Pocket Casts - Podcast Player

Small bug fix release to fix issues with playback position syncing across devices. Thanks to everyone who helped us track this down.

One more fixey fixey release before we roll out new featuey featies. No you've spent too long working from home! Wilson says I need to tell you what's...YES I'M DOING THAT NOW WIL...YES...SHUT UP SHUT UUUUUP!

- Improved support for iPad when used with a pointing device or track pad
- Fixed a crash that could occur when using the accessibility rotor action to archive an episode
- Fixed the progress indicator on our mini player not working properly for custom episodes
- Fixed a subscribe link issue that affected feed URLs that had additional parameters in them
- Fixed an issue where sometimes pressing play for content being sent to a HomePod or other Airplay 2 device might require multiple taps to make it actually play

Some more quality of life improvements coming to you from Pocket Casts HQ. Live and hot! Or is that live and strong! Or maybe live and UNFILTERED!

- Improved the way swiping to archive works in various lists. This should now be faster and easier.
- Fixed an issue where if you left the show notes page up and left the app, it could appear blank when you come back
- Improved accessibility of the search element on the podcast list page
- Fixed an issue with accessibility where swiping through podcasts could cause VoiceOver to read them twice
- Tweaked some of our Siri actions
- Fixed an issue where if you set the Skip Last setting on a podcast, and chose the "End of Episode" sleep timer option the app would ignore your sleep timer
- Fixed a few rare (but important) crashes
- Fixed an issue where after seeking the progress indicator for a podcast could stop moving
- Increased social distancing by 2000%
- I think I'm still sane, but I lack my office co-workers to check on that fact, so it's been moved from "certain" to "unconfirmed".

I swear to Zeus I'm never touching chapter code again. It started so innocently "Hi we are friendly Germans and we notice this one podcast doesn't show chapters in your app" and well, it all went south from there. That said, it does feel good to fix things, so we fixed some more chapter related stuff.

Fixes a playback related crash that slipped through in 7.8.1. There's a sports joke in here somewhere, I just know it.

The previous release notes for those that missed them (and yes, I did purposely mis-spell Queen's just to set you all off...and oh boooooooy did it work!):
This release we've spent time fixing and refining all those small things that bug you, or that you've emailed us about. Hopefully you find some things in this list that were your pet peeves. Nothing would make us happier than resolving them and making your life just that teency bit better!

- Implemented a new Skip Last feature, where you can skip things like outro songs you aren't into automagically
- Implemented bigger and more consistent video player controls, so you can skip through videos far easier
- Added Listening History to CarPlay so you can quickly find episodes you've just heard
- Added a new notification action so you can choose to Play Next or Play Last
- Added the ability to tap on the tab you're already on to go to the top, and in discover trigger search
- Added support for asking Siri to play podcasts for you. "Hey Siri play The Daily on Pocket Casts" and similar phrases should now work.
- Tweaked now playing info to show you the published date of the episode you're playing
- Improved MP3 chapter support, the app should now be able to read a wider array of chapters
- In addition to the above, fixed an issue where chapters could be shown for podcasts that don't have chapters, after playing one that does
- Fixed an issue where turning on "Open Player Automatically" could make the player open automatically a wee bit too often
- Fixed some issues with the iOS status bar being the wrong colour in certain themes
- Fixed some issues with navigation bars being the wrong colour in certain themes
- Fixed issues with the player not responding correctly to theme changes
- Fixed an issue where the colour for artwork could be cached for longer than the artwork itself
- Fixed an issue where if you seek while an episode is paused, the position could jump around a bit until it's finished seeking
- Fixed some additional seeking issues in various shows
- Fixed some cross device syncing issues
- Fixed an issue where some Pocket Casts share links would open the app, but not the podcast itself
- Fixed an issue where your podcast settings might not update if you leave the podcast page open
- Fixed an issue where the time remaining in Up Next was cut off on smaller phones
- Fixed an issue with CarPlay where it could lock up and or refresh too often
- Continued to spell colour correctly. In this house we stan the Queens English

This release we've spent time fixing and refining all those small things that bug you, or that you've emailed us about. Hopefully you find some things in this list that were your pet peeves. Nothing would make us happier than resolving them and making your life just that teency bit better!

