Pocket Casts: Podcast Player Reviews

by JJJ754

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than these developers. That may seem harsh, but it’s the truth. They love to take your money and give you nothing back for it. “You paid us money for PocketCasts when we promised no subscriptions or freemiums? Hah, thanks for the dough, sucker, we’re going free and not even giving you a trial of our now locked behind a paywall features!” Ethical developers have always grandfathered in purchasers of their apps when the go subscription, but these guys failed ethics in college. Just look at how many disgruntled customers they responded to, if you don’t believe me. I.E, NONE of them. Now, as for PocketCasts itself, it’s a miracle if it plays the full podcast. If it works on CarPlay, it’s another miracle! If the audio doesn’t constantly cut out, holy cow, call the Pope because PocketCasts is only four miracles away from sainthood! Maybe they’ve locked usability behind the paywall, as well. To summarize, don’t use this. Don’t even gaze in its direction. And especially don’t give these shady thieves a dollar of your money. You could spend it much better on a cheeseburger, thumb tacks, an empty cardboard box, or just by burning it and blowing the ashes in the wind.

by Sevoguy

Quality has definitely gone down. Not sure if it’s new software engineers or something else but for sure not the same as it used to be. You press on a podcast episode and it won’t play. Nothing happens. You wait and wait and still nothing. Kill PocketCasts restart and nothing. Then 30 min later after you’ve given up it just starts playing out of no where. What bothers me most is when you tweet your complaint or send feedback they respond pretty quick asking “please give us details so we can fix the problem”. Well…it just doesn’t work. I’m not going to troubleshoot off your engineer to figure out where he/she went wrong. It’s like Microsoft where they don’t really test their software and then just rely on “feedback” to fix ongoing bugs. My suggestion: get some real engineers, preferably on the same continent and actually test your product daily and don’t just sit back and wait for feedback. Google podcasts works flawlessly and I will be using thst from now on. I’m not a test subject and expect my software to work each time and every time.

by 33peace

I like so much about PocketCasts, and if you subscribe to a small number of pods you might enjoy it. But I subscribe to a lot. And there is no way to group them- if you subscribe to 100 podcasts they are just all listed on one big page.

Now, there are filters but they are for episodes. So you can say, give me all I played episodes, or all episodes longer than an hour, and it mixes them all into a playlist. But if you just want to group your news shows, your fiction stories, your true crime, etc- no way to do that.

I quit using PocketCasts after the fastest way for me to find the show I was looking for became too try and subscribe to it again and that would jump me to the page to play the next episode. And this isn’t a flaw- they want people to use filters and not folders. I don’t know why, and this is a long-standing complaint. I’ll occasionally check back to see if anything changed, but until then it’s just become unusable for me.

by Idontwantafrigginnickame

I was glad to find Pocket Casts at first. It was a decent cross-platform app, with a couple weird quirks, but the best option for me. I opted into the beta and wasn’t as fond of it, but decided to give it some time for me to adjust and explore. Some basic, useful features were lacking or implemented strangely and the UI change was a huge step back, considerably less intuitive.

Unfortunately, they didn’t really improve on any of these problems for the release despite feedback from users. I know it’s impossible to give every user what they want. Plus, so many users are too entitled and demanding. That doesn’t warrant not listening to them at all, or responding flippantly and condescendingly to feedback. Many of the developer responses have been deleted because it “doesn’t represent who they are” (except ... yes it does, because that’s literally how they’re representing themselves). I’m not surprised to see the drop in their ratings, which they reset recently in hopes of erasing the negative ones, I guess?

