Name: Pocket Casts: Podcast Player
Rating: 4.12818 (5578 reviews)

User Reviews for Pocket Casts: Podcast Player

4.13 out of 5

5.6K Ratings

2 months ago, dfabs

Solid podcast player

Pocket Casts was one of the best podcast apps out there for many years. It still functions very well for power users as well as less frequent listeners. PC is among the best podcast catchers because it offers several logical organizational structures for staying on top of subscriptions. The first being the Home view with a grid of show art—this can be sorted by release date, or custom set by users, and setting podcasts into “folders” let you group by whatever criteria you like. Tapping a show icon brings you to the episode list. There are additionally filter views, in which users can view new releases by episode, view downloaded or partially listened to episodes, and filters can be added to include various shows by whatever topic or criteria users wish to help them dive into episodes (filters are especially useful to power users who may subscribe to hundreds of podcasts). Notifications can be set on a show by show basis. The subscriptions for this app are pricy, but the free version accomplishes most of what’s needed for a podcast player. Apple Podcasts now has full searchable live transcripts of all podcasts, basically the only thing missing from Pocket Casts.

2 years ago, The real caveman

Best podcast app by far

I don’t normally take the time to write reviews, but I like this app 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 the app logo to be pocket cats! If your a serious podcast listener, you need this app.

2 years ago, Randilroo

The BEST Podcast App!!

I started using this app 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 this app 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 this app 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 this app. It’s fantastic and I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s awesome. Do yourself a favor and use this app. 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 this app 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.

3 years ago, DeejHames

Great replacement for Apple Podcasts

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.

4 years ago, jjstratton

Best podcast app with a few quirks

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 this app 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 the app. 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 the app, the episode you just finished will still show it’s progress as being where it was prior to the screen being locked. Overall, this app 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!

3 years ago, StarlaThornhill

Favorite podcast app but…

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 this app. 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 the app 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 the app, 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.

5 years ago, Spinnaker093

Look beyond the Apple store average and give Pocket Cast a look...you will not be disappointed!

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 this app on the Apple store and give this app a look. You will not regret it!

4 years ago, AkaAdonis

I’m sad that I have to switch to another app

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 this app 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 this app. That all being said, I still enjoyed my time with this app 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.

3 years ago, Monica00000

Great podcatcher app, one big flaw

I love Pocket Casts. Sick of how buggy and confusing the proprietary Apple podcast app is, I switched to Pocket Casts over a year ago and haven’t looked back. The UI is much cleaner and easier to navigate. My one complaint is that the search feature is very basic and only searches for whole podcasts rather than podcast episodes. (So for example, let’s say I want to listen to a podcast episode about the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident; searching “Dyatlov Pass” wouldn’t yield episodes about Dyatlov Pass from various podcasts, it would only yield podcasts whose name happens to be similar to or contain the words “Dyatlov Pass”.) That’s a real shame because the one good thing about the proprietary Apple podcast app was that I liked using the search feature to search for some niche subject I was interested in, and I would discover new podcasts by listening to their episode about the thing I wanted to hear about. On Pocket Casts, I just have to just kind of browse their discover page and hope that I find some podcast that happens to have some episodes that interest me.

5 years ago, idontwantafrigginnickame

Bad update, unprofessional response

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.

5 years ago, cecoleman

Syncing is still really bad if you listen on two devices.

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.

5 years ago, Pinball Lizard

Differences from 6.x to 7.3

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.

2 years ago, mveras1972

Well thought out design. Poor audio quality

This is an update to my old review as that review is no longer relevant. First off, this app is amazing. Stable, reliable, well designed, responds well. It’s very easy to use and loaded with well implemented features. However, there is one thing that prevents me from giving it 5 stars: the sound quality. It’s just awful. The app crushes the lower bass frequencies and makes podcasts sound poor. Once they remove this sound processing non-sense (or at least give me an option to turn it off) I will be glad to subscribe to your monthly Pocket Casts +Plus. But I don’t want to subscribe to an app that makes podcasts audio quality sound like they were recorded on cheap microphones. Meanwhile, I will continue to use the unfriendly design of Apple Podcasts app because at least there podcasts sound nice and natural. But once Pocket Casts fixes the sound quality issue, I will switch to Pocket Casts and will be glad to pay.

