Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Do You Use It? TidBITS Readers Prefer Overcast to Apple Podcasts Adam Engst Apple's bundled apps are generally pretty good, and many command a substantial share among TidBITS readers. A whopping 87% of respondents to our poll asking which Web browsers you use voted for Safari (see '[1]Do You Use It? Safari Ranks as Top Mac Web Browser,' 6 October 2023). Similarly, our poll about weather apps was dominated by Apple's Weather, with 60% saying it was their main weather app and another 15% using it alongside other apps (see '[2]Do You Use It? Apple's Weather Leads a Wide Array of Popular Alternatives,' 11 September 2023). What about [3]Apple Podcasts? Given Apple's dominant role in the podcast world thanks to its [4]extensive catalog of podcasts, I expected Apple Podcasts would lead last week's [5]Do You Use It? poll asking about preferred podcast apps. After all, it's a fully featured podcast app that Apple beefed up recently with the addition of automatically generated transcripts. However, Apple Podcasts not only failed to top the poll results, it wasn't even close to the overall leader, Marco Arment's popular [6]Overcast, which garnered 43% of the vote. Apple Podcasts ranked a distant second, with only 25% of the vote. Overcast fans regularly praised its Smart Speed option, which speeds up podcast playback by intelligently removing silences. The rest of the podcast apps we included in the voting fared much worse, gathering only single-digit votes. [7]Pocket Casts led the way with 6%, just ahead of [8]Downcast with 5%. [9]Castro managed 2%, and [10]Mimir and [11]Spotify only 1%. The main option we didn't know about when building the poll was [12]BBC Sounds, a free app that provides access to [13]BBC podcasts, radio stations, and music, although [14]iCatcher also received a plug. The comments make it clear that inertia plays a non-trivial role in the choice of podcast apps. It seems that once people figure out the niceties and quirks of a particular app, they're unlikely to want to go to the effort of recreating their subscriptions in some other app unless something goes terribly wrong. Choosing a podcast app is much more of a commitment than a weather app or even a Web browser. Even if Apple Podcasts is pretty good now, one bad experience years ago, such as when it featured a reel-to-reel tape playback interface (see '[15]Podcasts App Breaks Podcasts out of Music App,' 2 July 2012), would have been enough to make someone look elsewhere. I was also intrigued to see that a fair number of TidBITS readers aren't interested in podcasts as a medium. 'I don't listen to podcasts' ranked third with 15% of the vote, the only other option that broke double digits. Even the number of people who voted in this poll was lower than most others we've done. The TidBITS audience skews older, and podcasts may appeal less to people with long-held media consumption habits. To present a similar example, I'll admit that I watch YouTube videos only when they're recommended or when I'm looking for something specific. Although I gather that videos from a single creator who does things like [16]hatch birds or [17]rebuild a ghost town are wildly popular, they don't compete well for my undivided attention. In contrast, I've found a handful of podcasts that fit perfectly into certain interstitial spaces in my life, such as when driving, doing yard work, and biking. While most podcasts aren't far off from Tonya's long-ago joke about 'blathering into the Internet,' it's not hard to find well-produced podcasts that are interesting, enjoyable, and educational. So, if you've never quite gotten started with podcasts or dislike your current podcast app, try one of the other apps. It will be a bit more effort in the short term but may be worthwhile. You'll probably like Overcast; if not, the poll comments explain what people appreciate about their preferred apps. References Visible links 1. https://tidbits.com/2023/10/06/do-you-use-it-safari-ranks-as-top-mac-web-browser/ 2. https://tidbits.com/2023/09/11/do-you-use-it-apples-weather-leads-a-wide-array-of-popular-alternatives/ 3. https://www.apple.com/apple-podcasts/ 4. https://podcasters.apple.com/ 5. https://talk.tidbits.com/t/do-you-use-it-podcast-apps/27148?u=ace 6. https://overcast.fm/ 7. https://pocketcasts.com/ 8. https://www.downcastapp.com/ 9. https://castro.fm/ 10. https://mimirpodcasts.app/ 11. https://support.spotify.com/us/article/podcasts-and-shows/ 12. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bbc-sounds/id1380676511 13. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/podcasts 14. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/icatcher-podcast-player/id414419105?platform=iphone 15. https://tidbits.com/2012/07/02/podcasts-app-breaks-podcasts-out-of-music-app/ 16. https://www.youtube.com/@AChickCalledAlbert 17. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjBDKfrqQI4TgzT9YLNT8g Hidden links: 18. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2024/03/DYUI-preferred-podcast-apps.png .