Help me find an Android RSS reader and/or podcast player

June 1, 2019 9:42 AM

For years, my go-to apps for keeping up with news feeds and listening to podcasts on my Android phone have been News+ and DoggCatcher, but I've been having issues with both lately that have me looking for alternatives, and my searches of the Play Store haven't turned up any promising candidates. Does anyone have any recommendations that meet my special snowflakey requirements below?

I'll start with News+, which is, hands down the best RSS reader I've ever used, but recently stopped working for me, and hasn't been updated since 2015. The reasons I've stuck with it over the years despite a lack of updates are:

• InoReader support (which is what just broke and has me looking for a replacement)
• Extremely configurable synchronization behavior on a per-feed basis (sync this feed every X minutes, this one every Y minutes, etc.)
• Flexible reading modes, including:
• Render RSS article text, as usual
• Render the full web link as it would look in a web browser
• Reader mode, which renders text and images from the article URL itself (not the RSS feed) in a consistent theme, without all the web junk
• A home screen widget that shows unread articles in a particular category/feed

Sadly, without any updates in 4-ish years, it appears the ride is over. My guess is that InoReader removed some legacy API for logging in, or has blocked the News+ user agent (something they did with my desktop RSS reader as well.) So I definitely need to find a new reader, and am hoping I can find one that can do all of the things above.

Meanwhile, I've always used DoggCatcher for podcasting, which, for the most part, does exactly what I want, including:

• Easy categorization / filtering of feeds by category
• Comprehensive search feature for finding new feeds to subscribe to
• Can choose whether to download or stream podcasts

The main problem I'm having with DoggCatcher is the player, which seems to have trouble with playback of some episodes. Playback will start out fine, and if I listen straight through I can listen to the whole episode, but if I pause in the middle and resume, the feed starts from the beginning, and I can't get back to where I was. I'm then forced to navigate to the episode in a media player and try to find where I left off manually. It only happens with episodes from a few feeds, but for those feeds, it happens with every episode, so it's enough to get me to switch to another app so I don't have to deal with the hassle of losing my place all the time.

With these requirements ind mind: does anyone have any recommendations? I know there are combination podcast / RSS apps out there, but I'm open to continuing to use separate apps if it means getting more of the functionality I'm looking for.

Thank you!

posted by tonycpsu to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I can't speak to the RSS side, but I've been a happy user of Pocket Casts for podcasts for some time now. It has a one time fee ($3.99, I believe) to remove ads, which was a plus for me. Extremely versatile, allows for streaming or download of episodes, and has three themes - light, dark and extra dark.
posted by Roger Pittman at 9:54 AM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

My wife was a long time user of Doggcatcher, but switched to Podcast Addict (free, $3.99 one-time to remove ads) a while back. She tells me that she likes it better overall, but especially because its Android Auto integration is superior to Doggcatcher.
posted by namewithoutwords at 10:13 AM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

For RSS, I really like Feedly. It has a good app and its web ui is also very nice.
posted by mmascolino at 3:18 PM on June 1, 2019

I'm using Podcast Addict on Android and don't love it, the UI is kind of awkward. Keep meaning to try Pocket Casts. Shame that Overcast is iOS only.

Can definitely anti-recommend Google Podcasts; it's not ready for prime time yet.
posted by Nelson at 4:17 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

AntennaPod doesn't do categories (that I could find when I looked just now) but it fits your other criteria. Plus, it's open source! I switched from Podcast Addict after it kept stopping my podcasts for no reason.
posted by ropeladder at 7:14 PM on June 1, 2019

RSS - Might want to check out NewsBlur.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:27 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was also going to recommend Feedly for rss, although tbh I got so far behind on my feeds I got overwhelmed and gave up and don't actually have it installed anymore. But my recollection is it has the things you're looking for.

As for podcasts, I use Player.FM. I particularly appreciate the feature that allows choosing how many episodes of a feed to keep downloaded, while others can be streamed; you can also subscribe to feeds online through the website, though while you can listen through a browser, being able to sync played-episode info is a paid feature.
posted by FlyingMonkey at 7:45 PM on June 1, 2019

I use Player FM for podcasts, which allows you to group them into categories by tagging them, which means you can put them in just one or multiple. You can download or stream. You can change the sort order (oldest/newest, longest/shortest or random) and there are several different colour schemes. It searches pods well and comes up with useful suggestions. You can also control it from the lock screen which is useful.

It doesn't handle autoplay very well, especially if you are listening to an oldest-first series, such as a limited series with a developing story. You can start with the oldest but then it seems confused about what to play next - sometimes it will play the newest episode in the series, or the newest ep in the category, or stop playing altogether but sometimes it seems to actually get it right and go on to the next part. There's also a frequent delay between when you press play and when it actually plays, but that may be because I always stream.
posted by Athanassiel at 7:47 PM on June 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Newsblur and Pocketcasts here.
posted by deezil at 12:56 PM on June 2, 2019