6
votes
Podcast app recs
Title is pretty straightforward I think.
Trying to get my Podcast listening off of Spotify because I just hate their player and UX lately. Also, no ability to add feeds by RSS link.
My daily drivers I spend most of my time on are my iPhone and Macbook Pro. After that, maybe I would listen on my iPad, or my PC that is running both Linux and Windows.
My recommendation is pocketcasts. It has apps on iOS and Android, and there's a web player you can use on desktops. Has the normal frills from a standalone podcast apps (chapter markers, for instance), and the UI is simple and works like I think it should (unlike, say, overcast which to me seems like an alien from mars wrote it).
Many people also don't know this, but their mobile apps are actually open source (though the web app and the server aren't)
https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android
https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios
I'm a grandfathered license user from the good old days™ and I had no idea. Looks like the Android repo was initialised in 2022, must have slipped under the collective radar.
Yeah, it got opensourced in 2022 after it got acquired by Automatic
https://blog.pocketcasts.com/2022/10/19/pocket-casts-mobile-apps-are-now-open-source/
I also recommend Pocketcasts, it's been my daily app for years. The only drawback is that I'll sometimes download favourite episodes to listen to again and again, but it will default archiving and deleting an episode after it's finished playing once.
Though it is owner by Automattic and Matt Mullenweg, which given their recent drama and staff reductions, does make me a little concerned for it's long term prospects.
I use Pocket Casts for now, but if AntennaPod ever fixed auto download so it was usable for podcasts you want to listen to from the start I'd consider switching at this point.
EDIT: huh, in last year's thread I specified that I was worried Automattic might cause a problem since they're more profit oriented than NPR. Matt's drama and staff exits wasn't what I was anticipating then though, I was just worried about more overt monetisation at that stage, which hasn't come to pass (I think they did raise the prices for new users though?)
I'm a big fan of AntennaPod.
It's basic, but it does what I want with no hassle, and is open source (available on FDroid, even). It does support syncing across devices, but I think you have to self-host that if it's something you need.
Supports chapters, playback speed control, OPML import/export, etc.
Edit: unfortunately it looks like there's not a version for iOS, so it's probably not a great fit for your use case, but maybe it'll be useful for others.
AntennaPod is so good. One of the best parts of switching to Android a year or so ago.
I really wish someone would create an iOS native equivalent as a fork of NetNewsWire or something. Funny how NNW is so much better than the Android RSS options (Read You is pretty good, but requires a lot of customisation). But the iOS podcast app landscape is a bit bleaker.
I love overcast. It has the option to create dynamic playlists, which made browsing through my podcasts and deciding what to listen a lot easier.
Plus Overcast is created by an indie dev who's worthy of your support. While I know this year's redesign is controversial, all you have to do is compare Overcast to the stock Podcast app to realise just how far ahead of the game Marco is.
Exactly the reason why I didn’t hesitate to pay for his app. It’s so nice to feel when a developer is present in the product. Feels like he really loves what he does too.
He has a weekly podcast of his own (well, along with Casey Liss and John Siracusa) that I enjoy immensely. It’s fairly niche (Apple-specific tech news and talk) but if you’re into that sort of thing it’s great. And of course being a regular listener has really humanized Marco for me as an indie dev, as he shares occasional stories and frustrations with the iOS developer scene and Overcast in particular.
This similar topic from last year that got a bunch of responses may interest you:
Favorite podcast app?
Oh, had no idea that thread existed. I'll check it out.
Another vote for PocketCasts. Simply the best podcast app. There was a huge update a year or two ago that broke the app for a month or so while they figured out what was going on, and during that time I tried out many other apps to find a replacement. In the end, I ended up bidding my time until they fixed their issues and that was that.
I'm on Android, so I'm sure there are better designed apps on iOS (better than the field on Android, not better than PocketCasts lol).
podcast addict is the one I've found to work the best for me. but I don't think it has an outright buy option anymore
I moved from PocketCasts to Overcast and back to PocketCasts. Incoming rant, sorry.
As much as I'd rather be supporting a individual dev like Marco (of Overcast) instead of a company like Automattic (and thus Mullenweg...), which owns PocketCasts, updates in recent months have completely broken Overcast for me, and no amount of reinstalling or deleting all podcasts and readding them has resolved it.
When it's working, I enjoy Overcast and had no real issues with it. But it's been super broken for me, and I mean truly broken. I guess it's working for many others, but I've seen quite a few app reviews in the app store mention the exact issues I'm having:
It's to the point that it's auto-marking new episodes as played/completed/grayed out as if they're old so I never see new episodes for half of my podcasts appear, ever. The one thing I expect my podcast apps to do, show me new podcasts when they release, seems impossible for the app now.
I thought some of my podcasts had just taken a break for holidays or something, then dug into it and realized they had been releasing new episodes, but the app could not let me know they exist so I had simply been missing them. Yet one or two other podcasts still showed new releases fine. I've dug into settings and I've changed nothing that should cause this to start happening, it just happened on its own after an update and has been broken since.
Audiobookshelf might be an option to look at, if you're not opposed to self-hosting a server component.
I like it because you can add and listen to podcasts from any device via the mobile apps or the web interface and they all stay in sync. The episodes are also downloaded and served by the server component, so you can still listen even if the original podcast host goes down or they remove episodes that you haven't listened to yet. The apps aren't the greatest in terms of functionality, but everything is open source and being actively improved. I haven't tried the iOS version (only the web interface and Android app) but they serve me well enough.