They already have the money of existing users, so maybe they don’t feel like it’s as important to respect them. But I know I will no longer be recommending Pocket Casts to anyone else. Fortunately, there are cross-platform alternatives I look forward to checking out instead, like Castbox.

by StarlaThornhill

This is my favorite podcast app by far. The ability to add filters and the huge amount of control I have over what I play next is fantastic. And pocket casts actually shows the older episodes on my “up next” list on Apple CarPlay, something that Apple Podcasts refuses to do (for no good reason I can think of).
However, I’ve been running into an error that makes it difficult to continue to use PocketCasts. Sometimes, when I’m listening to an episode, the player will jump back to a portion of the podcast I’ve already listened to. The problem is that when this happens, the timer/progress bar (scrubber? Idk tech names for UI elements) doesn’t update, and the podcast will stop playing when it reaches the end of the timer, rather than the end of the recording, which means I can’t listen to the end of the episode!!! The only way to fix it is to force close PocketCasts and then start playing the episode again, but it always starts playing at some random point so I have to spend time looking for where I got cut off. I mostly listen to podcasts while I work, which means my hands are busy, so I either have to stop what I’m doing to fix PocketCasts , or miss the end of my episode (and I listen to a lot of true crime—the end is the best part). This would easily be a 5 star app if I didn’t have to deal with this pretty significant inconvenience all the time.

by AkaAdonis

I’ve been using that app for well over two years. Since then, it’s been my go to for podcasts because it has a great interface and is easy to use. However, I don’t know why but I’ve been having so many problems with it lately. The main one is that podcasts won’t load. I don’t always have space on my phone to download my podcasts since I take a lot of photos and video on a day to day basis, meaning I stream a lot of my content. For some reason, I always have problems with podcasts from PocketCasts recently. It’ll load a couple of seconds, then it will refuse to play anything for a while, then all of a sudden it’ll start working again. It’s not like I’m losing internet connection, as it will even happen on WiFi. Sometimes it’ll even do it with downloaded podcasts. Then I have even more problems with CarPlay. If I plug my phone in to use pocket casts, sometimes it’ll just completely freeze everything on my phone until I unplug and restart my phone. It’s only with PocketCasts.
That all being said, I still enjoyed my time with PocketCasts and I loved its simplicity, which is why I’m sad to see it go now that I’m switching to another app that doesn’t give me these problems. I’ll come back eventually if these bugs get fixed. Till then, so long my friend.

by Cecoleman

There are many good things about PocketCast (Video Support, Playback Effects, background downloading, notifications, etc.). But there are three things that bother me. 1) If you listen on an iPad and and iPhone regularly your syncing will be messed up all the time. For instance, open iPad app and watch a video show. Then open on your phone later an audio show and stop. Perhaps that evening you open your iPad again to resume the video you were watching that morning. It will sync the iPad back to your iPhone the play position of your audio podcast from that morning, not where you left off on your iPhone later in the day. I’m constantly opening Pocket Casts on my phone to find that my listening position was reverted back 20-30 minutes earlier than I left off. 2) I think the playback screen has an unnecessary bar at the bottom with the tools. Remove that bar and just put the icons for playback effects and others without it. 3) The cover art for the podcast is not centered properly on the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max iPhone. That’s just poor design. Please Russell and Co. fix these problems.

by Pinball Lizard

It’s now a better tool for episode cherry-pickers. The ability to sort by Downloaded status brings the 5 you’ve pulled down from a list of 500 to the fore. It’s strange that you cannot now, by default, tell a downloaded episode from an undownloaded one, but there’s a setting to fix that.

I also appreciate the new option to delay the deletion of a completed episode for 24 hours. Combined with a new End Of Episode setting for the sleep timer, this removes the stress of falling asleep to an episode you might run off the end of.

For my uses, the only downside, and a minor one at that, is reduced information density in the episode list. You can’t see as many on a screen anymore, and the new, omnipresent Search field (rarely useful) takes up additional vertical space, making a very small knothole indeed when combined with the miniplayer and bottom toolbar. I’d suggest making Search show only when pulling from the very top of the list, as is a convention in many other apps, or just let me scroll it off the page as the episode list scrolls.

by Pseudopersona

I do really like this, I’ve tried about 30 and this is the only one I’ve stuck with. However it has 2 major missing pieces in my opinion.

