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Pocket Casts Mobile Apps Are Now Open Source

315 points by jcgoette 4y ago

bonney_io 4y ago
Finally, now I can do a PR, add "Up Next" as a "filter" (playlist) option, and the app will be perfect.
Pulcinella 4y ago
Uhh is this right? Seems like the vast majority of the main iOS app UI files are all dumped in the same folder along with all the assets. No organization. https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios/tree/trunk/podcasts https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios/tree/trunk/po...
- douglasheriot 4y ago
  I guess knowing that people will criticise your messy code is one of the reasons why people don’t open source more things. It’s nice to have the code open-source even though it’s not perfect.
- MBCook 4y ago
  That’s not necessarily weird. Xcode has its own idea of organization you use that doesn’t need to match the filesystem at all. If you downloaded and opened it in Xcode it may look well laid out. (I’d like the ability to turn that off or ‘sync’ the two personally for my projects)
  - xuki 4y ago
    https://github.com/venmo/synx https://github.com/venmo/synx I used it in the past, not sure if it still works with the latest project files.
digdugdirk 4y ago
Absolutely amazing app, by far the best podcast player I've used. The recent update that (finally!) implemented a folder organization system was just the icing on the cake. Very glad to see it going open source.
- digianarchist 4y ago
  Also a plus subscriber. The app is almost perfect, missing only a couple of features - custom artwork (a lot of Patreon podcasters use the same artwork for free & premium feeds) and tracking file uploads in the play history.
- aussiesnack 4y ago
  I've been using it since it was owned by the original developers, Aussie indy outfit Shifty Jelly (along with their late, and definitely lamented, Pocket Weather). It's the one app that has gone with me as I've shifted between iOS and Android over the years. It's probably the only app I regularly use that I've never checked out alternatives for, as it's just so good.
  - no-dr-onboard 4y ago
    Good to know I’m not alone. I’ve used it since (according to the app) 1/14/17 and have amassed 51d 7h of listening time. I feel like I’ve used it since around 2014 or so, but I could be wrong. I know somewhere around that time there was a platform switch and stats got lost. In any event I was overjoyed when they grandfathered me to a lifetime subscription after switching to a paid model. I truly, deeply appreciate this app and all the work they put into this.
    - aussiesnack 4y ago
      June 2015 in my case, and a slightly terrifying 263d 21h
      - djhworld 4y ago
        October 2015 for me, with 101d 15h Definitely been one of my most used apps over the years!
      - stoicjumbotron 4y ago
        Woah! Mine is from 25th June 2017 and a mere 25 days 2h
JulianWasTaken 4y ago
That's a nice and unexpected bit of news for the day. I've been using Pocket Casts for awhile, it's indeed a very nice app, and other than the UI tumult from a few years back has been pretty reliable. I was a bit disappointed recently to discover that it doesn't offer a way to export data from it, which is pretty bad (i.e. your listening history and starred episodes, not your list of subscribed podcasts). Hopefully it being OSS means that's something someone can add (heck I'd look into it myself as I was dreading having to manually extract the data myself or MITM the sync service to do it).
- mrobins 4y ago
  They have a web client that might be easily scraped.
- downwithdisease 4y ago
  > I was a bit disappointed recently to discover that it doesn't offer a way to export data from it, which is pretty bad (i.e. your listening history and starred episodes, not your list of subscribed podcasts). Maybe overlooked? Settings -> Import & Export OPML. Can't recall if it includes listening history and starred episodes but subscriptions for sure. This is the case for Android -- can't speak for iOS.
  - vxNsr 4y ago
    OPML usually is just your list of subscriptions, OP specifically wanted everything else, I don’t know of any app that shares that unfortunately.
    - danhor 4y ago
      AntennaPod offers a database export (and import). While not ideal, it's better than nothing.
    - Aissen 4y ago
      Podcast Addict does that, you can backup the full app settings, and more than just the subscriptions/listened episodes. I'm guessing the format is specific to the app's export/import feature, but could be worked with.
Barrin92 4y ago
I'd be happy if they also open sourced the web app so someone can finally implement their filter/playlist feature over there. It's the main reason I quit using the app a while ago. Being able to sync playlists is such a basic feature.
- aussiesnack 4y ago
  Is there a similar app that does this?
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    I've personally switched to Spotify. It honestly kind of sucks as a podcast app, but the sync, and also episode search and Echo support are at least there. I've heard Castbox is also supposed to be decent.
faitswulff 4y ago
This is one of the few services I subscribe to (Pocket Casts Plus: https://pocketcasts.com/plus/ https://pocketcasts.com/plus/). Happy to hear they're open source now!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- stoicjumbotron 4y ago
  Same here! It also feels "good" to support a good start-up which I use almost everyday
  - infinityio 4y ago
    fyi - Pocket Casts is now part of Automatic, not neccesarily a start-up still
jer0me 4y ago
At risk of this becoming a support thread, has anyone else had issues with Pocket Casts for iOS not auto-downloading podcasts in the background?
- ryanchants 4y ago
  I had to whitelist pdst.fm on my pihole a while back to get downloads working.
- jeremy0x4a 4y ago
  The Pihole comment is on point, I've had to whitelist certain podcast providers as well. Additionally, enabling notifications seems to help keep Pocket Casts "awake" and reliably downloading on a schedule, as noted in the app settings.
pixelatedindex 4y ago
Selfish, but I was mad at myself that they made it free just a couple or so months after I paid for it. As a college student, I resented them a whole bunch for it because I was on the fence for a little over a year before pulling the trigger only for them to make it free (and I didn’t feel like I could have got my moneys worth because of that). If only I had waited a smidgeon longer! Glad they are making it open source now though.