2 years ago, JJJ754

BELIEVE the negative reviews

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 the app 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 have the same issue that they say they never heard of. Now, as for the app 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 this app 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.

3 years ago, •Andrea>

The Best Podcast App! (from a jilted Apple Podcasts user)

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 this app’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.* The app 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 this app!

7 months ago, sillysmileysoup

Request: Click on podcast image to go to podcast

I really like this app. The one thing that annoys me is there is no easy way to get directly to the feed for an individual podcast to switch to a new episode from the same podcast you are listening to. I am constantly wanting to just click on the podcast logo/image while playing an episode to go to the main feed for that podcast. Annoyingly, when you do that it just enlarges the image. Adding this feature so when you are playing an episode you can easily get to the main feed for that podcast and switch to a new episode from that podcast would be awesome. Right now, you have to switch out of the currently playing view and go back to your main feed to find an episode, and open that, to find the link to the full list of episodes for an individual podcast, which is a lot of steps.

1 year ago, melikesmacs

Love me some Pocket Casts

I’ve used a LOT of podcast players over the years. Although I knew of Pocket Casts, it was one that I never tried until almost a year ago when I felt the need to go on the hunt again. I won’t recap all the features as you can read that for yourself. Things that I like a lot and HOW they are done are: - Easy to navigate interface (intuitive) - Per podcast settings (global, too) - Playback speeds from 0.5x to 3x in 0.1x increments (this is really nice as they can be per podcast and allow you to tweak the speed without causing the material to sound odd!) - UI elements that are large enough to see at a glance (and interact with) - Uncluttered UI - Filters (ease of creation and modifying on the fly) - Folders for subscriptions Of course, it’s not that any of these features are unique to Pocket Casts - I just like the way they’re done. I also like that they have desktop applications and most importantly, the sync across all my devices is insanely fast. I can be in the middle of a podcast on my phone, pause it and open the desktop app and in less than 2 seconds, the podcast shows up as now playing queued exactly to the spot that I was at on my phone. Finally, the app has been really stable for me across all my devices and it’s great to see that development continues when so many other players seem abandoned. Keep up the great work!

1 year ago, cmhall8

With respect, don’t force Pride month on me

I’ve used Pocket Cast for years. Probably since around 2016 or so. Today I updated the app and noticed that they changed the icon to rainbow colors to celebrate pride month. I have homosexual family and friends in my life whom I could not love more, but as I’ve explained to them in many charitable and mutually respectful discussions over the years, I do not like pride month being forced down my throat. FWIW I’m Catholic and do not expect there to be a “Catholic month” pushed down others throats, either. It would be so wonderful if businesses, sports teams, etc could just focus on what they do best and let their customers decide if, when, and how they’d like to celebrate a particular “festivity”. I noticed that Pocket Casts did not change their icon to celebrate Black History month, St. Patrick’s Day, or Christmas, so I can only deduct that this is just more woke garbage being forced down my throat. The good news is that there are dozens of excellent podcast app alternatives available, which I plan to explore once I conclude this review and delete Pocket Casts from my phone. So long and thank you for the memories.

3 years ago, sevoguy

No longer good

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 the app 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.

4 years ago, colinkjr

Better than Default Podcast App Especially on Apple Watch

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.

3 years ago, pseudopersona

Probably the best podcast app, but still has 2 big holes

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 the app 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.

4 years ago, double_yolk

My Podcast Home

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 this app every day!

3 years ago, Brad_Matthews

Long-time user giving 5-stars but….

I love this app. 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!!!

1 year ago, xmgx01

Best Podcasts app by FAR!!

