Pocket Casts - Podcast Player
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Pocket Casts is the world's most powerful podcast platform
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About Pocket Casts - Podcast Player
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Pocket Casts is the world's most powerful podcast platform
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Ratings & Reviews
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Great podcatcher app, one big flaw
Apr 10, 2021 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.more -
Best podcast app with a few quirks
Oct 31, 2020 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!more -
What I’ve been looking for... FINALLY!
Dec 3, 2020 I honestly don’t understand some of the negative reviews. Some are overly harsh for such minor inconveniences. I don’t know if the gripes are legitimate or just people expecting absolute 100% perfection from an app, and a developer with a stellar, bug-free track record. I had been using the Apple Podcast app for years but finally ditched it because of syncing issues between multiple devices (no matter how I tweaked the settings). I then tried at least ten others before landing on Pocket Casts. The other podcast apps were usable and each had its pros and cons, but Pocket Casts is the only app yet that syncs the way I need it to. I can listen on my iPhone, then log into my Mac (web interface) and pick right up where I left off. I haven’t tried the Mac app yet. I’m perfectly content with the other web page for listening. I also like the listening stats on the app and how it shows how much time I’ve saved with skipping, speed, trimming and so on. The layout is great and looks sleek and natural on the iPhone. As one user mentioned in a review, having folders of some sort would be nice. This way all of my podcasts aren’t lumped together, but can be separated by Sports, Science, etc... Other than this, I’m really liking what I’m seeing so far. I subscribed for the year because I really don’t see anything else out there being better. I’ve looked again and again and haven’t found it until now. Thanks!more -
Mar 30, 2021 Latest update is a step backwards. No more playlist managment, unable to mark eps as 'played'. Long-press menu is gone, replaced with swipe left & right which is alternately either way too sensitive or not enough. Very hit and miss, more miss than hit, unfortunately. Fellas, what the hell happend here?? This is just no good. If i could roll-back update to previous, i'd do that in an instant.more -
Look beyond the Apple store average and give Pocket Cast a look...you will not be disappointed!
Dec 13, 2019 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!more
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Apr 9, 2021 Used to work great. Now the app consistently stops playing if my phone is locked and this isn't the app that is open. If I open the app it'll immediately start playing without me even pressing play. The sleep timer seems to be malfunctioning too in that it won't stop. It just plays my entire queue. I've woken up to podcasts still playing and/or episodes I haven't listened to archived.more -
Apr 8, 2021 EDIT. I'm moving to another podcast app. Support will not answer my questions about this issue. Apparently they have my money now and don't care about any issues. I'm sick and tired of downloading podcasts over and over again just to have them automatically deleted...I would avoid this app for now. OLD REVIEW Even though auto archive is turned off, it keeps deleting and archiving episodes. What the heck. Otherwise great app I suppose, although I've never tried anything else.more -
Bad update, unprofessional response
Mar 10, 2019 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.more -
BELIEVE the negative reviews!
Mar 24, 2021 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 they responded to, if you don’t believe me. I.E, NONE of them. 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.more -
Apr 2, 2021 This app has so much going for it except one very fatal flaw. ARCHIVE deletes the episode! That's not at all what archive means. I want to hide played episodes, not delete them. I wish I'd known that. Many podcasts aren't available online anymore and I wouldn't have deleted them locally had I known. Please bring back a way to hide played without removing them because this app SHOULD be a five-star app!more
- Smart design interface changes colors to complement beautiful podcast artwork
- Go mobile or listen at home! Full compatibility with Android Wear and Chromecast
- “Pocket Casts is the best podcast app for Android.” - AndroidCentral
Reviewed by Kaylin on March 7, 2018
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Best podcast app with a few quirks
Oct 31, 2020 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!more -
What I’ve been looking for... FINALLY!
