I’m currently looking for a replacement to castbox. Castbox us OK, but I want to learn what else good is out there. Bonus points for one that has movement-sensitive sleep timer the way Smart AudioBook Player has.
UPDATE: Testing out Antennapod. Looks nice, and seems to do what I want it to do. I need to experiment with the auto-download a bit and see if it behaves the way I want it to. If it does, we have a winner.
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antennapod, best in town
I migrated to antennapod after Google killed their podcast app.
Antenna pod has a few persistent and annoying bug/quirks.
- If you’re streaming it will often skip forward/backward in time by anywhere from 0.5 to 30-45 seconds when it downloads the next segment. I’ve seen this across a bunch of different podcasts. Conan needs a friend, stuff you should know, this American life, etc. There’s been quite a bit of activity on their forums about this, along with a few attempted fixes, but the problem persists for me
- I somehow wound up with 1+ GB of podcasts despite Auto delete turned on. This is potentially due to the prior bullet. I’ve had podcasts end early (on time) and also run 5 minutes past their end-timd
- The Android Auto interface is not great. The home screen pop-in, or whatever it’s called, will randomly show you 3 podcasts from something you’re subscribed to
I also find the interface somewhat odd.
You have an inbox, which is basically a running feed of new episodes from your subscriptions. You can play those directly, remove them from your feed, or add them to a queue. You can then do the exact same thing from the queue. I would either make the inbox dumber and keep the queue or flatten the queue and inbox.
The app is also massively customizable, which is cool, but some of the customizations interact with other things. Downloading from your inbox can add a podcast to your queue. Deleting from downloads, which is a fourth area of the app, can remove them from your queue.
I do generally like the app, and also like the idea of FOSS, but I suspect there are better commercial options out there.
The problem is that everyone seems to have a different workflow. I’ve used AntennaPod every day for years and I have a bunch of problems with it that are all different from yours! I’ve also got a couple of others fixed and features added by lobbying for them on the issue tracker BTW.
I suspect there are better commercial options out there
Not so sure, I’ve tried a bunch. Used Doggcatcher for years: not as advanced. Also PocketCasts for years at one point: this had better UX but when I tried it again recently I was underwhelmed and found it was missing things I wanted.
The main issue with the commercial clients is that they’re all desperately trying to become platforms, with obligatory sign-in and data harvesting. Typically by using cloud sync as the bait.
Google podcasts was a very low feature player, but it also just worked. Antennapod almost seems like it’s trying to be too many things to too many people. I’m not looking for anything fancy. Give me a list of episodes from my subscriptions and let me play them start to end without drama.
I wonder if the floor is falling out on podcasting. I’ve heard more than one host mention that ad revenue is down year over year by a decent margin :(
I’ve encountered the problem in your first bullet across multiple podcast apps. I think it might be more of a general Android issue instead of being specific to a single app.
That’s sad to hear. As I said in another comment here, I migrated when Google Podcasts was killed by Google. I never experienced any playback issues with it. What podcasts apps have you tried? I wonder if they all use a common library.
Antennapod is really nice. But are there good apps on desktop to sync to? I used plex before, which made it very easy to listen on any device
Well antennapod supports syncing to “gpodder.net” which has the clue in the name “gpodder” is a desktop app for podcasts.
I’ve had a few issues before with syncing with gpodder.net but the gpodder API running as a nextcloud app works like a charm.
I have antennapod syncing to gpodder nextcloud, but I have not found a desktop app that can also use it (gpodder does not work)…
Kasts will work with it
Ah damn. Yeah haven’t used gpodder in a while didn’t know it couldn’t sync with gpodder nextcloud. … Sorry.
You could sync your podcasts to your phone using Syncthing.
podcast addict, I cannot believe how customizable and useful it is.
I tried it, it blew my socks off, I’ve been using it ever since.
Same here. It’s been my podcast client for years. Maybe a decade now? It’s amazing.
Same, I really couldn’t switch to anything else at this point
I’ve been using Podcast Addict for years and still like it. Has a lot of features.
This is what I use. Never had a problem and I love the auto download and removal features for subscribed podcasts.
Same. I genuenly can’t thing of a single issue I’ve ever had with it.
Pocket Casts.
I’ve been using Pocket Casts for many many years and like it…but never really researched anything else.