I have been using Pocket Casts for years as my main podcast app. I constantly also explore the other top 3-5 podcast apps, but none of them are even close to Pocket Casts. Pocket Casts ability to easily manage a large number of podcasts, archive episodes you don’t want to listen to, inclusion of an actual listening queue, ability to sync subscriptions, queue and now playing location seamlessly across devices and platforms (iPhone, iPad, desktop App, web, etc.) is awesome. No other podcast app has these features implemented as broadly and cleanly as Pocket Casts. Only feature I wish it had is the ability to see first 3-4 lines of podcast episode description inside filter lists - this would be incredibly helpful for triaging large number of podcasts. Thanks Pocket Casts team - awesome app!!!

2 years ago, Ben Zell

Pocket Casts won me over

I’m very picky about the apps I use to listen to podcasts. The Apple one doesn’t work the way I need it to for queuing episodes. I used to really like one of the competing indy podcast apps but started noticing a lack of updates and promotion in the past year, so I decided to check out Pocket Casts instead due to a promotion I heard on the Downstream podcast. After getting acclimated, I find it checks all the boxes, works exactly how I need it to (the up-next queuing works great), and is very thoughtfully designed. The Apple Watch app is well done, as is the web player which I will occasionally run while using my Windows-based work laptop. I look forward to continuing to use Pocket Casts as my main podcast player and I am interested to see how this app continues to grow and improve under the stewardship of Automattic.

4 years ago, 33peace

So much good but one fatal flaw

I like so much about this app, 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 this app 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.

1 week ago, Stabberwocky

Refuse to fix MAJOR issue (it’s been well over 2 years)

I initially downloaded this app as an alternative to my Apple Podcast app back when it was having problems, and thought I’d like it at first, until I discovered a very FRUSTRATING issue with the app. So multiple times, during every podcast you will be listening and then suddenly BAM! It will leap BACKWARDS, anywhere from 30 sends, to A FEW MINUTES. It happens EVERY TIME. And it does so randomly. Sometimes you will catch it right away. Sometimes you won’t, because it does it so seamlessly, until you are like “wait… didn’t they already talk about this?”. This problem was first reported OVER 2 YEARS AGO. They have done absolutely nothing to fix it, aside from telling everyone that the problem has something to do with the “dynamic advertising” that is inserted into the casts, and that downloading the episode usually fixes it. So the only solution they have offered is to DOWNLOAD EVERY SINGLE EPISODE that you want to listen to, and fill up the memory of your phone, versus them actually fixing the problem. SPOILER: If the “dynamic advertising” is the issue… TURN OFF DYNAMIC ADVERTISING UNTIL YOU FIX IT! In addition, they also have no system to rate and review podcasts, which is pretty low rent, and a lot of times new podcast episodes apparat here later than other podcast apps, and sometimes never at all. So, broken skipping app, no motivation to fix it, lacking features, and slow to get new episodes. Awesome app guys

12 months ago, Hallsninja

I’m just here to celebrate the autoplay feature.

Updating this review after launching(bring it back) the new Autoplay feature: The developers listened! This update makes this app my podcast end game. I will keep my words and raise my rating. ————————————————————— Before you introduce all the other fancy features, please solve the most basics problem: allow your users to listen one episode after another without manually adding to the queue. It’s counter intuitive and disrupt the most basic user flow for people who only want to listen to one podcast. It’s like you have a playlist already and constantly asking users to add the next song to another playlist! I’m being waiting for years for this basic feature and now I m leaving. The rating would not go up until this is added.

10 months ago, adhobvftivdeubdeivce

What Apple Podcasts SHOULD Be

Insanely good app for a free service. I've put in hundreds of hours on here and have only ever had one issue in the last 3 years of use: Playback on any and all bluetooth devices (especially on higher speed settings) will sometimes skip back 1-5 minutes of content without warning or prompting in all sorts of environments: touching the phone, not holding the phone, hot/cold weather, different headsets, speakers, or in the car, on or off wifi, downloaded or streamed episodes. Not sure how this has so consistently gone on for over 2 years and not been fixed yet. Otherwise, a perfect UI and service, IMO. I'm strongly against the subscription payment, but if you just put out an option for a one time premium purchase, you'll get me to buy!

