Pocket Casts: Podcast Player

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.

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.

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.