Facebook_pixel
Sign Out
Pocket Casts - Podcast Player

Pocket Casts - Podcast Player

Automattic Inc

Pocket Casts is the world's most powerful podcast platform

Google Play Free In-App Purchases App Store Free In-App Purchases
4.2 Ratings 76K+ Reviews 1M+ Downloads

Coupon for this app

Ratings & Reviews

4.2
76.3K+ Ratings
  1. 5
    65+%
  2. 4
    14+%
  3. 3
    7+%
  4. 2
    5+%
  5. 1
    9+%

Filter Reviews

Write a Review
Write a Review
  • img Expert
    1. Smart design interface changes colors to complement beautiful podcast artwork
    2. Go mobile or listen at home! Full compatibility with Android Wear and Chromecast
    3. “Pocket Casts is the best podcast app for Android.” - AndroidCentral

    Reviewed by Kaylin on March 7, 2018

  • Great podcatcher app, one big flaw Apr 10, 2021

    By Monica00000
    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.

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By A Google user
    Had to take 2 stars off because of audio issues. After a while of play over Bluetooth the audio starts to cut out randomly. The only way to fix it is to force stop the app and restart it. Happens multiple times a day and it gets really annoying. I have not tested weather this happens with wired headphones. This is sad because I really enjoy the app and the layout and features it has, but I will have to use another app untill they get this bug sorted out.

  • What I’ve been looking for... FINALLY! Dec 3, 2020

    By nelphos
    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!

  • Best podcast app with a few quirks Oct 31, 2020

    By jjstratton
    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!

  • Great replacement for Apple Podcasts May 8, 2021

    By DeejHames
    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.

  • Jul 9, 2021

    By PMKII
    Wonderful, generally. I've used this one for years and occasionally left for what I thought were greener pastures only to come back. Probably the best I've used in the 10 or more years I've listened to podcasts. One recent issue annoys, however - occasionally, when the player has been paused for a period of time, will not restart when play is pressed again unless I force close and clear cache. Annoying if it happens while driving.

  • Favorite podcast app but… Jun 25, 2021

    By StarlaThornhill
    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.

  • Look beyond the Apple store average and give Pocket Cast a look...you will not be disappointed! Dec 13, 2019

    By Spinnaker093
    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!

  • Jul 21, 2021

    By Rodrigo Concha
    I would totally leave a 5 star review because this is the best podcast app by far. However, switching themes doesn't always work. Sometimes, some parts of the app show the previous theme. Minor inconvenience, but it'd still be great to have it fixed. You guys are doing a wonderful job with this app!

  • Great podcatcher app, one big flaw Apr 10, 2021

    By Monica00000
    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.

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By A Google user
    Had to take 2 stars off because of audio issues. After a while of play over Bluetooth the audio starts to cut out randomly. The only way to fix it is to force stop the app and restart it. Happens multiple times a day and it gets really annoying. I have not tested weather this happens with wired headphones. This is sad because I really enjoy the app and the layout and features it has, but I will have to use another app untill they get this bug sorted out.

  • What I’ve been looking for... FINALLY! Dec 3, 2020

    By nelphos
    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!

  • Best podcast app with a few quirks Oct 31, 2020

    By jjstratton
    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!

  • Great replacement for Apple Podcasts May 8, 2021

    By DeejHames
    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.

  • Jul 9, 2021

    By PMKII
    Wonderful, generally. I've used this one for years and occasionally left for what I thought were greener pastures only to come back. Probably the best I've used in the 10 or more years I've listened to podcasts. One recent issue annoys, however - occasionally, when the player has been paused for a period of time, will not restart when play is pressed again unless I force close and clear cache. Annoying if it happens while driving.

  • Favorite podcast app but… Jun 25, 2021

    By StarlaThornhill
    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.

  • Look beyond the Apple store average and give Pocket Cast a look...you will not be disappointed! Dec 13, 2019

    By Spinnaker093
    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!

  • Jul 21, 2021

    By Rodrigo Concha
    I would totally leave a 5 star review because this is the best podcast app by far. However, switching themes doesn't always work. Sometimes, some parts of the app show the previous theme. Minor inconvenience, but it'd still be great to have it fixed. You guys are doing a wonderful job with this app!