Dec 3, 2020 I honestly don’t understand some of the negative reviews. Some are overly harsh for such minor inconveniences. I don’t know if the gripes are legitimate or just people expecting absolute 100% perfection from an app, and a developer with a stellar, bug-free track record. I had been using the Apple Podcast app for years but finally ditched it because of syncing issues between multiple devices (no matter how I tweaked the settings). I then tried at least ten others before landing on Pocket Casts. The other podcast apps were usable and each had its pros and cons, but Pocket Casts is the only app yet that syncs the way I need it to. I can listen on my iPhone, then log into my Mac (web interface) and pick right up where I left off. I haven’t tried the Mac app yet. I’m perfectly content with the other web page for listening. I also like the listening stats on the app and how it shows how much time I’ve saved with skipping, speed, trimming and so on. The layout is great and looks sleek and natural on the iPhone. As one user mentioned in a review, having folders of some sort would be nice. This way all of my podcasts aren’t lumped together, but can be separated by Sports, Science, etc... Other than this, I’m really liking what I’m seeing so far. I subscribed for the year because I really don’t see anything else out there being better. I’ve looked again and again and haven’t found it until now. Thanks!more -
Look beyond the Apple store average and give Pocket Cast a look...you will not be disappointed!
Dec 13, 2019 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!more -
Apr 2, 2021 My go-to podcast app for years on Android and iPhone. I've been using Pocket Casts since 2015, and I've tried other newer apps but always return to it. Syncing across Android and iOS is super helpful and unique as far as I can tell. It's full featured and stable and has all you need for beginners or podcast pros.more -
Great update
Oct 6, 2020 Awesome app. So glad development is continuing!! However, Goldilocks still wants ability to filter per podcast instead of in the filtering menu. There’s only 3 out of 7 podcasts that I listen to regularly that put out duplicate or occasional unwanted content. The “filtering” additions are neat, it just doesn’t help in my situation. Podcast A puts out a 40 minute “best of” that I would rather not download, let alone add to up next. Podcast B and C release 20-40 minute podcasts that I do want to listen to. Occasionally they release 3-10 minute episodes that I would rather not download. In this case the one size fits all filter doesn’t help. And there is the wasted auto download of unwanted episodes that limit legitimate episodes from staying on my phone. The filtering is a cool feature, but it would work much better if you could apply filtering within each podcast’s settings -which would limit auto downloading - rather than an external filter for queuing episodes. I hope my explanation of how I use your app helps guide future development. This app is already hands down the best podcast app. P.S. Please allow a setting to control Apple watch’s playback controls. I specifically want to permanently remove playback speed. I can think of no instance where someone would need to consistently alter the speed at which someone is talking. Thanks for your time and further development!!more
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Great podcatcher app, one big flaw
Apr 10, 2021 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.more -
Mar 30, 2021 Latest update is a step backwards. No more playlist managment, unable to mark eps as 'played'. Long-press menu is gone, replaced with swipe left & right which is alternately either way too sensitive or not enough. Very hit and miss, more miss than hit, unfortunately. Fellas, what the hell happend here?? This is just no good. If i could roll-back update to previous, i'd do that in an instant.more -
Apr 1, 2021 This is one of the best podcast players in the market. I'm happy to support them. If they had just ONE more feature, it would take the cake: the ability for listeners to leave reviews per podcast episode. Done. It would be HANDS DOWN the best anywhere and would get my 5th star in this review! Please make this happen!more -
Apr 4, 2021 Best podcasting app in my experience, but I hate that every update re-enables auto-archiving, and I only notice when I try to search for an episode and it's hidden by the archive filter. I'd at least appreciate an "unarchive all" button, if the feature can't be disabled and stay disabled through the update process.more -
Mar 30, 2021 Great app but one major thing missing is ability to stop autoplaying Up Next podcasts. Yes, you can set the Zzz but you have to do it everytime. Would be great if you could choose to set it as default. Other than that, can't fault it.more
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I’m sad that I have to switch to another app
May 21, 2020 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.more -
Syncing is still really bad if you listen on two devices.
