Realm - Podcast App Reviews

Update: thanks to support for being so responsive! The bookmark bug is being worked on, and the chapter numbers are missing only in Marvel titles, which they are now aware of.

Original comments: Love the this app content. For the few I've listened to, the production values are quite high and the voice acting has been superb. I do have some problems with Realm , however. First, a strange design choice to me is that when viewing the list of all chapters there are no chapter numbers provided. This means that I have to remember the chapter title so I can remember my place. I *do* see a chapter number when Realm is open and the player is running minimized (for browsing other this app titles), so I know the numbers are there somewhere. Another issue is that there is no means to bookmark one's location while listening. This is supposed to be automatic but it doesn't always work. When listening to the Marvel's Jessica Jones title (which was great), Realm returned me to the same early chapter over and over again, so I had to find my spot by hunting through the unnumbered chapter titles and basically guessing. I didn't find a means to email support with these issues so I'm posting here. I'll continue to listen to content and use Realm .

I was really into a podcast I found called ReMade. It was a fun story. However only one “season” of 15 episodes was available on Apple podcasts. So I did what I had to do to get the second season. Download Realm and purchase it for $9.99$. So I did. Thinking I could just download them all and listen to them tomorrow as I work. I hit the button and I get a message. “Your account cannot be accessed at this time, try again later.” The my PayPal alerts “$9.99” was just charged to your account.” Really my account isn’t available? So how the do you charge me?!? This is shady and unreliable. $10 is more then I’d spend on a lot of things. Unless the fix this soon as in like an hour I’d not be doing this ever again.

EDIT: They fixed the issue. I have my content and it’s ok. I apologize to Serial Box, for jumping so fast. However I have had it happen in the past, and for a lot more money. So thank you Serial Box for fixing this. I hope what ever happened I hope it doesn’t happen again.

Media barons review 2 years ago mentions the exact same issues I’ve had ever since using this app. I only want to listen to orphan black and then happily never use Realm or service HOWEVER I have a few more episodes but can’t even click on them if I played partial and as mentioned 2 years ago you can’t tell what episode you were on without restarting the whole episode AND THAT MEANS a whole process to get even the stupid thing to play. The UI doesn’t work. The entire scroll for the length of the podcast is wider than my iPhone 12 Pro’s screen? It’s been this way for 1+ year yet never read reviews and realizing not alone. If you want to make podcasts.. hire someone who can build a useable app at the least so people can listen with ease because this is horrific. If orphan black didn’t have 2 episodes left for me to or had ever come onto your podcast content radar to buy then I’d never use this again lol it’s awful . Hoping I can make it through this to the end… and worse is I’m paying for this???

The content, narration/acting, writing, and music are all fantastic. In fact, it’s the reason I stick with it, because the UI is incredibly frustrating. No way to look at a list of chapters once you’ve downloaded, and I find Realm often losing my place when I come back to a story, totally counterintuitive interface. It often just... stops playing! It’s bizarre how some relatively simple add-ins that could make this a superlative experience haven’t been made. What if I want to go back and re-listen to a chapter? Why is there no mechanic for that? Or rather, there is, but only from the homepage and not from the library page? That makes no sense.

Also, a CarPlay interface would be AMAZING for those of us with long commutes.

In short, it’s absolutely worth it for the content, but the user experience can be super frustrating.

Excellent content, I purchased the Orphan Black series. The user interface for the audio player is non-intuitive and lacks cues for episode, and listening places. The list of episodes don’t show progress, you have to start playing each episode to see if it’s one you last was listening to. Once playing there’s nothing on the screen showing which episode I’m on, just the ‘album’ art. The only real way for me to know my place is to delete downloaded episodes once I’m done listening to them. The scrubber is the full width of my screen which makes it impossible to drag it all the way to the left. Update: Okay, it’s supposed to have a big number of the episode but the top 1/2 of the number is cut-off so you have to guess at the episode number. I’m on an iPhone 6S+ so I’ve got plenty of screen to display it.

I downloaded Realm for one reason - Marvel’s Thor: Metal Gods. My review if that season is over in Goidreads, but suffice it to say I enjoyed it so much I gifted a season to one of my sons and a friend I co-write with. Then I bought Marvel’s Black Widow: Bad Blood. Only into episode 5 but enjoying it too. Just started playing Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire.

I’ve had a couple technical issues but they’ve solved those for me usually within a couple of hours. Some of the best support ever!! Not only great support but they reward you for spreading the love. I just got 50% off on a season pass for a series of my choice. These folks are the best!!