  • I’m sad that I have to switch to another app May 21, 2020

    By AkaAdonis
    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.
See all positive reviews

  • Jul 8, 2021

    By Brian Burwell
    It works as a stand alone app or when casting to a Chromecast speaker. It even seems to do fine if you're casting to a group of speakers as long as they're speakers. However, if you include a Nest hub, the app struggles to play to the speaker group. Then once it finally does start playing, it won't play on the hub. The screen will show the podcast is playing, but it doesn't play any audio. Eventually, the hub seems to realize there's a problem and reboot, but it goes back to having the problem.

  • Jun 30, 2021

    By James Hebdon
    This could have easily been a 5 star app, but like most modern apps, they've gotten greedy and try to hide simple but useful features behind ridiculous subscription pay walls. To add a graphic to an added audio file they want you to pay every single month for the life of the app. Sabotaging basic features to get you to pay subscription charges seems to be the new standard when it comes to apps, and it's ridiculous. I once paid for this premium app and now they want me to pay monthly. Never.

  • Bad update, unprofessional response Mar 10, 2019

    By idontwantafrigginnickame
    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.

  • BELIEVE the negative reviews Apr 23, 2021

    By JJJ754
    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.

  • Jul 2, 2021

    By Frank Wohlfarth
    I used to love this app, but there's a terrible bug where podcasts get deleted while I am listening to them. I haven't figured out why it happens, but when I sometimes I fast forward or pause the podcast, it deletes it. Really really really annoying...

  • Jul 16, 2021

    By Robert Turner
    Getting taken over by the people that ruined Tumblr and Yahoo so expect the app to be completely run into the ground with subscriptions and bad design soon. Shame. This is the best podcast player at the moment by far and there's no other app that does it so well. So this is my message to the new owners. LEAVE IT ALONE.

  • Jul 10, 2021

    By Aneesh Sharma
    Literal garbage for a premium service. I've seen features slowly be removed and any semblance of the 'old' Pocketcasts erroded. There are no power user features here, you can't even set custom artwork for a podcast let alone anything else. I cross my fingers and hope that there will be a fresh push for the devs to add some of these features back but I sincerely doubt three cashgrab will end. Use Podcast Addict instead, you won't be disappointed. Yours sincerely A lifetime member

  • So much good but one fatal flaw Nov 19, 2020

    By 33peace
    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.

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By E Þ
    Very frustrating app. Not at all intuitive. Don't give users buttons that one cannot know what mean and do without an undo button. Look at all the good music players and go from there. Grumble grumble.

  • Features Are Great, But Won’t Stop Crashing May 26, 2019

    By jmrugg
    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.
See all negative reviews

No reviews available

See All Community Reviews
  • img Expert
    1. Smart design interface changes colors to complement beautiful podcast artwork
    2. Go mobile or listen at home! Full compatibility with Android Wear and Chromecast
    3. “Pocket Casts is the best podcast app for Android.” - AndroidCentral

    Reviewed by Kaylin on March 7, 2018

See All Expert Reviews

  • What I’ve been looking for... FINALLY! Dec 3, 2020

    By nelphos
    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!

  • Best podcast app with a few quirks Oct 31, 2020

    By jjstratton
    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!

  • Great replacement for Apple Podcasts May 8, 2021

    By DeejHames
    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.

  • Look beyond the Apple store average and give Pocket Cast a look...you will not be disappointed! Dec 13, 2019

    By Spinnaker093
    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!

  • The Best Podcast App! (from a jilted Apple Podcasts user) Jun 17, 2021

    By •Andrea>
    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!

  • Better than Default Podcast App Especially on Apple Watch Jun 17, 2020

    By colinkjr
    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.

  • My Podcast Home Oct 24, 2020

    By double_yolk
    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!

  • Best Podcast App on the Market!! Feb 11, 2021

    By Das_Red_Baron
    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.

