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Slant community chat on Discourse| 12 Recommended Products | Recommendations | Platforms | Price | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Overcast · · · | 12 | 0 | – | – | – |
| #2 Downcast · · · | 17 | 3 | – | – | – |
| #3 Pocket Casts · · · | 6 | 0 | – | – | – |
| #4 SoundCloud · · · | 2 | 0 | Web, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Desktop | $9.99/mo | Partial |
| #5 Stitcher Radio · · · | 4 | 0 | – | – | – |
| #6 Podcasts · · · | 3 | 1 | – | – | – |
Pro Smart Speed and Voice Boost
For listening to talk shows, Smart Speed allows you to skip silences and pauses. Voice Boost is very helpful when the speakers vary from really quiet to really loud - it balances the whole thing out. And you enable them during playback, so neither will mess up music podcasts.
Pro Easy playlists
By far the easiest UI for making playlists of podcasts I've seen
Con Unplayed episodes
Does not have the ability to show unplayed episodes for individual podcasts.
Pro Straightforward discovery system with feed support
This app helps users subscribe to podcasts through browsing top lists and categories as well as entering a feed or OPML address.
Pro Auto-downloads podcasts
Downcast can be set to automatically download new episodes of podcasts in the background.
Con Extremely buggy
Around mid-2015 Downcast implemented some code that started to leave infinite loop processes that have the potential to cause the phone to heat up, lag, crash Downcast, or crash other apps. The bugs have only continued to get worse. Go with Overcast or Pocket Casts, or even Podcatcher for the Downc...
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 w...
Pro Excellent, easy to use discovery system
Clicking the plus button in the top-right corner will bring you to featured podcasts. From there you can access multiple ways of finding new things to listen to such as: top charts (that can be separated in audio and video), search (that allows searching both by name and feed URL), a list of podca...
Pro Not just for podcasts
In addition to podcasts, SoudCloud offers music, documentaries and audiobooks.
Pro Find similar podcasts through Smart Station
A feature called Smart Station will offer podcasts based on what you've previously listened to.
Pro Can auto-download new episodes
You can set the app to automatically download new episodes. Additionally, you can set how many episodes should be stored locally.
Con Random shutdowns
A few people have issues with the app randomly deciding to shut down or not starting.
Pro Beautiful, easy to use interface
Castro has an intuitive, minimalistic interface.
Pro A limited free version is available
The free version is limited to 5 podcast subscriptions and has occasional ads. Limits and ads can be removed with an upgrade.
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Pro Play offline
You can download the episodes and then play them when offline.
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