- chickenimprint 4y ago
  At least we got grandfathered into the premium plan. 5€ for something that is usually 10€/year.
  - krsilas 4y ago
    How did you get this? I paid for it years ago but I have never heard of a discount?
    - jeremy0x4a 4y ago
      If you had purchased Pocket Casts ($2.99USD?) and Pocket Casts Plus ($9.00USD) before the freemium model was introduced, you were eventually given "Lifetime Member" status and are not required to pay a recurring fee to use Pocket Casts Plus. History of the kerfuffle here: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873611/pocket-casts-plus-premium-web-desktop-apps-changes-rollback https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873611/pocket-casts-plu...
IndrekR 4y ago
Pocket Casts has been fantastic (using it since 2015). May only complaint remains that the maximum playback speed is limited to 3x. I guess Not too many people miss that.
- topoftheforts 4y ago
  Out of curiosity, which podcasts do you listen to at 4x or more?
  - IndrekR 4y ago
    None currently. Would like to listen some at 3.3x however.
    - topoftheforts 4y ago
      Any example? I'm just curious as I don't think I'd be able to understand anything at that speed, but I'd like to try
- manigandham 4y ago
  At least it’s not stuck at just 2X like YouTube. I wish there was a universal playback speed control as a device setting.
trissylegs 4y ago
Yay. Maybe I can add a filter so I can skip specific episodes and clean up my new release page.
osener 4y ago
This is amazing. I'm already a Plus subscriber and glad to see that I backed the right horse. I switched to Pocket Casts from Overcast because of playback issues and lack of Chromecast support, and stayed for the very polished experience and cross platform support (there's even a desktop app now!). Your podcast player of choice is like your gang colors, people get pretty passionate about it. In my case Pocket Casts is the one that works exactly the way I expect and gets out of the way.
solarkraft 4y ago
That's insane. I've been holding back from using Pocket Casts precisely because there FOSS alternatives like Antennapod and Podverse - but I wasn't that happy with them. Props to Automattic for being an incredible force for good! Edit: Wow 12$/year is a nice price for the Plus plan (vs. Podverse's 3/month, though that's not terrible either). They just got themselves a new subscriber. I'd skip the trial if I could. Take my money!
- teekert 4y ago
  I’ve switched to Podverse recently, how’s Pocketcasts wrt podcasting 2.0 features? Life streaming badges, chapters, sats streaming, boosting etc? I have to say, Podverse was rough some months ago but it’s improving very fast. I have the feeling they are more friendly towards the decentralized nature of podcasting whereas NPR may have mixed motivation. It’s important to choose wisely imho, the once quite open podcast ecosystem is being gobbled up by YT and Spotify at an alarming rate.
  - johntrain 4y ago
    I emailed the Pocketcasts dev team 2 years ago, and they said then that they had no plans to implement any podcasting 2.0 features.
    - djfdat 4y ago
      I don't know about all of these features, but PocketCasts definitely has Chapter support, and has had it for a long time.
- RainaRelanah 4y ago
  I completely missed the sell off from NPR to Automattic. Glad to see this news as a good omen. Hard to believe but I've been using this same app for 11 years now.
  - skinnymuch 4y ago
    Automattic has been buying stuff up. Simplenote, Day One, Tumblr, this. I wonder if they’ll IPO when the IPO window opens up again.
boomboomsubban 4y ago
Is Pocket Cast the player that had a rather impressive silence removing feature, and is that part also now free software? I can't remember which app I used before moving to the free software antennapod, though I remember that being the one feature I missed. Various free software apps now have a version of the feature, but they seem to remove all silence killing any kind of comedic timing.
- pcorsaro 4y ago
  You’re probably thinking of Overcast. Marco, the developer, calls the feature smart speed. It’s great.
  - dustincoates 4y ago
    Pocket Casts has it, too.
    - pcorsaro 4y ago
      I'll have to check it out. I did not know that.
  - boomboomsubban 4y ago
    Damn. Not sure why it's so tough to copy, the key aspect seemed to be choosing how long a gap is skipped that none of the free software versions have. That doesn't seem like a difficult feature to add nor one likely patentable but I'm hardly an expert. Thanks.
- greenicon 4y ago
  Pocket Cast has a silence removing feature, but in my opinion it's rather bad (on iOS at least). It was the main reason for me together with artefacts when speeding the playback up to change to another podcast player. Both Castro (which I'm using now) and Overcast have a superb silence removing feature and artefact-free speedup.
jimmySixDOF 4y ago
I just recently switched to Snipd and have not looked back. Pocket Cast were great over the years but I don't see them innovating. With Snipd there is almost always a full transcript available and an AI generated Table of Contents to cue through. I can easily save a transcribed clip I am listening to for export to a TfT program like obsidian. Not sure how I ever lived without these features now I am used to them lol.
SteadBytes 4y ago
Nice to see! Purchased back in 2015 and it’s been a daily driver since then. Props to Automattic for honouring existing purchasers with lifetime subscriptions!
dolmen 4y ago
I am a fan of AntennaPod on Android which is already free under GPLv3. What features more features Pocket Casts has?
- aesh2Xa1 4y ago
  - Pocket Casts is crossplatform, including a web player. - I’ve had slow sync issues with AntennaPod that I think are related to gpodder. It’s been awhile since I’ve used both. I’d bet that AntennaPod has features that Pocket Casts don’t. A huge reason I started to use AntennaPod in the first place was the license and source availability.
toastercat 4y ago
I use AntennaPod[1] these days, but Pocket Casts was one of the few Android apps I actually ever purchased. It was that good and simply the best podcast app at the time. Glad to see it open sourced. [1] https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/
aorth 4y ago
Oh this is cool! I've been using AntennaPod for a few years because it was open source, but lately started having issues with the media session and was looking for an alternative.