  • May 18, 2021

    By K T
    This app by far exceeds my expectations, there is an abundance of functionalities that I would never have asked for but love using, now that I have them 🙂 One feature I am missing a little is a way to organize my subscriptions, be it tags or folders. I kind of abuse the filter functionality for this now, which works but feels a bit awkward. Finally, I do not want to subscribe, but if you offer a one time payment, I would be more than happy to contribute.

  • Fantastic Mar 12, 2019

    By robotfool228
    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.
See all 5 reviews

  • Great podcatcher app, one big flaw Apr 10, 2021

    By Monica00000
    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.

  • Jul 9, 2021

    By PMKII
    Wonderful, generally. I've used this one for years and occasionally left for what I thought were greener pastures only to come back. Probably the best I've used in the 10 or more years I've listened to podcasts. One recent issue annoys, however - occasionally, when the player has been paused for a period of time, will not restart when play is pressed again unless I force close and clear cache. Annoying if it happens while driving.

  • Jul 21, 2021

    By Rodrigo Concha
    I would totally leave a 5 star review because this is the best podcast app by far. However, switching themes doesn't always work. Sometimes, some parts of the app show the previous theme. Minor inconvenience, but it'd still be great to have it fixed. You guys are doing a wonderful job with this app!

  • Differences from 6.x to 7.3 May 16, 2019

    By Pinball Lizard
    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.

  • Search function and autoplay Jan 8, 2021

    By kitteartha
    The only gripe I have with this app is that the search function isn't particularly helpful. General search will only yield words within a podcast’s whole title (rather than the title or description of the episode). Only within that podcast’s listing can you sift through the episodes themselves using the search function. This means that finding individual podcasts on any particular subject is quite hard, and is only really possible if the entire podcast is dedicated to said subject. I re-downloaded apple’s podcasting app just to do searches. I also don’t know if other users love the auto play function, but all it does for me is cycle through the last thirty seconds of ads for every podcast I haven’t quite finished. Other than that, the app is quite nifty.

  • Jul 22, 2021

    By Benjamin Sims
    It's great. I've tried several podcast apps and like this one the best. I wish there was a way to remove the currently playing podcast from the playlist. You currently have to start another podcast, then remove the first one from the list.

  • Jul 24, 2021

    By Rushikesh Patil
    Great app for listening podcasts. But there is some scope of improvement. First of all there are some podcasts that I can't find here (e.g. Infornium) and Next, I think there should be additional feature to take notes of from the podcast without breaking the flow.

  • Jul 13, 2021

    By Laurel H
    I love having all my podcasts in one place. I find it a bit tedious sometimes that there doesn't seem to be a 'continue playing'; everything must be manually added into the Up Next list. But it's easy to use, just a small extra step. I have gotten multiple ads in a row at times which is annoying.

  • Excellent Podcast App for the Non-Power User Mar 10, 2019

    By Trevozneoma
    If you are like me and just want a cross platform podcast application to listen to your five or so podcasts on a weekly basis, then Pocket Casts is a great option. I understand that there are a number of complaints about the most recent update which speak to legitimate regressions in functionality for power users, however, this is a legitimately good podcast application that works for my particular needs which include Google Cast support, and the ability to operate it with my voice without having to unlock my phone (like while I am driving). That being said, I still face one issue where Google Cast support can get a bit wonky requiring me to force quit the app, reopen it and reconnect. If the team can squash that bug then this app is perfect for my needs.

  • New user on the new version Jun 8, 2019

    By Stackblocks
    I didn’t have any particular attachment to the old way the app worked so I can review it with a fresh slate, and I have to say I like it. - I love being able to fine-tune the tidying up of my subscription feeds with unplayed / in progress / archived / played. Having played episodes handled differently from episodes I wasn’t interested in at the time makes it easy to go back through the archives later when I’m looking to comb through the backlog. - The synched “Next Up” list travels with me between my phone, home, and office computers. - The swiping gestures to parse episodes is a lot smoother than having to tap on every episode to add to queue as a three press operation. - Discoverability is fine but angled more towards the major podcasts you’ve probably already heard of. - The filters fill the role of playlists nicely with a little extra power behind them. - Occasionally has some issues with streaming an episode but that has happened maybe twice in the time since the major update. - You do have to pay for the app in multiple places if you want to use the phone / desktop / web apps, but it is reasonably priced for a well developed app.
See all 4 reviews

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By A Google user
    Had to take 2 stars off because of audio issues. After a while of play over Bluetooth the audio starts to cut out randomly. The only way to fix it is to force stop the app and restart it. Happens multiple times a day and it gets really annoying. I have not tested weather this happens with wired headphones. This is sad because I really enjoy the app and the layout and features it has, but I will have to use another app untill they get this bug sorted out.