1). There is no algorithm to suggest podcasts you might like based on what you have been listening to. It also has no “if you enjoy this you might enjoy that” type lists for each podcast either.

This makes it hard to find the really good new content on any given topic. For example if you like shoes about Cold Cases, you can search “cold case” and you will get a list of about 20 shoes with “cold case” in the title. But out of those, only 3 are any good, and there’s no suggestion for how to find more of the genre without the literal words cold case in the podcast title.

I’ve actually downloaded another app that does that really well and I just subscribe to casts in both apps, Pocket Casts for actual listening, and the other app for show suggestions.

2). The other big item missing is the ability to make and save a variety of custom podcast playlists in PocketCasts to keep on hand. The filters are …kinda… like playlists but it’s so limited what you can do.

Give us these 2 things and you will have a perfect app.

by The Real Caveman

I don’t normally take the time to write reviews, but I like PocketCasts so much I decided to write one. About a year ago I started looking for a new podcast app because I had kindov outgrown the stock Apple podcast app. I have tried about 5 other apps that I didn’t really like and just went back to Apple podcast. But after about a week of using pocket cast I deleted Apple podcast. My favorite part about it is the queue. You can add podcast to either the top or bottom of your queue, you can look at the podcast in your queue, and you can reorder them. It doesn’t auto play the next podcast if you don’t have it in your queue if you don’t want it to. I have found a few new podcast that I like through the discover tab. Also, the interface is very easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. Some of the other features that I didn’t realize I was missing in my life are: trim silence, volume boost (makes voices louder), changing playback speed in .1x intervals, and being able to have custom settings for each podcast. I also just noticed that it had a sleep timer that you can set to different times or the end of an episode. You can archive episodes and they don’t show up anymore (for example if you start listening to a daily news podcast you can archive all the previous episodes). Oh, and I almost forgot. You can change PocketCasts logo to be pocket cats! If your a serious podcast listener, you need PocketCasts.

by Double_yolk

I never liked Apple’s Podcasts app but I tried other apps, even gave some a second chance, but always had to come back to Apple’s for some of their features. After trying Pocket Casts for over a year now, I am so so happy I’ve found a podcast app that I love. Appreciate how customizable the skip and go back times are, the look and ease-of-use of the podcast list, where episode notes appear, managing episode queuing, it’s all great.

After reading some other reviews, I gotta say the features behind the paywall are NOT a problem to me. If I ever needed the cloud storage or Watch version, I’d pay the small yearly subscription to devs who keep working on an app I’m really happy to have. It’d be nice to switch filters more easily (like one tap to go from filtering new releases to filtering downloads), but that’s the tiniest wish. Happily using PocketCasts every day!

by Das_Red_Baron

I rarely write reviews, but Pocket Casts deserves a five star from me. I’ve had Pocket Casts for a while after switching over from Apple’s. I can firmly say that PocketCasts is miles ahead from every other podcast app available. They over a slick design, simplicity, and amazing customizations. You can customize the playback and skip times to help you skip ads, there’s a volume booster for podcasts that are a bit more quiet, and it has a feature that allows you to cut silence in podcasts. The best part: this is all on the free version and thats only a few of the things you can do on it for free. Pocket Casts also doesn’t have ads nor do they pressure you to buy their premium version. I recommend PocketCasts to anyone looking for a good podcast provider.

by Nelphos

I honestly don’t understand some of the negative reviews. Some are overly harsh for such minor inconveniences. I don’t know if the gripes are legitimate or just people expecting absolute 100% perfection from an app, and a developer with a stellar, bug-free track record.

