Instacast and Pocket Casts are the best podcast listening solutions for iOS and Android

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-13 00:26

The default solution for listening to podcasts on iOS is bad. It's not just bad, it's really terrible. Instead of doing just works, it does just not works: the strange logic of podcast unloading from custom RSS feeds, not all podcast episodes that are in the App Store reach me. I'm sure there are those who will say that I'm wrong, but these are the same people who said that skeuomorphic reels in the first version of Apple Podcasts are beautiful. Alternative solutions for listening to podcasts are better in all respects - usability, speed, synchronization.

Below I will tell you about two solutions that I used as an alternative to Podcasts and never wanted to go back.

If you have a Mac and all iOS devices

If you only have Apple devices on your desk, in your bag, or in your pocket, then you can't find a better podcast solution than Instacast. All apps for OS X, iPhone and iPad are paid, but this program makes managing podcasts a pleasure. If you add RSS feeds, each episode will be downloaded at the time of its release, and you will know about it from the push notification. The program has an iOS 7 interface and was updated to it in the first wave. This means that the authors of the software package are developing Instacast very dynamically.

Podcasts, subscriptions, and listening progress are synced through the cloud, and when you start listening to a podcast on a run from your iPhone, you can continue listening in the Instacast desktop application for OS X. The application has flexible settings for using mobile and wi-fi networks, as well as storage settings for the podcasts you listen to - so it won't overwhelm you with disk space.

If you have Android or a mixed ecosystem

Once you have a non-Apple device, you can use a simple search to go to podcasting hell. The solutions that fall out on you are programs written by some programmers in Perl for programmers in C. The best solution here is often called the DoggCatcher Podcast Player program, which has the following interface:

And the settings in this device are so sophisticated that they are comparable to all settings of the Android OS together. Probably, this is a solution for those who love the setup process itself and who do not care about the result. And I just need the podcasts to be in the device themselves, so that I somehow know about it, so that I do not feel like managing an alien cruiser where I just want to listen to the latest "Access Code" by Yulia Latynina. True, I have a lot of interesting things in my life and they help me to do the only ray of light I found in the world of podcasting in the world of Android.

This is Pocket Casts app. It's paid (like the DoggCatcher hippopotamus, by the way), but it also exists for iOS, where I still have a tablet:)

Pocket Casts has a simple and intuitive interface that helps you do the main thing - subscribe to your favorite podcasts or find something new in audio and video format (the catalog is available, of course, only in English). Podcasts are automatically downloaded and the player is handy. When playing, its controls are placed in the notification area and on the lockscreen. Convenient and everything just works.

Pocket Casts has its own sync cloud, which works just as well as Instacast. We started listening to the podcast on an Android smartphone, and finished on an iPad. Or subscribed to an iPad, and it is already loaded on the iPhone.

As for the design, then everything is tip-top: for iOS 7 - a new modern design, and for Android - a minimalistic dark and light design (those who like to choose their own).