  • Favorite podcast app but… Jun 25, 2021

    By StarlaThornhill
    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.

  • I’m sad that I have to switch to another app May 21, 2020

    By AkaAdonis
    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.

  • Jun 14, 2021

    By Jason Coons
    Great app that has had a lot of rough patches over the last 5 years. I use it nearly every day, and I mostly love it! Previous issues with random playback were fixed, and all was good until 2021. There seems to be some sort of server sluggishness issue that causes refreshing and downloading to be PAINFULLY SLOW!!! Refreshes used to be about 5 seconds but now 10 min. A 5 min. podcast now takes about 10 min. to download and won't stream. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon, or it will be deleted.

  • Jun 29, 2021

    By KS S
    I really like this app but despite the fact I turned off all notifications, I can't get it off my notifications screen. Emailed their developer address and never heard a response. It annoys me every time I see it. Also so once had to uninstall and reinstall due to a glitch which erased all my listening history and favorites. Really really hope they fix the notification glitch. I may eventually get too annoyed and find another podcast app. I have a fairly new android phone btw.

  • Jul 2, 2021

    By John King'ori
    Hi devs, I really love your app, but I'd really like the ability to pause a download and to see its size before I click, I'd love to be able to resume a 'failed' download because my internet connection is not always stable and starting over more than once can be a hassle. I'd also love someplace we could chat... Like a telegram group so I can also get help from other users. Please allow me to download one at a time too, please

  • Syncing is still really bad if you listen on two devices. Jul 18, 2019

    By cecoleman
    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.

  • Jun 30, 2021

    By Andrew Nankervis
    I use every day and it's mostly fine, but I've noticed there's quite a few glitches recently with podcasts jumping or repeating sections. I thought it was the editing of the individual podcast episodes but they're fine on other platforms. I think I'll be looking for an alternative if it continues.

  • Plays podcasts and a little more May 17, 2021

    By bbman335
    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.

  • Disappointing search functions Oct 30, 2020

    By MaebyF.
    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.
See all 3 reviews

  • Jul 8, 2021

    By Brian Burwell
    It works as a stand alone app or when casting to a Chromecast speaker. It even seems to do fine if you're casting to a group of speakers as long as they're speakers. However, if you include a Nest hub, the app struggles to play to the speaker group. Then once it finally does start playing, it won't play on the hub. The screen will show the podcast is playing, but it doesn't play any audio. Eventually, the hub seems to realize there's a problem and reboot, but it goes back to having the problem.

  • Bad update, unprofessional response Mar 10, 2019

    By idontwantafrigginnickame
    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.

  • So much good but one fatal flaw Nov 19, 2020

    By 33peace
    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.

  • Features Are Great, But Won’t Stop Crashing May 26, 2019

    By jmrugg
    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.

  • Used to be good Apr 2, 2019

    By An iPad novice
    I really liked this app, as it did everything i needed for the 10-12 programs I liked. The recent upgrade improved the UI quite a bit. I liked that it automatically downloaded my favorites and put them in the queue. But then it started deleting shows from the queue, so I would expect to hear a show and it would be gone, and I’d have to find it and stick it back in. That was annoying enough but I could deal with it. But the final straw was that it would end a cast about 3 minutes before the cast actually ended, and then I’d have to dig around in the archive (because now the podcast was deleted from my queue and archived) and then stream the last few minutes. After doing this about half a dozen times I decided it was simply too much effort and have found another app. It really was a shame but the problems were too frustrating to deal with.