I had been using the Apple Podcast app for years but finally ditched it because of syncing issues between multiple devices (no matter how I tweaked the settings). I then tried at least ten others before landing on Pocket Casts. The other podcast apps were usable and each had its pros and cons, but Pocket Casts is the only app yet that syncs the way I need it to. I can listen on my iPhone, then log into my Mac (web interface) and pick right up where I left off. I haven’t tried the Mac app yet. I’m perfectly content with the other web page for listening. I also like the listening stats on PocketCasts and how it shows how much time I’ve saved with skipping, speed, trimming and so on.

The layout is great and looks sleek and natural on the iPhone. As one user mentioned in a review, having folders of some sort would be nice. This way all of my podcasts aren’t lumped together, but can be separated by Sports, Science, etc... Other than this, I’m really liking what I’m seeing so far. I subscribed for the year because I really don’t see anything else out there being better. I’ve looked again and again and haven’t found it until now. Thanks!

by Brad_Matthews

I love PocketCasts. I’ve tried them all and this is the cleanest most user-friendly interface out there. The album-style view with the ability to update the order is great. The user interface for playback is solid.

The one wish I have is the ability to create a folder and place completed podcasts into that folder. I’m a true crime fan and roll through podcast, but I don’t want to delete them once completed. Why? Because so many podcast do legal follow-ups or second seasons about 6-12 months after the last podcast releases. I’d prefer to move these played podcasts into a folder and only visit them when a notification on the folder indicates a new podcast has posted. These are normally commercials anyway. This would declutter the main screen.

Thanks!!!

by Colinkjr

I listen to 20+ podcasts and have used Pocket Casts for years. It is so much better than the default Apple Podcasts app at handling lots of podcasts and episodes. Now with the latest update that includes Apple Watch sync and cellular streaming without your iPhone nearby I can finally leave my iPhone behind while working out. Pocket Casts seamlessly remembers where I am mid-podcast when I switch from phone to watch. My Apple Watch had been in a drawer the last few months until today because the default Podcasts app is an organizational mess, rarely remembers playback position between devices, and has a really bad implementation of a queue. You have to pay for the Pocket Casts Plus tier but it’s well worth the $1 per month if you have an Apple Watch and listen to more than 1 or 2 podcasts regularly.

by Spinnaker093

I have been an Audible junkie for the past 5 years and just started listening to Podcasts about 6 months ago. I have literally tried most of the podcast apps (The Podcast App, Overcast, Castbox, Podbean, Himalaya, Breaker and Castro) in search of the best podcast app. To be honest, I did not try Pocket Casts because of the low rating on Apple App Store.

I downloaded the Pocket Cast app the other day and think they have one of the best (if not the best) user interface of any podcast app I have tried with the best functionality. The interface is smooth, they have very playback effect available (speed control, trim the silence and volume boost), an easy to access notes section that gives you the option to jump to a certain section of the podcast if available, and a nice way to organize the podcasts you subscribe to (although Castbox give the greatest control). In addition, you can stream via Chromecast (not all apps provide this) and a really nice iPad app that syncs nicely with you iPhone app. This is really a great app!

Look past the overall score of PocketCasts on the Apple store and give PocketCasts a look. You will not regret it!

by DeejHames

I’ve been using Apple Podcasts for the past ten years and have seen its interface go from easy and straightforward to complicated and lacking of up front info. I started looking for another app and found Pocket Casts. Downloaded it and got it set up with the basics and it was like a breath of fresh air. All of my podcasts are right up front and easy to access. I especially like the info screens (Notes) for episodes that are easy to see and give the info I’m looking for. The ability to touch an episode and not have it start playing is another bonus as Apple always irritated me when I’m just trying to find out info about a cast and have to click on a tiny link under the title to go to the cast for info. The big and straightforward download and play arrows tell just what I need to know about the podcast I’m looking at. Once I learned how to use and set up the filters I was absolutely hooked. The included New Releases filter is great and I added one that shows me what I have downloaded so that I can basically use it as a playlist. BTW I haven’t had any issues with downloading and episodes of one cast I subscribe to that were never available on Apple are readily available through Pocket Casts. I could go on and on but, all in all, I’m loving Pocket Casts right now and have completely switched over to it from Apple Podcasts without any regrets.