Great app, feature full. I bought that one ages ago
Same, I also bought the premium years ago. I don’t know if I’m grandfathered in now, but it looks like there is a subscription option now that I won’t get, but the features and interface are nice. Sleep timer, silence scrubbing, speed control.
I also use Pocket Casts, the free version. I like it a lot, the interface is clean and I don’t feel like I need to search for something better.
The paid features are access to a web player, more visual themes and the option to organise podcasts in folders (all of which are not that necessary imo)
Used to be on antennapod. Now on pocketcast. Both FOSS.
podcast addict
Been using it for 6 yearsyears. My favourite is the listening time; I’m on 122 days and 18 hours (and I don’t play audio while sleeping!)!
same I have been using this for so long I love it
Never knew listening time was available. Never really dug into the app because it just works. Only thing I have setup is to auto-update at 4am everyday.
Call me basic, but since I have a Spotify subscription for music, I just use it for podcasts, too.
But you can’t find non-spotify podcasts, right?
I assume not, but they have a huge selection of podcasts
Are e.g. BBC podcasts in there? Can you try searching for “Uncharted with Hanna Fry” as an example?
Yes, that one is on Spotify
So that means they’re not limited to Spotify podcasts.
Oh, I see now. I meant to say that. That’s why you shouldn’t use double negatives.
It was more the word “assume” that made me want to run the experiment. Either way, now we know for sure.
Tried Podbean years ago when searching for an app that also worked in-browser so I can switch to desktop at home. Haven’t gone to anything else since.
Podcast Republic. Hands down. Been using it for years. Solid. Well supported.
Agree with a caveat: If the podcast has dynamic ad injection and you move from wifi to mobile data your shit will get fucked up
I migrated from Doggcatcher to Podcast Addict a couple years ago. They’re both OK. Most podcast apps are unnecessarily complex, convoluted and cumbersome to me, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Lately I’ve been testing Media Monkey - it’s primarily an iTunes-like app for Android. It indexes your own media store, and can sync whatever you choose to your phone. It also has a podcast tool in the desktop app.
Downside is the podcast portion doesn’t seem to have discovery/search like you’d think with a podcast app - you have to manually add the RSS url yourself. Plus to get wifi sync (which is critical to me), you have to buy both the desktop ($35) and Android app ($5). I get it, development isn’t free, and wifi sync really works. I don’t buy many apps, but I paid for both parts of Media Monkey, because I haven’t found anything else that provides media management, playlist, and sync.
Apologies for the double reply, but I found out something else about MediaMonkey last night. I thought my podcasts were badly organised because I’d made a mistake in the download options on MediaMonkey for Windows, and tried to fix it.
It turns out that the Android app automatically sorts podcasts by the album artist rather than the podcast name, but a lot of podcasts have the episode presenters listed as the album artists. As a result, I’ve currently got 10 differents podcasts named Clockwise, and 9 named Brad and Will Make a Tech Pod on my phone. If I want to listen to multiple episodes in order, I’ve got to search for them between what MediaMonkey considers to be separate podcasts.
There have been posts on the forum from 2019 and 2022 asking if there’s a way to change this, but they’ve been ignored :(
I moved over to Podcast Addict from BeyondPod. I’m pretty happy here.
Keep an eye on your media volume with Media Monkey. I’ve been using the Windows and Android versions for years, but I’ve noticed that a lot of my music is getting quieter.
I haven’t been able to narrow it down to Media Monkey or something else yet, but MM is the most likely culprit, as it’s the only media player I use.
I’ve ripped CDs with the same settings as other CDs, and the files play back much quieter than the other ripped CDs and the CD they were ripped from.
I use Podurama because I listen on both desktop browser and on android. I wanted something that would track my progress and I could switch platforms 1/2 way through
I had to switch after Google podcasts ended. But before that I used Podcast Republic. Very happy with it , except for lack of desktop.
I was lucky enough to get locked in on the lifetime license of Pocket casts so that’s what I use it’s a really good player. It also has a sleep timer and you can shake the phone to restart it
Audiobookshelf, because I self host my audiobooks and it supports podcasts as well. This way I have them available anywhere, it allows me to have control over my podcasts and I don’t have to worry about anyone shutting down the service unexpectedly.
How do you self host audiobooks if you don’t mind my asking? As in where do you get them? Are there reputable places to buy them for download, or are you somehow extracting from audible/libby/etc?