4 years ago, Readdle Stole $9.99

AVOID! Bought app before subscription, +30GB DATA ABUSE!

30GB of data... Not the first time it has happened, and it’s absolutely ridiculous. Especially since I originally paid for the app before they decided to change to a subscription service, and receive none of the features I paid for. I have turned off every “Download” or “files” feature, so it is not user error. I uncheck the “In progress” and “played” options in storage and data usage as well, only to see them turned back on immediately after exiting. If this is a bug it is a hell of an costly one on my end. After getting ripped off after buying the app already on multiple devices that was then switched to a subscription service, it’s nice to add the 30+GB of monthly data on top of that. I just hope that the same hasn’t happened to the people I recommended this app too not long ago. As for now, just another company totally fine with ripping paying customers off with a blatant money grab! DO NOT DOWNLOAD!

3 years ago, bbman911

Plays podcasts and a little more

Okay podcast app. Dislike apps that go from premium to free and offer nothing to people that paid for the app initially…anyway, may not matter as the app is low on features that actually work! Do you have a podcast that changes cover art? You’ll always see the first cover on those podcasts. No idea why this app can’t change covers but I can assure you, it won’t. Do you have a podcast that has fun little teaser clips from the episode that are released as promotions or Alexa Briefs? Well, you’ll have to listen to them or manually delete them because this app has no way to prevent these from being downloaded. The only redeeming quality of this app is you can load mp3 and listen through the app. Only needed since Apple jacked the directory with 14.5 and podcasts with a lot of old episodes only show recent shows now.

3 months ago, gopuppy01

Has become unusable

This app has become almost unusable since last week. What did you do to it? I just purchased the app about a week ago. It's a decent app but I can't sync. I get a sync failed message and I know it wasn't happening at first. Also, in the help section, it states that the podcast layout can be changed by swiping to the right. Either I'm an idiot or it doesn't work. That isn't very important but the sync issue is. I'm not impressed with the auto-reply email I got saying I might or might not get a response. Really? Nice... I agree with the user who commented about the cutesy language, lame and not helpful. We'll see what happens. If my issues are addressed I'll update this review. So, I see issues steadily fixed and really have no complaints. I like the app. Now, how about bookmarks? The other podcast app I purchased at the same time as Pocket Casts now has this feature. I hope you guys add it too!

2 years ago, stumatic

Feature Rich, Some Irritating Bugs

I switched over from the stock Apple podcasts app and am satisfied with the decision. Customizing the playlist, auto loading new episodes, preset skipping at the beginning and end of podcasts are very nice features. Some thing that don’t work super well include poor sensitivity to moving podcasts manually around in a playlist and the app not loading/downloading new episodes promptly after release or having a good way to get them when the app hasn’t updated new episodes. Occasionally, new episodes don’t get automatically loaded to playlists for reasons I don’t understand. Definitely a step up from basic podcast apps, but it has some issues that will probably annoy you. Hope the developers can iron these issues out.

3 years ago, TM2Bee

Love this app!

I wasn't going to write a review today but after reading the version notes and seeing what a great sense of humor the writer has I just felt like I should. The thing that made me love Pocket Casts is that I can use the app and then my computer browser and this SERVICE actually keeps my podcasts updated and I can pick up where I left off while saving phone battery too. That is the whole reason I use it. I tried *many* different platforms, all the big names, that made that claim and I'm sorry to say they lie. To me that was worth the $10. PER YEAR PEOPLE. Not per month....per YEAR! Some of you spend more on coffee in a day than that. So idk, go without that extra coffee for 2 days and you've covered the whole year pretty much.