by Randilroo

I started using PocketCasts at the beginning of December. I waited three months to leave a review to make sure I really liked it and it wasn’t just a fluke of relief from finally leaving that horrible apple podcast app. I must say that I do. I really really do love PocketCasts for listening to podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts, I am subscribed to 97 of them at the moment, so trust me when I say I have used PocketCasts a lot in the last three months. The customization features are great. I love all the ways you can organize your podcasts and create playlists all while being such a simple, straightforward, and user friendly app. There’s a lot of different ways to organize everything for you to play around with to make it suit your listening needs. I really don’t understand why a company with as much money as apple couldn’t figure out how to make PocketCasts. It’s fantastic and I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s awesome. Do yourself a favor and use PocketCasts. I like it so much and have tested it for long enough that I’m actually going to purchase the Pocket Casts Plus enhanced features even though I’m probably not going to use them (trust me, the free version is amazing). I want to purchase it though because I want them to be able to keep making PocketCasts and I am willing to pay $1/month for it, especially with how much I use it. P.S. bonus, the stuff they write in their app update notes are amusing. Which is nice.

by Jjstratton

I want to just echo what most other reviewers are saying, in that Pocket Casts is the best podcast player out there. The UI in my opinion should used as an example in exemplary design in UI/UX programs or schools.
I’ve tried others like Overcast or Google Podcasts, but I keep coming back to Pocket Casts. They’ve really put a ton of effort in refining their app over the years, often including entirely new features for free. They’re also one of the few companies that includes a quality web player so you keep up with your podcasts while your on your computer.
As someone who relies on PocketCasts daily, it’s only natural that some issues might arise from time to time. One feature I use heavily is the ability to Cast podcast episodes to our Google Home or Nest speakers. Most of the time it works fine, but lately it seems like there’s some communication or latency issues between the server and PocketCasts . There is a long standing issue where if you finish a podcast episode while Chromecasting and your phone’s screen locked, then when you unlock your phone and go back to PocketCasts , the episode you just finished will still show it’s progress as being where it was prior to the screen being locked.
Overall, PocketCasts is a must have. None of the other podcast apps, including the overly praised Overcast, come close to matching the ease of use and simple pleasure of using Pocket Casts!

by •Andrea>

I had always used Apple Podcasts, but recently they changed the format and I hated it so much I had to switch. The thing I love most about Pocket Cast is how easy it is to sort out episodes, and in multiple ways. There’s a couple of podcasts I listen to where I’m still far back in the catalog, and through PocketCasts’s “downloaded” and “starred” filters, it’s easier for me to sort those episodes from the new streams (unlike the new Apple Podcasts, which is outright frustrating). I tested out the features on 4 of the other big podcast apps, and simply put, none of them let you customize your preferences as much as Pocket Casts. *Also, it doesn’t have annoying in-app ads like some of the others ones, AND includes the “Chapters” feature.* PocketCasts even gives you options for the color of the icon on your Home Screen (which I loved, because I wasn’t a fan of the default red icon). Love PocketCasts!

by Click&Burn

PocketCasts was my favourite cross-platform for the last few years and I rated it highly due to the control and customisation of podcast management. Then they removed my favourite feature: ‘Auto Cleanup’ in the recent v7 update. I travel a lot and can be without internet on planes, underground and in dead spot areas, and the Auto Cleanup settings allowed me to keep only the newest / relevant 1 to 5 episodes of my news, entertainment and information podcasts. Bring back pre-v7 ASAP, totally wrong decision to overhaul it by far for the worse. So I’ve left PocketCasts behind, and they even ‘reset’ their ratings, it went from the top rated podcast app to worst with one update to v7, hundreds of 1 star reviews have been removed, don’t waste your money! UPDATE: so now it’s ‘gone free’ to subscription payment mode - the money I did pay for it is now worthless, just like PocketCasts. Successfully destroyed PocketCasts from version 6 to now. Goodbye!