315 points by jcgoette 4y ago

Finally, now I can do a PR, add "Up Next" as a "filter" (playlist) option, and the app will be perfect.

Uhh is this right? Seems like the vast majority of the main iOS app UI files are all dumped in the same folder along with all the assets. No organization. https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios/tree/trunk/podcasts https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios/tree/trunk/po...

douglasheriot 4y ago
I guess knowing that people will criticise your messy code is one of the reasons why people don’t open source more things. It’s nice to have the code open-source even though it’s not perfect.
MBCook 4y ago
That’s not necessarily weird. Xcode has its own idea of organization you use that doesn’t need to match the filesystem at all. If you downloaded and opened it in Xcode it may look well laid out. (I’d like the ability to turn that off or ‘sync’ the two personally for my projects)
- xuki 4y ago
  https://github.com/venmo/synx https://github.com/venmo/synx I used it in the past, not sure if it still works with the latest project files.

digdugdirk 4y ago

Absolutely amazing app, by far the best podcast player I've used. The recent update that (finally!) implemented a folder organization system was just the icing on the cake. Very glad to see it going open source.

digianarchist 4y ago
Also a plus subscriber. The app is almost perfect, missing only a couple of features - custom artwork (a lot of Patreon podcasters use the same artwork for free & premium feeds) and tracking file uploads in the play history.
aussiesnack 4y ago
I've been using it since it was owned by the original developers, Aussie indy outfit Shifty Jelly (along with their late, and definitely lamented, Pocket Weather). It's the one app that has gone with me as I've shifted between iOS and Android over the years. It's probably the only app I regularly use that I've never checked out alternatives for, as it's just so good.
- no-dr-onboard 4y ago
  Good to know I’m not alone. I’ve used it since (according to the app) 1/14/17 and have amassed 51d 7h of listening time. I feel like I’ve used it since around 2014 or so, but I could be wrong. I know somewhere around that time there was a platform switch and stats got lost. In any event I was overjoyed when they grandfathered me to a lifetime subscription after switching to a paid model. I truly, deeply appreciate this app and all the work they put into this.
  - aussiesnack 4y ago
    June 2015 in my case, and a slightly terrifying 263d 21h
    - djhworld 4y ago
      October 2015 for me, with 101d 15h Definitely been one of my most used apps over the years!
    - stoicjumbotron 4y ago
      Woah! Mine is from 25th June 2017 and a mere 25 days 2h