- Implemented a new Skip Last feature, where you can skip things like outro songs you aren't into automagically
- Implemented bigger and more consistent video player controls, so you can skip through videos far easier
- Added Listening History to CarPlay so you can quickly find episodes you've just heard
- Added a new notification action so you can choose to Play Next or Play Last
- Added the ability to tap on the tab you're already on to go to the top, and in discover trigger search
- Added support for asking Siri to play podcasts for you. "Hey Siri play The Daily on Pocket Casts" and similar phrases should now work.
- Tweaked now playing info to show you the published date of the episode you're playing
- Improved MP3 chapter support, the app should now be able to read a wider array of chapters
- In addition to the above, fixed an issue where chapters could be shown for podcasts that don't have chapters, after playing one that does
- Fixed an issue where turning on "Open Player Automatically" could make the player open automatically a wee bit too often
- Fixed some issues with the iOS status bar being the wrong colour in certain themes
- Fixed some issues with navigation bars being the wrong colour in certain themes
- Fixed issues with the player not responding correctly to theme changes
- Fixed an issue where the colour for artwork could be cached for longer than the artwork itself
- Fixed an issue where if you seek while an episode is paused, the position could jump around a bit until it's finished seeking
- Fixed some additional seeking issues in various shows
- Fixed some cross device syncing issues
- Fixed an issue where some Pocket Casts share links would open the app, but not the podcast itself
- Fixed an issue where your podcast settings might not update if you leave the podcast page open
- Fixed an issue where the time remaining in Up Next was cut off on smaller phones
- Fixed an issue with CarPlay where it could lock up and or refresh too often
- Continued to spell colour correctly. In this house we stan the Queens English

After every major release, we do lots of big and small updates that increase the version number. It's all fun and games when you're at 7.1 and 7.2, but as you get to 7.8 you just know you're going to have to either do the weird 7.10 thing, or break your convention and go for 7.9.9.9.9.9.1 to avoid going to 8. This release gets us one closer to that, and also fixes a whole bunch of weird and wonderful bugs. Release numbers are just plain weird, let's be honest.

Oh and a shout out to our BMW owning friends. I'm going to be kind to you all and make 0 jokes about your car choice, except maybe by taking a slight dig at you with our new setting:
General -> Legacy Bluetooth Support is something you'll want to turn on if you're having issues with the app pausing in your car. It's ok, "legacy" sounds like "classy" so same, same right?

This release introduces some new discover section features, such as podcast collections. This is a little bit of a tease because you won't immediately get new ones but when you do we think you'll like them.

We also fixed some bugs you nice people reported to us and improved a few things here and there.

Every great movie, needs a sequel. How else are you going to cash in on the amazing characters and storylines you've developed without bothering to make a brand new world from scratch? Welcome to our 7.6 sequel. We've named it 7.6.1 which we think you'll get a kick out of!

- Accessibility fixes for various controls in the player
- Fixed possible crash when long pressing in the Profile -> Downloads Section
- Fixed incorrect podcasts being queued sometimes in Profile -> Downloads long press, Play all from here.
- Fixed an issue that could cause your notification settings to not be saved to the server
- Fixed a few bits of UI rotating when they weren't meant to. Cheeky little buggers!
- Fixed a typo in the player tour. Fixed a typo in the player tour. Fixed a typo in the player tour. Get it?! These are not 3 separate fixes ;)
- Fixed some other crashes and minor UI issues

Happy new year by the way! I was going to make a whole bunch of jokes around vision and 20 20, maybe even some see you next decade material, but I've spared you all of that. You're welcome!

We were tempted to call this version "Stuff what youse allses did ask for" but apparently that's not as good as "7.6". So this is version 7.6. With stuff what youses allses did ask for. I don't make the rules I just write the notes.