by Razzmataztapdancinghobo

I used to love PocketCasts but one of the more recent updates completely changed the interface of PocketCasts . The most frustrating for me is swiping left now archives the episode instead of delete, not even sure how to delete episodes anymore. Second most annoying change is instead of the download button being next to the episode title I have to open the show notes, then download from there. There are more issues with the new interface but those are the two big ones for me. It feels like the user experience was not even considered with the new version. Another issue is when I'm using Pocket Casts and Google maps simultaneously the podcast will rewind 10-15 seconds when Google maps pauses the podcast to give directions. I've stopped using Pocket Casts and am currently looking for a new app to use.

by Bitter Vetch

Pocket Casts really messed up a great app with their total revision back in Nov ‘18. Since then it’s become a little easier to group, sort, and (sort of) create playlists. But still a step down from the old version, where those functions were easy and intuitive. Recent update has introduced new bugs. The most irritating of which is the random tendency to clip the last 2-3 minutes of a podcast. At first I thought this was due to editing errors by the podcast producers, but today, after it happened to two casts, I went back and relistened, scrubbing to near the end, and heard the last few minutes that Pocket Cast had dropped. This is a bug in PocketCasts . Blah. Fix this, please. Better yet, give users the option of returning to the old pre-Nov 2018 version of PocketCasts . You could call it “Back Pocket Casts”.

by Jmrugg

I got PocketCasts because I wanted the automatic downloading and queuing features, and I’ve found those incredibly valuable. I can have my favorite podcasts automatically play next as soon as episodes are available and maintain a queue more easily than I can in the Apple Podcasts app. Also, the more flexible playback rates and Trim Silence features are fantastic.

I would give PocketCasts 5 stars if it didn’t randomly crash all the time. It was whenever the most recent significant aesthetic update happened (the old version worked well), but now it will crash while I’m listening to a podcast and have my phone in my pocket or connected to my car. I literally do nothing to provoke it. The interface also freezes sometimes and forces me to quit it and restart, which is frustrating since the mechanics of playing back from an RSS feed don’t seem to be the most complicated part of PocketCasts.

by An IPad Novice

I really liked PocketCasts, as it did everything i needed for the 10-12 programs I liked. The recent upgrade improved the UI quite a bit. I liked that it automatically downloaded my favorites and put them in the queue. But then it started deleting shows from the queue, so I would expect to hear a show and it would be gone, and I’d have to find it and stick it back in. That was annoying enough but I could deal with it. But the final straw was that it would end a cast about 3 minutes before the cast actually ended, and then I’d have to dig around in the archive (because now the podcast was deleted from my queue and archived) and then stream the last few minutes. After doing this about half a dozen times I decided it was simply too much effort and have found another app. It really was a shame but the problems were too frustrating to deal with.

by BCWilsonDotCom

PocketCasts on the phone is fine. But I primarily listen to podcasts in the car, using CarPlay.

Ever since the last major update, the apps CarPlay support is barely functional. Three out of four times I open pocket casts on CarPlay, I get the spinning loading circle and it eventually says it can’t communicate with pocket casts. When it does load, the podcasts list doesn’t match what is on the phone. Podcasts will just randomly not show up on the list. So I have to grab my phone to load it out of PocketCasts . Even the “playing” icon in the upper right of the CarPlay screen shows that audio is playing, when no audio is playing.

Tl;dr: if you want a podcast player for CarPlay, this might not be the one for you. At least until they fix the recent bugs.

by Stackblocks

I didn’t have any particular attachment to the old way PocketCasts worked so I can review it with a fresh slate, and I have to say I like it.

- I love being able to fine-tune the tidying up of my subscription feeds with unplayed / in progress / archived / played. Having played episodes handled differently from episodes I wasn’t interested in at the time makes it easy to go back through the archives later when I’m looking to comb through the backlog.