  • Some fixes to the awful Nov 2018 updates but bugs continue Mar 29, 2019

    By Bitter Vetch
    Pocket Casts really messed up a great app with their total revision back in Nov ‘18. Since then it’s become a little easier to group, sort, and (sort of) create playlists. But still a step down from the old version, where those functions were easy and intuitive. Recent update has introduced new bugs. The most irritating of which is the random tendency to clip the last 2-3 minutes of a podcast. At first I thought this was due to editing errors by the podcast producers, but today, after it happened to two casts, I went back and relistened, scrubbing to near the end, and heard the last few minutes that Pocket Cast had dropped. This is a bug in the app. Blah. Fix this, please. Better yet, give users the option of returning to the old pre-Nov 2018 version of the app. You could call it “Back Pocket Casts”.

  • Unfortunate newer version Mar 15, 2019

    By Razzmataztapdancinghobo
    I used to love this app but one of the more recent updates completely changed the interface of the app. The most frustrating for me is swiping left now archives the episode instead of delete, not even sure how to delete episodes anymore. Second most annoying change is instead of the download button being next to the episode title I have to open the show notes, then download from there. There are more issues with the new interface but those are the two big ones for me. It feels like the user experience was not even considered with the new version. Another issue is when I'm using Pocket Casts and Google maps simultaneously the podcast will rewind 10-15 seconds when Google maps pauses the podcast to give directions. I've stopped using Pocket Casts and am currently looking for a new app to use.

  • Loved it, now it's a mess Mar 10, 2019

    By Michael L Jones
    I used to love this app. Paid for it even and used it for years. Then they updated it and I'm not sure what else, but it's a mess.. An absolute mess. It randomly looses 15-30 minutes of podcasts I've listened to, sending me back in time wasting my time. The defaults of the old app have all been suppressed in the new one (why turn off new episode red circle by default?? Who thought that was a good idea). Archive vs delete??? Getting it to tell you all the back episodes of a cast and what ones you've listened to and others you haven't? Synching between my iPhone and iPad is spotty and forget my Apple Watch. I'm happy someone bought them out so they can keep working on this but honestly mostly since then it's been down hill. Fix it so I can love your app again. Otherwise I need to go find a replacement.

  • Latest updates ruined a great app Mar 21, 2019

    By SheWhoKnows
    I hate writing negative reviews, especially of an app that I have loved for years. But the latest set of updates has made Pocket Casts almost unusable. Previously, it was one of my most reliable apps, literally never crashing, never freezing, never having playback issues. It was pristine. I listen to podcasts through my whole day at work, and now it crashes, freezes, and shuts down dozens of times a day. I have to deal with a frozen screen and lose access to the rest of my phone or restart the app repeatedly. Also, the 15-second fast forward and rewind frequently don’t work either, getting caught in some sort of a loop where it keeps restarting at the same place as it’s trying to go back 15 seconds but never successfully does, ultimately leading to a crash. Inertia more than anything else has kept me from switching to a new app, but my frustration grows daily, so unless these basic bugs are fixed, I’ll have to go elsewhere. Otherwise, the major overhaul recently completed was delightful, but I would happily return to the old version and its stability if possible.

  • What happened? Feb 26, 2019

    By egustero
    Discovered this podcast app about a year and a half ago. Deleted all others and used this one exclusively because it was so great. Easy to download multiple episodes, easy to create playlists of specific podcasts. So awesome! And then... an update. Now I don’t even know how to use it anymore. It’s like a brand new app and not at all easy to use anymore. At least to me. I tried going online to see if I can find help, but came up short. I no longer have an easy to use podcast app and it’s back to searching for “the one”. For those who find this app great, kudos to you. For me, it just won’t work anymore. Best of luck to the developers and hopefully sometime in the future the old app is brought back.
See all 2 reviews

  • Jun 30, 2021

    By James Hebdon
    This could have easily been a 5 star app, but like most modern apps, they've gotten greedy and try to hide simple but useful features behind ridiculous subscription pay walls. To add a graphic to an added audio file they want you to pay every single month for the life of the app. Sabotaging basic features to get you to pay subscription charges seems to be the new standard when it comes to apps, and it's ridiculous. I once paid for this premium app and now they want me to pay monthly. Never.

