Full featured podcast player?

December 30, 2020 2:32 PM

What's your favorite podcast catcher/player for the iphone? I've been using Downcast, which is OK, but I'd like a player with more playlist functionality -- I'd like to be able to make a playlist from episodes of different podcasts and shuffle it, for example.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Best answer: iCatcher. It has lots of playlist customizability, it's actively developed, and it works well.

Overcast is a good player (and for a lot of stuff, it's a better experience) but Marco isn't gonna put in any of the crazy stuff that iCatcher does.
posted by wotsac at 2:46 PM on December 30, 2020

Best answer: My favorite (by far) is Overcast. I probably use it for 8+ hours a day and find its speed control and "voice boost" remastering feature to sound so much better than any other player.

Not sure if the playlist functionality will be up to snuff for your use case (it's kinda rudimentary and I almost never use it)—there's a bit of a rundown of how it works in this review on The Sweet Setup.
posted by bcwinters at 2:46 PM on December 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

Another huge vote for Overcast. I'm also a power user; in the before times when i was commuting and walking more I listened 4+ hours a day. According to the stats smart speed (which effectively cuts our "dead air") has saved me 457 hours alone. You can definitely make a playlist of episodes from different podcasts, I'm just not sure about the ability to shuffle.
posted by cgg at 2:56 PM on December 30, 2020

Overcast is good but has some serious downsides, such as terrible search and not being able to sort podcasts by length or other key metrics. Also, finding starred episodes is a nightmare. But the playlists are pretty good and the speed/boost features are just great too.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:00 PM on December 30, 2020

Best answer: I use and love PodCruncher - can make your own playlists... also has most recent, history, unplayed, downloaded, starred etc.
posted by mrmarley at 3:50 PM on December 30, 2020

I also use PodCruncher. I keep coming back to it. it's not under active development anymore though.
posted by kathrynm at 3:57 PM on December 30, 2020

Best answer: I used to play podcasts on the Premium Version of RSSRadio7 for a few years. Then I discovered Google Podcasts. The iOS app is really, REALLY good. As a plus, also works with CarPlay.
posted by Master Gunner at 4:08 PM on December 30, 2020

Best answer: Pocket Casts is my favorite because it has all the features I want in a nice interface and I prefer its method of filtering parameters to create playlists. I think it's better than Overcast, which I’ve also used, though both are top-shelf podcast apps.

However, you should know that neither Overcast nor Pocket Casts have a ‘shuffle’ feature like you describe. The closest you'd be able to come would be to manually arrange podcasts in a playlist in the order that you want them to play. There’s no single podcast player that seems to have it all, but from what I understand iCatcher! does have a shuffle feature (I haven’t used it so can’t confirm).
posted by theory at 4:40 PM on December 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

In overcast you can rearrange individual episodes in a playlist by dragging them with your finger.

I use the “all episodes” playlist exclusively, and just constantly rearrange the list to suit how I’m feeling. I was also a power user when I used to commute via transit an hour each way. I miss that time!
posted by Valancy Rachel at 7:27 PM on December 30, 2020

Best answer: Spotify is great for this. It's very easy to add podcasts to an "episodes" playlist, or you can create specific playlists. And generally, I think the whole user experience is better than the several podcast apps I've tried.
posted by lunasol at 8:08 PM on December 30, 2020