice to be able to automatically skip intros and outros of podcasts too.