I’m a huge audiobook fan but the Serial Box productions take things to a whole new level. It’s a truly immersive experience where I get the soundscape and depth of a tv show or movie while still having the flexibility to be driving, cooking, gardening, etc.

And the stories, chef’s kiss of originality and awesome. The writing teams gather some of my favorite from the SciFi and fantasy genres and I’m thrilled to be able to enjoy more of their works. As a horror fan I do wish it offered more of the creepy and horror (season 2 for Silverwood??) but I’m happy to enjoy what they offer and shall keep the dream alive for more horror.

The Serial Box series are so well done, I have a hard time not just listening to/reading a series all at once! I originally found Serial Box through the new Orphan Black series but after getting caught up on the few episodes that are available I went through the other series that Serial Box has done. I LOVED Bookburners, the narrator did an incredible job and the stories in each season really hook you in. I listened to all of the episodes way too fast but enjoyed every second of it. I am excited to explore other titles, I have a good feeling I’ll find another great one soon enough!

On aug 29, attempts to launch Realm fail. I even reinstalled and installed again. I’m on iPhone 8 Plus iOS 13.3.1. I’ve used Realm in the past and I was looking forward to grabbing a few new podcasts for a long trip I’m leaving on today. Guess not...

Edit - hope the devs read this. I was able to get it working by removing my iCloud backup feature for Realm, plus updating to the latest iOS, then deleting Realm , restarting the phone and reinstalling Realm . No less steps worked. Hope this helps figure the problem out

Edit 2 - updating to 3 stars since it is working again per the above instructions and I don’t think 1 Star is fair anymore.

I love genre fic and wanted to love this app. But Realm is clunky, stories never picked up where they left off so I was forever FF, and 'wokeness' seems to be have outranked storyline, character development, and narrative to these folks. Too many of the stories dragged. The most interesting aspect of a story shouldn’t be that it’s about someone non-binary!

Reading the other reviews I see there’s so much content I never even came across! I deleted Realm but I think there’s more in it than I could find. Please remove the huge orphan black header from the front page. It takes up most of the screen. Whenever I scanned for new titles I saw the same dozen, but it sounds like there’s so much more from SerialBox. Not intuitive to find!

As a fan of Orphan Black, I was sad to see it end. Just like so many others, I loved how Tatiana Maslany brought the different clones to life. So when I heard that the Clones were coming back in a new format, I was excited. I looked into Serial Box. So the story will continue as a hybrid audible book/ television type series. Awesome! With Tatiana performing, it has to be great!
So now I’m looking forward to the return of my favorite characters. Meanwhile, I have found another favorite actress, Summer Glau is performing a series, Alternis. I’m loving it! The world is lush, the characters are vivid in my mind. Check it out!
Storytelling is alive!

Remember when you were a kid and you saved up to subscribe to a magazine or “book club” from the back of the Scholastic book fair flyer? Remember how exciting it was, how magical it felt? That sense that you’d have something new to read soon, and you knew you’d love it and couldn’t wait to get started? That’s Serial Box. The magic of the internet brings you chapter subscriptions to books, all available as audiobook episodes read by wonderfully engaging and easy-to-listen-to voice talents. Subscribe. Treat yo self. You’ll love it.

The content is absolutely 5-star. I have read almost every serial that serial box offers and it’s all been so good that I would purchase and read nearly anything they offer in the future.

I love the ease with which you can switch back and forth between listening to an episode and reading it. That makes Realm so valuable, IMO.

Realm itself, however can be a bit buggy at times. I have had some problems syncing across devices and sometimes I have to refresh several times to get my purchases to show up. I have occasional crashes and a couple weird navigational issues.

Ultimately, those bugs don’t matter. The writing is top notch, the art and design are sleek and beautiful, and Realm has become my very favorite to read in. As a result, I read more on serial box than anywhere else.

The serials offered here are good enough that they got me interested in audio-only stories at all. Before Tremontaine I just didn't get the appeal. Each audio episode comes with the same media in text. A transcript is always available! This is rare and important.

Now I have hundreds of podcast subscriptions because I rebuilt my routine to include audio narratives and it has been just wonderful. It's not an exaggeration that Realm has improved my life. Thanks!

I’m an avid reader and an amateur writer. When I’ve saw Realm I had hope this was one of those read other people’s stories and write your own. This wasn’t the case. This was an app where you had to pay to read and that’s it. Paying isn’t the problem. It’s the ability to not being able to publish your own writing and getting responses from other readers. I hope in the future you guys will take into consideration that many of the people who uses your app want to be write not only read.