Features include:
- A brand new free theme, Indigo. To help you understand it, let's describe it like one would a fine wine: Rich blue elements are paired with off-white backgrounds, reducing eye fatigue and enhancing tactility.
- Up Next is now more accessible, on its own page you can now access from the button on the mini player, the button on the player or by swiping up. There's new multi-select actions as well to help you manage it harder than you've ever managed it before.
- The Now Playing screen has had a facelift based on all your feedback. You can now swipe right over to notes and there's a configurable toolbar so you can put your favourite actions right on the player page!
- We've also done lots of small things, like adding sort by episode length to the podcast page.

There's the usual raft of bug fixes and performance improvements too, but we hope by now you're used to those being part of every release. Ok everyone, don't forget to like and subscribe, and I'll see you all...oh...this isn't my [name of streaming service redacted] channel? Maybe just leave us a nice review in the store if you feel so inclined? They make us all warm and fuzzy, and we all need warmth and fuzz from time to time, no?

Fixes an issue where CarPlay would say that it can't connect to Pocket Casts. Thanks to everyone who helped us track this one down. I appreciate you all so much that I'd like to write you a poem. Alas, I suck at poetry and I'm also in a hurry, so please accept this joke in its stead:

Two girls walk into a bar. You'd think at least one of them would have seen it.

....BADUM TSSSSS...

Also cheers to everyone who said they still read our release notes! It makes me so happy to know that I now have hundreds of extra people I can be nervous about letting down! Don't worry, the queue is long but the refreshments are amazing.

As we continue to work on our new feature update (v7.6) we bring you another point update to address some issues we've been working with you all on:
- improved syncing, especially in cases where people were seeing old archived episodes come back
- fixes an issue that could cause your custom files to be duplicated
- improved chapter support when streaming custom files
- various other improvements and fixes

I always vowed to never write "various bug fixes and improvements" as a release note, so I got a little chuckle from that last bullet point. I hope someone still reads these things ;)

New versions aren't quite like opening presents, but we hope you at least get a partial dopamine hit reading the following:
- Dark Mode support! You asked for it, we delivered! Actually we'd already written it and were waiting for [redacted dev tool name] to stabilise before we shipped it, but why split hairs!
- You can now clear your listening history. No judgement here, wipe that slate clean if you need to!
- Added a new podcast grouping option: group by starred. If you want to see starred episodes at the top of your podcast this ones for you.
- Lots of small bug fixes and improvements

Welcome to everyone who's new to our release notes and also of course to those of you that have been around for a while. This time around they are 33% less funny, but 62.74646% more accurate. Trust me on this one I've done the maths. Yes it's 'maths' here in Australia. We write it on our coloured Aluminium Synchronised Kangaroos so it's hard to forget.

- Improved the reliability of syncing between iOS devices
- Fixed various small theming issues
- Fixed an issue where your chapter info could get shown on top of the episode name. Efficient, but it looked kinda odd.
- Fixed a few iPhone SE sized issues. Mad respect for those of you still rocking those tiny little phones.
- Fixes an issue where the files section would show a full file upload progress even though nothing was being uploaded
- Fixes the -37 years issue. As some of you know we made a last minute change here in terms of how Plus memberships work, but the version we'd submitted many weeks before that didn't support the display of it
- Fixed a few other crashes and issues reported to us

If you love something, set it free, or so the saying goes. Pocket Casts has been a paid app since 2010 when it first launched. Back then we had a small company to run and people's families literally depended on us charging for our app. It was a business model that worked well in terms of paying the bills, but always caused confusion with our customers. "Do I have to pay again if I switch from a robot phone to a fruit based one?", "Why is the app paid?", "How can I recommend this to friends when it will require them to pay?".

Today, things are different. We have the backing of some amazing partners, all of whom come from, and firmly believe in, an open access model. For a while now we've felt that charging for the app conflicted with their core values of being open and available to everyone. Clearly we had to do something about it, and so in the spirit of Shifty Jelly of yore, we did. After many months of hard work, we introduce you to version 7.5!

