I use pocket casts since years. Never felt like needing the plus. Just checked the benefits and I think I am still good. Before a flight I download dozens of podcast to my phone via WiFi and use the list of downloaded podcasts to keep track of them.
I see no need for the following features for me:
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Folders Organize your podcasts in folders, and keep them synced across devices.
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Desktop Apps Take your podcasts to more places with our Windows, macOS and Web apps.
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Cloud Storage Speed up your lectures. Burn through other content. Be your own Podcast DJ.
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Watch Playback Ditch the phone and go for a run – without missing a beat. Apple Watch stands alone
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Themes & Icons Fly your true colors. Exclusive icons and themes for the plus club only.
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I’m migrating from Pocketcasts and Audible to a self-hosted Audiobookshelf instance. It’s got all the audiobook features I would want, but the podcast features are not quite there yet. The two big ones that I miss from Pocketcasts are an automated “up next” playlist and auto-downloading new episodes to the phone. That being said, there is active development and new features and bugfixes come out regularly. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had feature-parity with Pocketcasts within the year. I know self-hosting isn’t for everyone, but if you’re interested in playing around with something like that, audiobookshelf is a good place to start.
This is a bummer because PocketCasts was my go-to for a long time. The Stitcher for Podcasts app might be a good option. I’ve heard positive mention of it, and it has a 4.8 on the App Store.
Podcast republic is a good alternative (assuming your just planning to use it on mobile/web)
I moved off of PocketCasts years ago when they started asking for subscriptions.
Overcast is a pretty dang good podcast app. Use it daily.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems like Stitcher is being shut down in August
Oof. Good to know!
Overcast for iOS is very good, has a fully free tier and it is cheap to support if you want to.
If you are already a subscriber it stays at 14.99. Its a glitch. You’re grandfathered to existing cost
But. If you are a new subscriber then yea you’re screwed.
Can’t comment for iOS but I use Podcast Addict for android.
Man I’m glad I got grandfathered in to their lifetime license, that’s really expensive
I am too, but this makes me worry about how long that will last. Once they start needing money bad enough, they’ll be eyeing us.
Yeah :( I’d probably go the selfhosted route if I can find a good bit of software to use for it, or just use RSS if that happens
I guess I gotta start looking at self-hosted aggregator solutions. I hope one of them has per-podcast playback speed settings/autoskip capabilities. I use the heck out of those.
Yeah I was looking at a few options. A few people recommended Audiobookshelf. I tried out airsonic-advanced and it has decent podcast support but the software itself feels a bit outdated, but it works
I wish plex would bring back plugin support. If my podcasts and audiobooks could live there easily I’d open their app a lot more. Maybe watch some of those old TV and movies they’re so excited about.
I’m in it until this happens.
my fav is https://www.snipd.com/
I just use Spotify for podcasts. Unless there’s something I’m missing from other podcast apps, Spotify works great for me.
Some podcasts have chapters, chapter art, show notes, etc. “Accidental Tech Podcast” is a good example. Spotify sucks for podcasts and they’re trying to kill podcasting so they can take it over.
Spotify is also trying to kill traditional RSS podcasts by buying them up and making them exclusive to Spotify.
Way I see it, if you can’t access it via RSS, then it ain’t a podcast. Fuck Spotify.
same old EEE shit
Yeah I hate them so much for this asshole move. I already “lost” two of my formerly favorite podcasts to them.
Pour one out for Heavyweight.
psst, give Heftyanchor Archive a search
While I like spotify for music there are three things that bug me about it:
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Anker.fm ads. Just a rant I hate anker.fm auto injection ads. If you try sleeping to a pod cast it wil go from normal volume TO SHOUTING ABOUT STATEFARM OR DUNKIN. While this issue also occurs on third party podcasting apps spotify dynamically injects a banner ad into podcast art and hyperlinks the ad. I might be overeacting (I hate these kind of deeplink ads). To be clear I don’t mind host read ads like linus sponsor shoutouts but dynamic ad injection is awfull.
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No chapter support
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I really like antennapod. It works really well for all of my podcasts.
I use Overcast.
Edit: Sorry just noticed you put multi platform. This is only for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch.
Same
By gawd I love Overcast.
They say they use Apple Podcasts, so depending what platforms they mean exactly, Overcast might work. It’s definitely my pick of podcast app as well
What’s wrong with Apple Podcasts? Just curious.
Pocket Casts is available as Android and Windows app; Apple Podcasts isn’t.
Pocket Casts syncs between MacOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Abby device that asked you to open the wenn player; Apple Podcasts doesn’t.
It’s not garbage per se, it just doesn’t fit the same use case.
Yeah but I guess I just don’t use podcasts on other devices. Too much headphone switching.
Honestly, my biggest use case is listening on the phone and listening on my PC while at work. The two sync together extremely well and it’s pretty seamless. No idea if Apple Podcasts can do that (or plays that nicely on a Mac) but that’s my biggest use case for their sync capabilities.
I haven’t gotten any sort of notification about this and I use the app every day. I would hope they say something directly to users through the app and not just do it.
For Android users and FOSS enthusiasts, AntennaPod is pretty great.
Made the switch from Podcast Addict recently and I’m pretty happy. It’s much more stable (especially with casting) and I like the queue system, but I do wish I had a bit more flexibility in applying download/update rules to whole categories instead of only one show at a time.
Second this.
Pocket Casts is also FOSS, though not sure about the server side code.
I’ve been using pocket casts for a while now, but never got the plus. The free version seems to have everything I need. What’s the most useful plus feature?
Been using it for a few years without paying, never felt the need.
It looks like their paid plan adds cross-platform (including desktop) syncing, folders, some cloud storage for uploading files, a watch app, and some more themes.
I have unlimited plus but really only use the Android app. I appreciate having the syncing though.
I’d love to know this as well.