My Granddaughter signed me up and gave me “Orphan Black - the next chapter” as a present because she knew I enjoyed the series. ‘Twas great fun to both read and also hear Tatiana perform all the parts!
Since then I’ve “binge read” and enjoyed several other stories. Sometimes I enjoy listening too but usually, any more, I just binge-read / tear through ‘em! They’re captivating and THAT good!
Thank You Granddaughter for turning me on to Realm!

Realm works great, the content is good and reasonably priced. One thing drives me crazy though, when publishers lock the screen rotation. I like to have my iPad on a stand in landscape mode, so I can charge it while listening. With the rotation locked my screen is either laying on its side or I have to put my iPad upside down in letter mode and the screen is then upside down. Neither one is a great option.

Realm is inaccessible and nearly unusable to blind and low vision users that rely on Apple Voice Over for text accessibility and general app navigation. While navigating Realm voice over should announce screen elements as they are touched, but the titles of the stories are not announced so that a voice over user can even determine if they want to read or listen to a story. This is an app I was very excited to see showcased in an Apple news article but disappointed that basic user accessibility features for disabled users are not implemented. Please fix this, there are millions of potential readers around the world who rely on Voice over and also love great stories.

It's a cool concept but I rather choose the content I consume based on how good it is and not the gender/race of its creator. Maybe it would be ok to have those categories but have them be further down or at the bottom because when you have them at the top it makes it so that content is always trending regardless of whether its actually good or not. Im not deleting Realm just yet because perhaps this is the result of women’s day just passing so Im hoping this is a temporal decision. (Im a latin woman so Im not being racist/sexist just want to be sure Im consuming content based on how good it is and not some sort of agenda)

This is an excellent alternative to traditional audiobooks. App is a bit difficult on navigating at first, but once you figure it out it is smooth and clear. So far the value I am receiving is worth the price I paid. And the ability to switch seamlessly between audio and text is very worthwhile to me.

I first learned about Realm from a local author whose work I really enjoy (Curtis Chen). He did a project in collaboration with a couple other authors and it was published here (Ninth Step Station). I listened to the audio series and it was great! I love that it’s episodic like a TV show, but that it’s still a book. It’s like the podcast version of a novel!

Then I tried out a few more series and I have loved them too! The writing is enjoyable, the stories are interesting and well put together, and the narrators are wonderful.

Also, Realm works nicely. It’s easy to search for things or just brows, easy to buy a season (after listening to the first episode for free!), and easy to move from one episode to the next. I am such a fan, Realm is great!

Update to the previous review (keeping it below). No more crashes! It still feels like there are too many taps necessary and Realm shld know “me” more (like not show me “ads” for shows I already bought).

Previous review:

Quite literally the only app I have that crashes 8 times before I can use it. Sync fails more often than it works. I kinda wish the content was on a less unreliable platform like Audible.

I love love love the stories on Serial Box, and the format is perfect for commuting. One episode is just about the right length to finish in one day. I discovered Serial Box because some of my favorite authors were writing stories, and they just keep adding new, inventive stories with great writing teams.

If I could add any features to Realm , I would add the ability to hide a series in my library, and an option to sort my library by title or by most recent.

The books are great and I’m happy that I can access a book on my phone when I finish the one I have on hand. It’s come in handy pretty often. I wish there was an option where you could write your own story though. I write a lot and was in need of a way to publish when I got Realm. I just wish there was a way to publish one of my stories to see if other readers liked my writing.

The stories are really good. Gripping, well read, I highly suggest Remade to sci-fi fans. Realm on the other hand is not so good, weird double audio, hard to navigate options, and slow to update, it feels like they tried to make it too complicated. Hopefully they'll get it fixed up before folks get tired of having to start and stop their listening experiences!

Realm is my life! It is a TV show/ book hybrid with the outstanding literature I’ve been looking forward too! Prices are reasonable and they have tons of great serials. That are always adding on. Try Realm , it will change you! This is not a boy review. I really feel Realm will show the worlds, stories, and characters you can’t even dream of! Please try it!!!!

I’ve loved the stories in all genres (sci fi, thriller, historical fiction). However, Realm doesn’t have a sleep timer function, which would be so nice! I like to listen when I go to bed, but it just have to let it play to the end of the chapter and then try to figure it where I was when I dozed off, which is a minor hassle. I’d love to see a sleep timer in an update.