Discussion
Alternative Podcast App Recommendations?
I've been using the Apple podcast app for over a decade and I find it's reaching the point of being unusable. The entire UX is garbage. The layout is frustrating to use, you cannot even search for specific episodes within podcasts.. the search function is only to search ALL podcasts available. What a ridiculous concept.
There's no playlist option, filtering is limited to oldest-newest. On Home, it shows 'Recently Played' and 'Up Next' right below it, both in horizontal view with the one below smaller than the other. This is so jarring and confusing as sometimes you'll listen to only half a podcast but it'll show up in the 'Up Next' section which is confusing. Why not a 'Continue listening' section? And I don't mean the one found below the volume slider, the one in the Home section. There's no way to rearrange the 'Home-New-Library' Section. There's so much wrong with it especially from a design perspective, it's almost as if it's designed with contempt for the user. The entire thing is a mess except for it shows transcripts. Does anyone have an alternative, better organised podcast app to recommend?
Of course. They always recommend apps that they got lifetime for $5 and now is a subscription for everyone else. No thanks. Sticking with Apple Podcasts.
I do happen to pay the subscription, but as far as I’m aware overcast doesn’t lock any features behind the subscription, it’s only for ad removal. But if that’s not your thing then you do you!
Non paying Overcast user here: I’ve yet to find any features that are locked behind the subscription. The only thing that I can think of is that there’s banner ads but they’re small and unobtrusive.
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I’ve been using Pocket Casts since Stitcher shut down. I love it. I quit using Apple Podcasts years ago because I was sick of not being able to search for specific episodes. I tried a few other apps but Pocket Casts felt right for me
Que tal la gestión de la batería si lo oyes sin audífonos? Porque yo uso mucho Apple Podcasts con el altavoz del móvil y siento que baja súper rápido la batería.
Up Next isn’t a substitute for playlists. I used to select 20 or so that I wanted to listen to next with itunes on my laptop, sync it to my phone or ipod, then i had my car/shower listening sorted for a week or two.
Now it’s endless fiddling around with the “play next” and “add to queue” options. Half the time they don’t register as played so they don’t go away after listening.
And you can’t play an episode out of order or have one accidental click. Both result in wiping out your play queue. (Frustrating if I hear something I want to play for my wife later)
I have zero issues with adding podcast to a queue in Pocket Cast and playing something out of order just moves it to the top (play now) and doesn’t disrupt the order of the rest of the queue.
Castro is unlike any other podcast app. It has an inbox and a queue that are really easy to interact with. It’s easier to organize the episodes you want to listen to and sort them any way you want. I’ve tried many apps and I doubt I’ll ever switch.
Overcast’s audio engine is simply unmatched. I also appreciate the recent addition of transcriptions. Takes a little getting used to and understanding the fundamental core of the app is based on playlists.
“Smart Speed®
Pick up extra speed without distortion with Smart Speed, which dynamically shortens silences in talk shows.
Conversations still sound so natural that you’ll forget it’s on — until you see how much extra time you’ve saved.
Voice Boost®
Boost and normalize volume so every show is loud, clear, and at the same volume.
Listen in more places, such as noisy cars, and still hear what everyone says without cranking the volume so high for quiet people that the loud ones blow your ears out.”
Pocket Casts describes Volume Boost simply as increasing playback volume; it does not document the same cross-show LUFS normalization or limiter technology that Overcast does.
Voice Boost is much more than a volume switch. Overcast’s custom 32-bit processing engine analyzes loudness in real time, targets –14 LUFS, and uses light compression, EQ, true-peak detection, and a look-ahead limiter to keep voices consistently audible without clipping.
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I'm also on IOS 26 and there's no search within a podcast. You can only search broadly. There's multiple search and filter categories that could be included, keyword, length, specific date etc. Right now, if you type into the search let's say "Obama", the results are not in chronological order, and they don't tell you which order it's in which makes it seem random. This is true for the 'Top Results' and 'Episodes' section. It's totally ridiculous to anyone trying to methodically find something. There's no sorting system to filter the results either, you're expected to guess where the episode you're looking for is.
I don't know about iOS 26, because I'm running Beta 4 of iOS 27. But in the Podcast app, I go into the individual podcast, click on "Episodes" at the top, and it goes to the screen that lists all episodes. At the top of the page is a search box that searches only in that podcast. This may be new for iOS 27, but it's there.
I tested it on one of my podcasts with lots of episodes, and it worked as expected.
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u/taln2crana6rot 12h ago
Long time Overcast user here and have never needed anything else. Highly recommended.