2 years ago, Shett Blokus

usually great, often flawed

like another reviewer, StarlaThornhill, for like two years i've been experiencing the issue with the playback timer. it seems to mostly happen when i'm using airplay2 to listen to podcasts on my home speakers... if i pause playback and then later resume, somehow the playback position timer loses its mind, and it just causes havoc. i've contacted support several times, and it always winds up going nowhere. this is very frustrating, because i feel the app has the most user-friendly interface of any of the major podcast apps on the market. most of them have some weird UI gimmick to try and stand out, but it really just winds up feeling clunky and dumbed-down. i hope the pocket casts team can figure out the playback progress bugs, because i'm really running out of patience with what's otherwise a pretty perfect app.

3 years ago, Das_Red_Baron

Best Podcast App on the Market!!

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 this app 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 this app to anyone looking for a good podcast provider.

11 months ago, oOoxBarbie

Good but needs to be better

I’ve been using Pocket Casts for a few years back when Apple Podcasts changed its interface. Pocket Casts has a great interface and it’s easy to navigate/find new podcasts. What bums me about and is going to make me elsewhere is the constant audio jumping and cutting during an ep. The podcast could be going along fine but then all of a sudden it jumps ahead and if you try to go back you realize the content isn’t there. Or ending abruptly or randomly repeating. I’ve put up with this for awhile but lately it’s been happening in almost any podcast episode I listen to. I switch over to Apple Podcasts to be sure the missing or jumping content is not the podcast itself and it never is. Not sure why this happens! Hope there’s a fix being developed but for now I’ll have to use another app to listen to podcasts.

8 months ago, big schmoopy

Needs this feature

Please, please, add a way to make play lists out of SINGLE episodes from different podcasts! I will happily pay for this very basic feature that no podcast apps seem to have thought of. So, for example if i want to learn all about, say, the history of scaffolding, or the 1830s east africa, or the science behind algae, OR whatever, i can just make a playlist from 9 different pods with the one episdoe from each on the subject that i want and call the playlist, "algae". Also, when searching for a term: a way to hide half the results coming from one podcast- "the Daily" (or whatever) and a way to search by date- i.e. i don't get episodes from 2017 when i search for "middle east" unless I want to see older stuff. Seriously, fix this one (or two) thing(s) and i will change to 5 stars and be your most ardent supporter :)

5 years ago, jmrugg

Features Are Great, But Won’t Stop Crashing

I got this app 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 this app 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 this app.

9 months ago, Nick Carrara

Thank You!!

I noticed in my stats that I was coming up on 365 days of total listening time.. I think that tells you all you need to know about this app. I really don’t write reviews, but I felt I took this app so for granted in my daily use, that I should write this. “Its a podcast player, how good could it be?” I’ve heard this a few times before converting friends and family. There are little settings, details, and the UI in this app is the pinnacle of user experience and thoughtfulness. If you listen to podcast/news everyday like I do, these things make a difference. Being in the app/design world, I confidently give Pocket Casts an A+. Now.. because I’ve been a user for like, 10 years probably? I was automatically granted Lifetime Membership, so I’m not sure what the standard cost is now, but, after even toying or trying other podcast apps, I’d say it’s worth the cost for the amount I use it on a daily basis. Also, just a shoutout too the Pocket Cast team for not money-grabbing the legacy members who bought the app years and years ago. TLDR; UI, thoughtful settings and options, separate this player from the rest, and have my loyalty.

2 years ago, JeffDBoston

Great but neglected

It’s still my favorite podcast app, and I’ve been using it for years, but it has a few fundamental problems which are not being fixed. One of the reasons besides the design (which is great), is that it has a decent web interface so I can listen from the web as well. I do pay for this feature. Here’s what’s broken and support doesn’t really help unfortunately: Playback sometimes seems to repeat parts of the podcast. You will be listening and then suddenly you have a sense of deja vu, when it goes back 20 minutes and repeats. You can spend lots of time customizing your rules like how many episodes to keep per podcast, your priorities of which podcasts should be added to the up next queue but guess what? If you have more than one device like an iPad and a phone for example, those customizations do not sync across them. Seems like something which needs to be implemented because the sync of the up next queue is fantastic. This app also has been sold a number of times to different companies and it seems stagnant, but it’s so good that it still is very good. I really hope they work on these things it’s my favorite still.