If you want a detailed write up on everything that's changing and why it's changing please visit our blog (blog.pocketcasts.com). We'd love to share some highlights on here though:
- The app is now completely free, and every feature previously available in the paid version is still available in the free version.
- We've introduced a completely optional premium tier: Pocket Casts Plus. Among other benefits, Plus members get exclusive access to new themes and icons.
- You can now import your own audio files into Pocket Casts and listen to them sped up and with silences removed. Plus members can also upload these files to the cloud so they are available on all your devices.
- Improved account control. You can now do things like change your email and password inside the app, without having to go to the web.
- Performance enhancements and fixes. We spent a large part of this release focussing on performance and usability, tweaking and honing the app to make it our most refined release yet.

We hope you'll join us on this next stage of our journey. To all of you who haven't told a friend about us because our app was paid, now's your chance!

What's with all the apps getting hip version numbers now? 2019.4?! I get it, it's the fourth 2019 build but you just know regular people are going to confuse the 4 for April, so I give this new system one star out of five. Bucking the trend and bringing you 7.4 (sorry to those of you that think this came from 7AD and is suuuuuper old now)
- Added keyboard shortcuts for iPad. Zip around the UI. Play, pause, skip and more. Let your fingers do the talking!
- More improvements to syncing, especially for those that play podcasts they aren't subscribed to. We get it, commitment is scary.
- Fixed an issue that could cause your Up Next list to be cleared (thanks to the beta testers who helped us find this)
- Fixed an issue that could cause you to not be able to subscribe to a podcast. Goes with the issue above really, no excuses anymore.
- Fixed re-arrange controls being missing in Up Next for a certain redacted, yet public, shall we say fruity beta OS
- Full screen video player now hides the status bar like it should
- Other small (and large but hard to describe) improvements, as always!

Shiny new versions with shiny new things. Who doesn't love that? Sit down Gary, we know you don't just chill a little.
- Improved accessibility
- Fixed some issues with syncing episode progress
- App now applies auto-archive limit settings sooner than the next time it refreshes
- Play all now warns you about clearing your Up Next list
- Fixed an issue where sorting oldest -> newest and grouping by seasons would still leave the latest season at the top
- Fixed a visual issue when pulling down on the full screen player
- Fixed an issue that could cause podcasts you'd subscribed to on other devices not to be added during a sync
- Fixed an issue that could cause items in your listening history to be duplicated
- Fixed an issue where episode durations might not be updated properly

We also fixed some things too mundane or long to list up there. It's fixes all the way down, as the kids say. No Gary, you're not a kid, put your hand down. For Zeus sakes. Why can't you be more like Jenny?

- Fixes a crash related to resuming the app to the player page (long story, but thanks to the beta testers who helped us track this one down!)
- Fixes an issue with using the older format of our subscribe links to get to a podcast
- Improved grammar by 33%. Your welcome

Why are we always chasing the new? Can't we just live in the now? Why is it always what will be, not what is? I don't actually have the answer to your existential struggle, I'm sorry. I do have some change notes though!
- Added chapter progress UI to the player. You can now see how far into a chapter you are and how long there is to go.
- Added ability to group podcasts by play status, download status or into seasons. The seasons grouping is particular nifty though it does require the podcast author to support it. Quite a few do though, check out shows like Serial and Startup for example.
- Added some new Siri actions to extend your sleep timer, play all in a filter and open a filter.
- CarPlay now shows archived episodes if the app is configured to show archived episodes.
- Added an option to allow you to single tap an episode in Up Next to play it straight away.
- Added support for 2 line episode titles, making it easier to tell in lists what an episode is about.
- Added Download All option for podcasts and filters.
- Added a workaround for a truly bizarre bug affecting some car stereos (covered on Reply All and 99% Invisible). If you're a 99% Invisible fan you should now be able to listen over bluetooth in your car without fearing that it might freak out on you.
- Lots of fixes and performance enhancements including (but not limited to) syncing, playback, Siri actions, lists and crashes.

Quick crash fix update, but don't worry, we'll have some new features for you all in the upcoming 7.3 release.

I've noticed other developers don't bother to tell you what's changed. Why can't I, just once, just this one time, just write "Bug fixes and enhancements" in this little box? You'd let me have one right?

