OK, so after endemic, incessant crashing issues that mysteriously appeared over a 4 day period, and with no troubleshooting solutions working (thanks, Apple…you are rapidly becoming the new MS circa 2003), I find myself searching for a 3rd Party Podcast App that gets the job done. I listen to podcasts a lot.
Any suggestions, Y’all?
Christ, can’t imagine still using the Apple app. I gave up on that about six or seven years ago.
What are your priorities in a podcast app?
As a daily podcast listener, I settled on Overcast after trying a half-dozen and really like it. There’s a cheap subscription to support the dev and unlock some frills, but you can use it for free.
I use Overcast. I’d use the Apple app for the Mac support, but I don’t think it syncs playback position across devices.
Iknowrite? It just was where I was, and kept using it, out of routine. Now I realize that it was causing a lotta other weird crashy/faux battery status issues as well. Freaking Apple…
Easy downloads, interface, current download playlist ease of use. Inclusiveness of podcasts.
Does it do the above?
I’m 'sperimenting with Podbean right now. It seems to be missing quite a few 'casts.
It sure doesn’t. Still don’t know why I bothered with it for so long.
If syncing across devices is what you want, then Pocket Casts is by far your best option (also syncs across iOS and Android). But it lacks some power-user features that other apps have and the filter functionality is relatively basic (certainly coming from Apple’s smart playlists, if they still do that).
I would suggest trying out Overcast, Downcast and Pocket Casts and seeing which suits your needs, given that your priorities were fairly high level.
Overcast is great, been using it for years. You can even set up an account in the app and listen to your podcasts via any web browser (https://overcast.fm).
I still use Pocket Casts. Overcast is a subscription app, and fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck those.
Yeah, usually, unless its a pittance for the features, but I am with you.
You don’t need a sub. All the sub gives is no ads on the viewer, uploads, and changing the icon. Maybe a few other things. The ads are fairly innocuous, and since i am driving the phone screen is dark a lot of times I didn’t see them anyway. I forget where they appear, also.
Yeah, I don’t accept ads either.
My favorite podcast app is Castro. Great interface, great team, and a fantastic Apple Watch app that (unlike most) will stream over-the-air without your iPhone handy, perfect for jogging. What I like most about Castro is that it takes an Inbox by Gmail style approach to podcasts: it allows you to curate your podcast feeds into a queue of the episodes you want to listen to, put them in your own order, and whisk away episodes you don’t want to hear. I’d give it a shot, I think it’s well worth it.
Just out of curiosity – and I’m not baiting you on this one, I swear. Would you be ok with an app developer releasing a new version every year, charging $10 bucks for it, but no longer supporting bug fixes and iOS weirdness for the older app? For example, iOS 15 breaks something that worked fine up until then. And new features on the new version, obviously.
I view subscriptions as that. The main apps I use that are subscriptions (Ulysses and Overcast), I use the fuck out of. And basically the Overcast sub is what I paid for my lunch today. And the devs update them a lot with new features.
Yes, I’d be perfectly fine with that, because it would be my choice to upgrade or keep using the old app.
Also it would incentivize the developers to come up with at least one banner feature every year to get people to upgrade.
I think we can blame Apple on this one. They don’t have any way of building in upgrade pricing really, other than bundling. If you buy it every year, then you can have 4-5 versions of Overcast in your library. That sucks.
I think a lot of devs that do subs would just do upgrade pricing if they could. Now, granted I work with someone who refuses to pay for any apps, and she isn’t alone in this.
I am cautious on subs, though. I don’t want it to be the norm, but for apps I use a ton, I don’t mind. The upgrades need to be there, and timely. Like day 1-2 of a major OS release.
I’m happy to pay for apps, but I refuse to accept ongoing subscriptions.
While Apple doesn’t allow upgrade pricing, they do have bundles that let you subtract the cost of the old app from the bundle. So when you release CrumpCast 3 for a full price of $10 you bundle it with CrumpCast 2 which you price at $5, and the user pays the $5 remaining.
Yeah, some app devs have done that, but from what I remember anecdotally hearing it was clunky for both the devs and end users. I have like 3 versions of Tweetbot and I have a hard time remembering which one is the current version.
The one with the biggest number on the end?
Whoa, this is a family thread, Stuss!