3 years ago, hogwash13777

Pocket Casts just works

Use this app for your podcasts! Endlessly customizable, simple, sleek, straightforward. It is made for the avid podcast listener. Customize your listening volumes, playback speeds, artwork, etc, by individual podcast. Extremely powerful filters if you like to organize. The main thing is the queue. I get to organize what I will listen to, in what order, and it just works. The auto-download feature is a given, but it works so easily. If you’re a big podcast listener this app is for you, ignore the rating here on iTunes. The newer updates in the recent year or have made this app the best one to switch to to get out of the clunky native apps or other apps that focus more on music than podcast listening.

2 months ago, DChew

Love this app, but….

I’ve been using this as my main podcast app for about a year, and I love the way it organizes my podcasts and the UI generally. But 1) it drains my battery super quickly and makes my phone get really hot (on an iPhone 15 Pro), and 2) after the latest update, podcasts randomly pause after a few minutes. Hoping these two issues can be addressed soon! — Update: 2) was my own stupid fault - I had a sleep timer on that I’d completely forgotten about. As for 1), the heat and battery drain issues got **much** better once I disabled background app refresh for the app. I’m not sure what Pocket Casts was doing in the background, but I don’t miss anything since turning it off. Upgrading my review back to a 5!

2 years ago, WilliamC

Absolutely STUNNING Podcast App!

I've been using PocketCasts since 2013 and am continually AMAZED at how well-designed and useful this app is for managing and thoroughly Enjoying the podcast experience. It is truly one of the great mobile apps, and shows just how powerful good user-centered design and engineering can be. Podcasts have become a totally essential category of media for knowledge and entertainment, but being able to manage and utilize them well is absolutely critical to getting their full benefit, so having the right app makes a HUGE difference. And after trying many others, I can say hands-down that PocketCasts is THE right app!! It's night and day better and will take your podcast listening to a whole new level.

3 years ago, Firebane25

Apple Podcasts convert. I’m in love.

After the Apple Podcasts app deteriorated to the point where it couldn’t even maintain my Up Next playlist, I gave up on it and switched to Pocket Casts. What a breath of fresh air! This app is so good that I’m listening to more podcasts than ever just so I can continue exploring the very good UI and all of the features it offers. Highly customizable (filters, controls, skip durations), adding external podcasts via url, sync your content between devices, export/import to other podcast apps… and that’s not even touching the way more fluid and intuitive user interface when compared to what I used prior. This is a fantastic app, please keep looking for new ways to polish and maintain this quality bar!

4 years ago, Meh.tatie

Great App

This app by far has the best interface of any podcast app. The layout just makes sense. I’m a podcast junkie and have been listening to them for the past 6 years. I have been using Pocketcast since my first experience trying to navigate the confusing Apple Podcast app. This app offers easier interfaces and organizing features. I know that there was some problems with the transition to subscriptions, and those difficulties have added to the negative reviews. Honestly, a app this polished with these excellent features should cost a little money to unlock additional features. For me, this is THE podcast app. Excellent layout, excellent customization, great app! I've been using it for years and I hope to always use it in the future.

5 years ago, robotfool228

Fantastic

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 this app. At first I was wary to pay for the app 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.

1 year ago, Elvite

Another App Shoves The Woke Agenda Down Our Throats

I don’t care if you want to make a rainbow icon for those that care about Pride month, but to force it on those of us that don’t by changing our default icon to a pride one (without consent ) is going too far. You could have left the default icon alone and have the app ask users if they want to opt in to celebrate Pride month. That would have been fine, but changing it automatically without letting people decide for themselves is an aggro move against many of your users. There are many users of your app that I imagine don’t realize or know how to change the look of their icon away from the Pride one and now will be stuck with an icon that they may not appreciate. Please respect everyone. I am perfectly fine with there being an option to have a special icon celebrating that month but respect but is a two-way street.