- The synched “Next Up” list travels with me between my phone, home, and office computers.

- The swiping gestures to parse episodes is a lot smoother than having to tap on every episode to add to queue as a three press operation.

- Discoverability is fine but angled more towards the major podcasts you’ve probably already heard of.

- The filters fill the role of playlists nicely with a little extra power behind them.

- Occasionally has some issues with streaming an episode but that has happened maybe twice in the time since the major update.

- You do have to pay for PocketCasts in multiple places if you want to use the phone / desktop / web apps, but it is reasonably priced for a well developed app.

by Ebethw85

I’m not sure why people are giving PocketCasts poor reviews.
I’ve been a long time user of the basic Apple podcast app for as long as I’ve had an iPhone and I had no idea what I was missing. The main reason I switched over was a lot of my saved podcast episodes that I’ve had on my phone for many many months were disappearing off my phone for whatever reason. I checked online forums and saw that it looks like to be a bug in the recent iOS 13 update.
Anyway, I started googling for other podcast apps to use and found this and Overcast as getting top marks. What I like about this app more is the fact that you can just create a “up next” playlist just like in the default app, and that PocketCasts can remove those pesky little silences in each episode. Overcast removes the silence too but I felt it was too much to set up. You can’t make an up next list but you can do playlists, but I just didn’t feel as comfortable with it.

by Trevozneoma

If you are like me and just want a cross platform podcast application to listen to your five or so podcasts on a weekly basis, then Pocket Casts is a great option. I understand that there are a number of complaints about the most recent update which speak to legitimate regressions in functionality for power users, however, this is a legitimately good podcast application that works for my particular needs which include Google Cast support, and the ability to operate it with my voice without having to unlock my phone (like while I am driving). That being said, I still face one issue where Google Cast support can get a bit wonky requiring me to force quit PocketCasts , reopen it and reconnect. If the team can squash that bug then PocketCasts is perfect for my needs.

by Obscurecountryfolk

I have been using PocketCasts for a while, and I too was displeased to find that I wasn’t grandfathered in to all the subscription benefits. Then I realized that for the multi-platform experience, fresh UI, and general reliability, I’m okay with paying ten bucks a year. PocketCasts still isn’t perfect, and the new subscription model does feel like a betrayal of the devs’ past, but that’s just how business works.

In the mean time, I’d love to see better support for iOS 13’s automatic dark mode. That why I won’t have to manually switch the theme in-app to dark.

In short, I know these folks are doing their best to appeal to a massive consumer base, and I hope to see a little more leniency and less hostility over something as trivial-in-the-grand-scheme as a podcast app.

by Laser.guided.spork

I’ve been a longtime user of Pocket Casts, and the latest version is a huge upgrade. The ability to upload your own files and drop them into the queue is wonderful! I occasionally check out other apps to see if there are any features I’m missing out on, and Pocket Casts always seems better.

There’s still a little bit of wonkiness when manually reorganizing the queue, and I do wish they would bring landscape mode back from a couple versions ago. That said, the quick actions you can take on episodes or entire series, and the ability to easily see the status of each episode (downloaded, in the queue, already listened) are so much better than the other apps I’ve tried.

by Robotfool228

I was looking for a way to cast podcasts from my iPhone or iPad to my Google Home and some online suggestions pointed me toward PocketCasts. At first I was wary to pay for PocketCasts but I don’t regret it. Others complain about the UI and I find it pretty simple and nice to use. Everything is organized in a way that I can manage the podcasts I’m subscribed to. Another great thing is the cross platform support. While the desktop app costs an additional $10, it isn’t that bad considering it’s a one-off fee. Instead of paying per-month or per-year, I think it’s better to just pay one time and be done. I can easily start a podcast in the car and later in the day continue it in the same spot (give or take a few seconds) on my computer or iPad.