Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Vibrant aesthetics
Pocket Casts has one of the most colorful, pleasant to use interfaces.
For example, the app takes the most prominent color from the album art and colorizes the rest of the playback interface based on that color. This allows the app to stay vibrant and slightly different for each podcast.
Or the way it displays featured podcasts in a colorful mosaic made from album art, makes the whole experience of using the app pleasant.
Pro Remembers playback speed & starting position
You can set a 'start from' position for a podcast to skip a set number of seconds from the beginning of an episode. Great for when you don't want to listen to an intro you've heard a couple of dozen times before.
Additionally, you can also set it to remember your preference of the playback speed, to slow down fast talkers or speed up slow talkers.
Pro Episode filters
Episode Filter list episodes based on settings such as player states (unplayed, playing, played), status (downloaded, downloading, not downloaded), episode types (audio, video) and of course podcasts themselves. Once you have created a filter you can play them: tap the filter, tap the menu icon, and tap Play All.
You can also customize the appearance of the filter with a color and an icon to help it stand out easier.
Pro Automated playlist creation
Pocket Casts has a feature called Episode Filter, that allows automatically creating playlists based on setting such as playing states (unplayed, playing, played), status (downloaded, downloading, not downloaded), episode type (audio, video) and of course podcasts themselves.
You can also customize the appearance of the playlist with a color and an icon to help it stand out easier.
Cons
Con Complicated interface
While PocketCast lets you have a lot of control, it's not straightforward to quickly and easily play all downloaded episodes. You need to navigate overflow menus rather than it being the default usage/workflow. For example, getting from "now playing" to search (like when you hear a recommendation) takes 5 steps, and checking out what you found - another 5.
Con Clunky, slow
Was great until the most recent "upgrade" where they complicated the UI and made it all clunky and slow with crappy bloatware "features" that were never needed in the first place.
Messaged them several times asking to downgrade to the previous (near perfect) version, but no response.
Con Can't play episodes unless you are subscribed to a podcast
If you want to try and listen to an episode before subscribing to a podcast, you can't do that. In order to play/preview episodes you need to be subscribed to that podcast.
Con Somewhat expensive
$4 purchase with no free option + $9 for web makes for a somewhat pricey app in comparison to other popular podcast players, especially when considering the web option is extra even when the mobile app is purchased.
Con No automated play queue
Other apps allow for automatically ordering the order of new episodes and playing in that arbitrary order. Pocket Casts requires manually adding new episodes to a play queue every single time, and then manually dragging the play queue order.