JulianWasTaken 4y ago

That's a nice and unexpected bit of news for the day. I've been using Pocket Casts for awhile, it's indeed a very nice app, and other than the UI tumult from a few years back has been pretty reliable. I was a bit disappointed recently to discover that it doesn't offer a way to export data from it, which is pretty bad (i.e. your listening history and starred episodes, not your list of subscribed podcasts). Hopefully it being OSS means that's something someone can add (heck I'd look into it myself as I was dreading having to manually extract the data myself or MITM the sync service to do it).

mrobins 4y ago
They have a web client that might be easily scraped.
downwithdisease 4y ago
> I was a bit disappointed recently to discover that it doesn't offer a way to export data from it, which is pretty bad (i.e. your listening history and starred episodes, not your list of subscribed podcasts). Maybe overlooked? Settings -> Import & Export OPML. Can't recall if it includes listening history and starred episodes but subscriptions for sure. This is the case for Android -- can't speak for iOS.
- vxNsr 4y ago
  OPML usually is just your list of subscriptions, OP specifically wanted everything else, I don’t know of any app that shares that unfortunately.
  - danhor 4y ago
    AntennaPod offers a database export (and import). While not ideal, it's better than nothing.
  - Aissen 4y ago
    Podcast Addict does that, you can backup the full app settings, and more than just the subscriptions/listened episodes. I'm guessing the format is specific to the app's export/import feature, but could be worked with.

Barrin92 4y ago

I'd be happy if they also open sourced the web app so someone can finally implement their filter/playlist feature over there. It's the main reason I quit using the app a while ago. Being able to sync playlists is such a basic feature.

aussiesnack 4y ago
Is there a similar app that does this?
- Barrin92 4y ago
  I've personally switched to Spotify. It honestly kind of sucks as a podcast app, but the sync, and also episode search and Echo support are at least there. I've heard Castbox is also supposed to be decent.

faitswulff 4y ago

This is one of the few services I subscribe to (Pocket Casts Plus: https://pocketcasts.com/plus/ https://pocketcasts.com/plus/). Happy to hear they're open source now!

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
stoicjumbotron 4y ago
Same here! It also feels "good" to support a good start-up which I use almost everyday
- infinityio 4y ago
  fyi - Pocket Casts is now part of Automatic, not neccesarily a start-up still

jer0me 4y ago

At risk of this becoming a support thread, has anyone else had issues with Pocket Casts for iOS not auto-downloading podcasts in the background?

ryanchants 4y ago
I had to whitelist pdst.fm on my pihole a while back to get downloads working.
jeremy0x4a 4y ago
The Pihole comment is on point, I've had to whitelist certain podcast providers as well. Additionally, enabling notifications seems to help keep Pocket Casts "awake" and reliably downloading on a schedule, as noted in the app settings.

pixelatedindex 4y ago

Selfish, but I was mad at myself that they made it free just a couple or so months after I paid for it. As a college student, I resented them a whole bunch for it because I was on the fence for a little over a year before pulling the trigger only for them to make it free (and I didn’t feel like I could have got my moneys worth because of that). If only I had waited a smidgeon longer! Glad they are making it open source now though.

chickenimprint 4y ago
At least we got grandfathered into the premium plan. 5€ for something that is usually 10€/year.
- krsilas 4y ago
  How did you get this? I paid for it years ago but I have never heard of a discount?
  - jeremy0x4a 4y ago
    If you had purchased Pocket Casts ($2.99USD?) and Pocket Casts Plus ($9.00USD) before the freemium model was introduced, you were eventually given "Lifetime Member" status and are not required to pay a recurring fee to use Pocket Casts Plus. History of the kerfuffle here: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873611/pocket-casts-plus-premium-web-desktop-apps-changes-rollback https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873611/pocket-casts-plu...