  • BELIEVE the negative reviews Apr 23, 2021

    By JJJ754
    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.

  • Jul 2, 2021

    By Frank Wohlfarth
    I used to love this app, but there's a terrible bug where podcasts get deleted while I am listening to them. I haven't figured out why it happens, but when I sometimes I fast forward or pause the podcast, it deletes it. Really really really annoying...

  • Jul 16, 2021

    By Robert Turner
    Getting taken over by the people that ruined Tumblr and Yahoo so expect the app to be completely run into the ground with subscriptions and bad design soon. Shame. This is the best podcast player at the moment by far and there's no other app that does it so well. So this is my message to the new owners. LEAVE IT ALONE.

  • Jul 10, 2021

    By Aneesh Sharma
    Literal garbage for a premium service. I've seen features slowly be removed and any semblance of the 'old' Pocketcasts erroded. There are no power user features here, you can't even set custom artwork for a podcast let alone anything else. I cross my fingers and hope that there will be a fresh push for the devs to add some of these features back but I sincerely doubt three cashgrab will end. Use Podcast Addict instead, you won't be disappointed. Yours sincerely A lifetime member

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By E Þ
    Very frustrating app. Not at all intuitive. Don't give users buttons that one cannot know what mean and do without an undo button. Look at all the good music players and go from there. Grumble grumble.

  • Jun 23, 2021

    By Taylor Burke
    Love the app except that my podcasts randomly stop or shut off as I'm listening and I have to reopen the app to hit play. It's not even in the status bar at the top because it's like the app force closed. The app keeps crashing. It also is buffering podcasts so much unless the phone is unlocked. Please fix your app because I don't want to find a new one! I love this one so much...I just want it to work!

  • AVOID! Bought app before subscription, +30GB DATA ABUSE! Apr 22, 2020

    By Readdle Stole $9.99
    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!

  • Bad Update Took Away Favourite Feature! Sep 20, 2019

    By Click&Burn
    This app was my favourite cross-platform for the last few years and I rated it highly due to the control and customisation of podcast management. Then they removed my favourite feature: ‘Auto Cleanup’ in the recent v7 update. I travel a lot and can be without internet on planes, underground and in dead spot areas, and the Auto Cleanup settings allowed me to keep only the newest / relevant 1 to 5 episodes of my news, entertainment and information podcasts. Bring back pre-v7 ASAP, totally wrong decision to overhaul it by far for the worse. So I’ve left this app behind, and they even ‘reset’ their ratings, it went from the top rated podcast app to worst with one update to v7, hundreds of 1 star reviews have been removed, don’t waste your money! UPDATE: so now it’s ‘gone free’ to subscription payment mode - the money I did pay for it is now worthless, just like this app. Successfully destroyed the app from version 6 to now. Goodbye!

  • Why am I surprised they charge for Apple Watch support? Jul 21, 2020

    By FTW28
    The shift from great podcast player to nickel and diming developers has been extremely irritating over the last year. They released a badly thought out redesign. They updated it a bit but also implemented a subscription feature that no one asked for and provided almost no value whatsoever. And now recently to top it all off, they finally introduced syncing support with Apple Watch but it’s behind their premium subscription. I am all for supporting developers who work hard and make great apps, but I get angry every time I open the app and hit a paywall screen for some of the most basic iOS functionality. I highly recommend (and will be going myself) to Overcast. They figured out the correct way to charge for optional ads for ongoing support and include watch functionality for free. Don’t waste your time with PocketCast.
See all 1 reviews

What’s Groovy

What’s Subpar

Want more reviews? Sign up for free to get all-access!

As well as curated coupons daily to your inbox. Save up to 90% on Apps & Games.

We will never share or sell your data with third parties. You can opt out anytime.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

Loading...

Pocket Casts - Podcast Player

Pocket Casts - Podcast Player

Google Play App Store
  1. Apps & Games
  2. News & Magazines
    1. Podcasts
    2. Listen To News
  4. Automattic Inc
  5. Pocket Casts - Podcast Player