I mean I spent 2 days fighting with a stupid search box to get it to scroll up a page, but I'm not entirely sure that's release notes worthy is it? Nor is staring at crash logs until my eyes hurt trying to figure out exactly why line 0 EXC_BAD_ACCESS'd. I mean it's not the bad old days of BADIMPLEMENTSREFINCOMPATLIB but we're not far off Large Fruity Company, we're not far off.

All of which is to say, we fixed some things. You might notice, you might not, but by golly v7.2.2 is better than 7.2.1. My name's [redacted] and I endorse these release notes.

This release we took some time out to track down and fix some long standing playback issues we've had. So if you've had Pocket Casts not resume after a phone call, or occasionally go back up to 30 seconds after an interruption, this release is for you. For the rest of you we've made the app start faster and sanded back a few other rough edges. Overall version 7.2.1 is the best Pocket Casts yet! And we think...you're going to love it.

2...2...7...2. Ever wondered why sound people can't think of more interesting things to test mics with? Why not Peter Parker Picked A Pack Of Oh Man Spiderman Doesn't Start With A P? Beats me. Version 7.2 is here to clear up all that confusion and much much more:
- Added per podcast episode limits. If you have a pesky hourly or daily podcast you're struggling to keep up with, lay your burden at Pocket Casts feet and we'll take care of it. Appreciate all your feedback on this issue!
- Fixed an issue with the Apple Watch Now Playing screen not showing a skip back button.
- Added a setting for the default Up Next swipe, so now you can be the master of if play next or play last is best. Play next fo lyfe tho.
- Fixed quite a few other small things, including some lists getting cut off by the evil that is the mini player.

2019 came at us so fast. New year, new resolutions, new addiction to chocolat...wait that might have just been me. Well Pocket Casts wants in on that new action too! 7.1.1 might not be as catchy as 2019, but it does feel good to say really fast. No really. Try it!

What's new?
- Added CarPlay actions for Mark as Played and Star (you can turn these on in Settings -> Playback -> Extra Playback Actions)
- Added some more polish to the podcast page and sped up both viewing new podcasts and unsubscribing from old ones
- Fixed some more iPhone SE issues, tiny phone love is real!
- Added swipe to close for video player, as well as it automatically going full screen when you rotate your phone
- Fixed the Keep Screen Awake setting occasionally not, well you know, keeping the screen awake
- Fixed an issue where episodes could be marked as in progress when they actually aren't
- Changed the look of archived episodes based on your feedback
- Various other performance enhancements and fixes

With the holiday season fast approaching, Pocket Santa always delivers the good. He Casts them at you with a sprinkling of terrible puns:
Santa's highlight reel:
- Added per podcast auto-archive settings to help people manage shows that release a lot of episodes
- Added progress indicator to Apple Watch Now Playing page, tap the title to toggle it on
- Added support for the new watchOS 5 complication styles
- Added long press play all and archive all options to the Downloads page
- Added unsubscribe button to the podcast settings page (you can also tap the subscribed tick on the podcast page to do the same)
- Added a long press option to the skip forward button in the player, for those that quickly want to move to the next episode
- Added a refresh button to the profile page, as well as displaying when your last refresh was
- Tap artwork on the player page to quickly view episode info
- Added release date and season info to items in your Up Next list on the player page

Santa's Elf Related Fixes (SERF for short):
- various crash fixes and performance improvements
- Fixed an issue where you couldn't sort Up Next items above/below the height of your screen
- Improved performance of the Up Next list in the player when you have hundreds of items
- Updated the Profile tab so that the header scrolls with the rest of the table
- Various iPad fixes. It's not water proof though, so still don't use it for SERFing (sorry)
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Inactive sync option not to work properly
- The list version of the podcast grid now works with accessibility
- Changed "Now Playing" to "Playing" in the Apple Watch app so it doesn't take 3 seconds for the time to appear on smaller watches
- Fixed a Chromecast issue that could cause your progress to get reset to 0 when you stop casting
- Fixed an issue that could cause the app to not get new episodes of some shows
- There's many more fixes and improvements that are just too long to list in these update notes. Rest assured though that Santa treats his elves with respect, especially now the little blighters have unionised. None of them were harmed in the making of this update, but if they were all the correct health and safety regulations were followed!