IndrekR 4y ago

Pocket Casts has been fantastic (using it since 2015). May only complaint remains that the maximum playback speed is limited to 3x. I guess Not too many people miss that.

topoftheforts 4y ago
Out of curiosity, which podcasts do you listen to at 4x or more?
- IndrekR 4y ago
  None currently. Would like to listen some at 3.3x however.
  - topoftheforts 4y ago
    Any example? I'm just curious as I don't think I'd be able to understand anything at that speed, but I'd like to try
manigandham 4y ago
At least it’s not stuck at just 2X like YouTube. I wish there was a universal playback speed control as a device setting.

trissylegs 4y ago

Yay. Maybe I can add a filter so I can skip specific episodes and clean up my new release page.

osener 4y ago

This is amazing. I'm already a Plus subscriber and glad to see that I backed the right horse. I switched to Pocket Casts from Overcast because of playback issues and lack of Chromecast support, and stayed for the very polished experience and cross platform support (there's even a desktop app now!). Your podcast player of choice is like your gang colors, people get pretty passionate about it. In my case Pocket Casts is the one that works exactly the way I expect and gets out of the way.

solarkraft 4y ago

That's insane. I've been holding back from using Pocket Casts precisely because there FOSS alternatives like Antennapod and Podverse - but I wasn't that happy with them. Props to Automattic for being an incredible force for good! Edit: Wow 12$/year is a nice price for the Plus plan (vs. Podverse's 3/month, though that's not terrible either). They just got themselves a new subscriber. I'd skip the trial if I could. Take my money!

teekert 4y ago
I’ve switched to Podverse recently, how’s Pocketcasts wrt podcasting 2.0 features? Life streaming badges, chapters, sats streaming, boosting etc? I have to say, Podverse was rough some months ago but it’s improving very fast. I have the feeling they are more friendly towards the decentralized nature of podcasting whereas NPR may have mixed motivation. It’s important to choose wisely imho, the once quite open podcast ecosystem is being gobbled up by YT and Spotify at an alarming rate.
- johntrain 4y ago
  I emailed the Pocketcasts dev team 2 years ago, and they said then that they had no plans to implement any podcasting 2.0 features.
  - djfdat 4y ago
    I don't know about all of these features, but PocketCasts definitely has Chapter support, and has had it for a long time.
RainaRelanah 4y ago
I completely missed the sell off from NPR to Automattic. Glad to see this news as a good omen. Hard to believe but I've been using this same app for 11 years now.
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  Automattic has been buying stuff up. Simplenote, Day One, Tumblr, this. I wonder if they’ll IPO when the IPO window opens up again.

boomboomsubban 4y ago

Is Pocket Cast the player that had a rather impressive silence removing feature, and is that part also now free software? I can't remember which app I used before moving to the free software antennapod, though I remember that being the one feature I missed. Various free software apps now have a version of the feature, but they seem to remove all silence killing any kind of comedic timing.

pcorsaro 4y ago
You’re probably thinking of Overcast. Marco, the developer, calls the feature smart speed. It’s great.
- dustincoates 4y ago
  Pocket Casts has it, too.
  - pcorsaro 4y ago
    I'll have to check it out. I did not know that.
- boomboomsubban 4y ago
  Damn. Not sure why it's so tough to copy, the key aspect seemed to be choosing how long a gap is skipped that none of the free software versions have. That doesn't seem like a difficult feature to add nor one likely patentable but I'm hardly an expert. Thanks.
greenicon 4y ago
Pocket Cast has a silence removing feature, but in my opinion it's rather bad (on iOS at least). It was the main reason for me together with artefacts when speeding the playback up to change to another podcast player. Both Castro (which I'm using now) and Overcast have a superb silence removing feature and artefact-free speedup.

jimmySixDOF 4y ago

I just recently switched to Snipd and have not looked back. Pocket Cast were great over the years but I don't see them innovating. With Snipd there is almost always a full transcript available and an AI generated Table of Contents to cue through. I can easily save a transcribed clip I am listening to for export to a TfT program like obsidian. Not sure how I ever lived without these features now I am used to them lol.

SteadBytes 4y ago

Nice to see! Purchased back in 2015 and it’s been a daily driver since then. Props to Automattic for honouring existing purchasers with lifetime subscriptions!

dolmen 4y ago

I am a fan of AntennaPod on Android which is already free under GPLv3. What features more features Pocket Casts has?

aesh2Xa1 4y ago
- Pocket Casts is crossplatform, including a web player. - I’ve had slow sync issues with AntennaPod that I think are related to gpodder. It’s been awhile since I’ve used both. I’d bet that AntennaPod has features that Pocket Casts don’t. A huge reason I started to use AntennaPod in the first place was the license and source availability.

toastercat 4y ago

I use AntennaPod[1] these days, but Pocket Casts was one of the few Android apps I actually ever purchased. It was that good and simply the best podcast app at the time. Glad to see it open sourced. [1] https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/

aorth 4y ago

Oh this is cool! I've been using AntennaPod for a few years because it was open source, but lately started having issues with the media session and was looking for an alternative.