Jul 18, 2019 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.more -
Apr 1, 2021 Probably the best podcast app for me but I have no idea why some podcasts cut out when using Chromecast to play to another device. One podcast literally just stops playing exactly 12 minutes after you start it. Check the app after that, open the Chromecast option menu and it says 'No Media Selected'. Not sure if it's the server the cast streams from, Chromecast or Pocket Casts that's broken. Infuriating though, other casts have no such problems. Very strange.more -
Apr 8, 2021 Android Auto support was broken on Version 7.16 and is still broken on 7.17. AA Voice commands, especially the vital "Play up next in Pocket Casts" have been totally broken on AA for a while now and no voice commands work. I emailed Support and they replied asking me to update to 7.17. I did and replied that the voice commands still didn't work. Support stopped replying. Haven't heard back since and voice commands are still broken. Samsung S20 Ultra Android 11 Pocket Casts 7.17more -
Disappointing search functions
Oct 30, 2020 Unfortunately you cannot put parentheses around a term and have it look for an exact match. That makes it frustratingly inefficient to find something you are looking for. As an example, I looked for “Bill Hader” in parentheses, and got everything from Bill Maher to Bill Nye the Science Guy. The search doesn’t look through specific episode titles or descriptions either. In the stock Apple app, you can search for an actor, and it will list all of the shows where he was a guest for an episode. In the stock Apple app, you can search for a specific incident or topic, and it will list all the shows where they featured that topic in an episode. The UI and the controls are pretty nice, but none of that matters if I can’t search for content I want to listen to.more
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Apr 9, 2021 Used to work great. Now the app consistently stops playing if my phone is locked and this isn't the app that is open. If I open the app it'll immediately start playing without me even pressing play. The sleep timer seems to be malfunctioning too in that it won't stop. It just plays my entire queue. I've woken up to podcasts still playing and/or episodes I haven't listened to archived.more -
Bad update, unprofessional response
Mar 10, 2019 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.more -
Mar 31, 2021 This app, with the rise of spotify podcasts is now obsolete. I find my most listened to podcast there and why not use it since I'm paying for it for music anyway. But the big issue is that Pocket Casts is annoying. I tried to kill the notification of a show I never finished but the only way to do that was to force close it. And then it came back. Annoying! App deleted. BYE!more -
So much good but one fatal flaw
Nov 19, 2020 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.more -
Features Are Great, But Won’t Stop Crashing
May 26, 2019 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.more
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Apr 8, 2021 EDIT. I'm moving to another podcast app. Support will not answer my questions about this issue. Apparently they have my money now and don't care about any issues. I'm sick and tired of downloading podcasts over and over again just to have them automatically deleted...I would avoid this app for now. OLD REVIEW Even though auto archive is turned off, it keeps deleting and archiving episodes. What the heck. Otherwise great app I suppose, although I've never tried anything else.more -
BELIEVE the negative reviews!
Mar 24, 2021 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 they responded to, if you don’t believe me. I.E, NONE of them. 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.more -
Apr 2, 2021 This app has so much going for it except one very fatal flaw. ARCHIVE deletes the episode! That's not at all what archive means. I want to hide played episodes, not delete them. I wish I'd known that. Many podcasts aren't available online anymore and I wouldn't have deleted them locally had I known. Please bring back a way to hide played without removing them because this app SHOULD be a five-star app!more -
Apr 1, 2021 Their communication with customers is vitriolic at best--from updates, to outreach, to QA. Atrocious would be a complement. The app has gone from great, to garbage (the past two years). Now it crashes about 8x a day, on a new flagship device. Stay away, at every tier.more -
Apr 3, 2021 Doesn't do playlists - I like to save episodes I might not want to listen to immediately to different playlists, like for driving or for focusing, etc. This player doesn't do that anymore, which seems like an extremely basic requirement of a podcast player.more
What’s Groovy
Overall, this is a great app! Great listening experience, easy to subscribe, easy to queue new podcast episodes, auto adding and auto downloading options for each podcast! However, I have one problem with it that drives me absolutely nuts. You can sort your podcasts into any order on your own, but there is no way to place them into folders or any other sort of organization. So when you're me and are subscribed to close to 150 podcasts (and climbing), it gets difficult to find an old one.
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What’s Subpar
Constant crashing/freezing for about three weeks now. I'm not sure if this is limited to video podcasts, or the pixel 4a, or both, or neither. It will sometimes make it 15 minutes into a podcast. Sometimes 5 minutes. Seldome through an entire one. And currently it won't make it 20 seconds into the one I'm on. Regardless of the issue, I'm on a road trip right now and I've had it. I'm switching to something else before this app gives me road rage.
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