5 ms·

Apple has ruined its podcasts app

48 points by protomyth 9y ago

xpaulbettsx 9y ago
There's a reason it's the only app in the store that has its reviews and rating mysteriously hidden
- josephxanderson 9y ago
  To be fair, all iOS internal Apple apps that you can remove are like this in the app store. And although they appear to be decoupled from iOS completely, updates aren't pushed out through the App Store either.
  - dbbk 9y ago
    I don't think they are really decoupled from iOS. Updates are still delivered through iOS updates. I think it's in the App Store because when people remove it from their homescreen, the logical place they're going to search for it to bring it back would be searching in the App Store. But it's not an actual app delivered by the App Store, if that makes sense.
    - josephxanderson 9y ago
      The only reason I say this is because it appears it does actually have to download back onto your device. So I'm not totally sure.
cheeze 9y ago
The new podcasts app is absolutely terrible. My girlfriend is a heavy listener and the list of podcasts she has available takes between 30-45 seconds if it loads at all. Releasing the new version of this app was absolutely a regression, and I'm shocked that it actually got past any form of QA at all. My only guess here is that a team felt the need to ship a new shiny product, even if it wasn't close to feature parity with the old one and is pretty unusable for a normal workflow without becoming quickly frustrated. I assume business metrics, promotions, and appeal to novelty got in the way of functionality and user experience. My girlfriend mentioned that she wanted to turn off automatic updates because she would have never updated this app to the new version, which is quite frustrating as somebody with some basic netsec knowledge. Apple, what happened?
- JoBrad 9y ago
  It really is horribly slow now - and not just in the way that you describe. Previously, I could load the podcasts app, and tap the top item in the unplayed list, and it would begin playing the entire list. Now there isn't a way to do that. Instead that tap opens the list of podcasts for that show, and then I have to tap the podcast again to select it, and once again to play it. And it only plays podcasts for that show! As far as I can tell there isn't a way to play all of the unplayed episodes I am subscribed to. I moved to Overcast.
banku_brougham 9y ago
I think everyone on HN knows this already. I was using Casts for a while, even paid something for it. However it was Ok but infuriating, if that makes sense. So i downloaded the Apple podcast app again, not wanting to pay and assuming they are all equally horrible. Not true! Where most software tries to make you addicted to the product, the Apple Podcasts app nobly repels your best efforts to engage. And they are right — walking to the coffee shop and listening to birds chirping and the sounds of the day beginning is a pmeasure no app can provide.
qq66 9y ago
Doesn't really matter, since anyone who cares about the software they use left the Podcasts app five years ago.
- stblack 9y ago
  This. The Podcasts app was never any good.
- garganzol 9y ago
  Exactly. Mic Recorder app was ruined as well during that era. It was pretty obvious what future Apple held for us.
Spooky23 9y ago
I think they finally, after 3 years, fixed the bug where every podcast you streamed would start remaining in the undeletable “Documents and Data” of the app. The old solution was backup/restore of the device!
peapicker 9y ago
Overcast is by far the best podcast app in tpgone, I got fed up with Apple's spp years ago.
- meitham 9y ago
  I'm a heavy podcast listener and have been happily using iCatcher for three years. With so many customisable options it feels like it's targeted to developers.
putinontheritz 9y ago
Their podcast app has been garbage for quite some time. I dumped it for Overcast and I’ve not looked back. My podcasts instantly start, sound good and are all available. Do you your self a favor and try it.
draw_down 9y ago
Get Overcast and be done with it. Apple hasn’t cared about their app for a long time.
brudgers 9y ago
All podcast apps are terrible. Some are more terrible than others. All a podcast app needs are the capabilities to find, list, and play mp3 files. That's it. Everything else is just trouble waiting to happen. And the finding can be just RSS feeds.

48 points by protomyth 9y ago

xpaulbettsx 9y ago

There's a reason it's the only app in the store that has its reviews and rating mysteriously hidden

josephxanderson 9y ago
To be fair, all iOS internal Apple apps that you can remove are like this in the app store. And although they appear to be decoupled from iOS completely, updates aren't pushed out through the App Store either.
- dbbk 9y ago
  I don't think they are really decoupled from iOS. Updates are still delivered through iOS updates. I think it's in the App Store because when people remove it from their homescreen, the logical place they're going to search for it to bring it back would be searching in the App Store. But it's not an actual app delivered by the App Store, if that makes sense.
  - josephxanderson 9y ago
    The only reason I say this is because it appears it does actually have to download back onto your device. So I'm not totally sure.

cheeze 9y ago

The new podcasts app is absolutely terrible. My girlfriend is a heavy listener and the list of podcasts she has available takes between 30-45 seconds if it loads at all. Releasing the new version of this app was absolutely a regression, and I'm shocked that it actually got past any form of QA at all. My only guess here is that a team felt the need to ship a new shiny product, even if it wasn't close to feature parity with the old one and is pretty unusable for a normal workflow without becoming quickly frustrated. I assume business metrics, promotions, and appeal to novelty got in the way of functionality and user experience. My girlfriend mentioned that she wanted to turn off automatic updates because she would have never updated this app to the new version, which is quite frustrating as somebody with some basic netsec knowledge. Apple, what happened?

JoBrad 9y ago
It really is horribly slow now - and not just in the way that you describe. Previously, I could load the podcasts app, and tap the top item in the unplayed list, and it would begin playing the entire list. Now there isn't a way to do that. Instead that tap opens the list of podcasts for that show, and then I have to tap the podcast again to select it, and once again to play it. And it only plays podcasts for that show! As far as I can tell there isn't a way to play all of the unplayed episodes I am subscribed to. I moved to Overcast.

banku_brougham 9y ago

I think everyone on HN knows this already. I was using Casts for a while, even paid something for it. However it was Ok but infuriating, if that makes sense. So i downloaded the Apple podcast app again, not wanting to pay and assuming they are all equally horrible. Not true! Where most software tries to make you addicted to the product, the Apple Podcasts app nobly repels your best efforts to engage. And they are right — walking to the coffee shop and listening to birds chirping and the sounds of the day beginning is a pmeasure no app can provide.

qq66 9y ago

Doesn't really matter, since anyone who cares about the software they use left the Podcasts app five years ago.

stblack 9y ago
This. The Podcasts app was never any good.
garganzol 9y ago
Exactly. Mic Recorder app was ruined as well during that era. It was pretty obvious what future Apple held for us.

Spooky23 9y ago

I think they finally, after 3 years, fixed the bug where every podcast you streamed would start remaining in the undeletable “Documents and Data” of the app. The old solution was backup/restore of the device!

peapicker 9y ago

Overcast is by far the best podcast app in tpgone, I got fed up with Apple's spp years ago.

meitham 9y ago
I'm a heavy podcast listener and have been happily using iCatcher for three years. With so many customisable options it feels like it's targeted to developers.

putinontheritz 9y ago

Their podcast app has been garbage for quite some time. I dumped it for Overcast and I’ve not looked back. My podcasts instantly start, sound good and are all available. Do you your self a favor and try it.

draw_down 9y ago

Get Overcast and be done with it. Apple hasn’t cared about their app for a long time.

brudgers 9y ago

All podcast apps are terrible. Some are more terrible than others. All a podcast app needs are the capabilities to find, list, and play mp3 files. That's it. Everything else is just trouble waiting to happen. And the finding can be just RSS feeds.