2 years ago, IllusionAngel

Pocket Casts, a great podcast app that needs a few minor adjustments

It is a very fun app with a lot of tools to have customization but where it is lacking. the sleep timer is a little faulty and will not mark the episode as finished even if you set the sleep timer to the end of the episode, it should automatically mark it as finished and have the next episode loaded up but not playing. I’m not sure if this can be adjusted but if they if the episodes could load in a bit faster that would be great, this is mostly a problem for Patreon feeds but I know that Patreon server is a little bit finicky when it comes to Pocket Casts mainly. Regular feeds also seem to be delayed by a few minutes as well.

7 months ago, jd2020

Poor support and wonky app

Apparently, the developer has decided to only provide support through their forum. That is, unless you are a monthly subscriber to their app. I paid for features long time ago that they now give away for free but apparently that doesn’t matter. Overall, this is a good app however, it has a very bad habit of silently logging you out of your account. This is a major problem because you have no way of knowing this happened. Weeks or months later when you login again, you will lose all of the history of podcast you played, any new subscriptions, and you will end up re-downloading old podcast episodes. You might think that’s not a big deal but I have more than 24 podcast subscriptions and it is a giant pita to recover from this problem. This bug has been present for years and has gotten noticeably worse in 2023.

Description

Pocket Casts is the world's most powerful podcast platform, an app by listeners, for listeners. Our podcast player provides next-level listening, search and discovery tools. Find your next obsession with our hand curated podcast recommendations for easy discovery, and seamlessly enjoy your favorite shows without the hassle of subscribing. Here's what the press has to say: Wired: "Pocket Casts Is the Podcast App Every iPhone User Needs" iMore: "Pocket Casts is the best podcast app for iPhone" With a unique set of simple yet powerful features and a limitless podcast database, you're sure to find something you love. WE SWEAT THE DETAILS Design: Easily listen to, manage and find new podcasts. Themes: Whether you're a dark or light theme person we've got you covered. We even have you OLED lovers covered with our Extra Dark theme. Universal: Custom but familiar iPad interface, supporting Slide Over, Split View and Picture in Picture. Everywhere: CarPlay, AirPlay, Chromecast and Sonos. Listen to your podcasts in more places than ever before. POWERFUL PLAYBACK Up next: Automatically build a playback queue from your favorite shows. Sign in and have that Up Next queue sync to all your devices. Trim silence: Cut silences from episodes so you finish them faster, saving hours. Variable speed: Change the play speed from anywhere between 0.5 to 3x. Volume boost: Increase the volume of voices, while decreasing background noise. Stream: Play episodes on the fly. Chapters: Jump between chapters easily, and enjoy embedded artwork that the author has added (we support MP3 and M4A chapter formats). Audio & video: Play all of your favorite episodes, toggle video to audio. Skip playback: Skip episode intros, jump through episodes with custom skip intervals. Apple Watch: Control playback from our Apple Watch app, adjust the volume or change playback effects, all without ever touching your phone. Sleep timer: We'll pause your episode so you can rest your weary head. Airplay & Chromecast: Send episodes straight to your TV or speakers with a single tap. Sonos: Browse and play your podcast collection directly from the Sonos app. CarPlay: When you're in the car, so are we. SMART TOOLS Sync: Subscriptions, Up Next, listening history, playback and filters are all securely stored in the cloud. You can pick up where you left off on another device and even the web. Refresh: Let our servers check for new episodes, so you can get on with your day. Notifications: We'll let you know when new episodes arrive, if you like. Auto download: Automatically download episodes for offline playback. Filters: Custom filters will organize your episodes. Storage: All the tools you need to keep your podcasts tamed. ALL YOUR FAVORITES Discover: Subscribe to any podcast in iTunes and more. Browse by charts, networks and categories. Share: Spread the word with podcast and episode sharing. OPML: Jump on board without any hassle with OPML import. Export your collection at any time. There are many more powerful, straight-forward features that make Pocket Casts the perfect podcasting app for you. So what are you waiting for? Visit pocketcasts.com for more info about the web and other platforms supported by Pocket Casts.