[HN Gopher] Pocket Casts goes open source
___________________________________________________________________
Pocket Casts goes open source
Author : johndbeatty
Score : 323 points
Date : 2022-10-23 03:01 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ma.tt)
(TXT) w3m dump (ma.tt)
| voxadam wrote:
| Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33269858
| wwarner wrote:
| This is great news. Long live shiftyjelly!
| mxstbr wrote:
| Who is making "Discover Weekly" for podcast episodes?
|
| I want personalized episode recommendations based on past
| listening behavior; I don't have time to dig through 30 podcast
| feeds to find an episode that interests me, which is why I
| usually only listen to specific episodes that friends recommend.
|
| I bet recommendations across all podcasts (not just ones I know
| of) that match my interests to others with the same listening
| behavior would massively increase the amount of time I spend
| listening to podcasts.
| h3mb3 wrote:
| Well, Spotify does some of that as far as I know. But I'd never
| switch to playing my podcasts there just out of principle (even
| though I pay the subscription too) because I don't like how
| they are trying to build a walled garden for podcasts and kill
| RSS as a thing.
| moneywoes wrote:
| They also inject ads into existing podcasts
| [deleted]
| alias_neo wrote:
| Is ad-segment or sponsor-segment free podcasts a thing?
|
| I too pay for Spotify and I tried to get into some podcasts,
| starting with Darknet Diaries, but the ad and sponsor
| segments are just too jarring. I guess I'm not paying enough
| in my Spotify subscription to get it without that stuff, so
| who/what/where do I pay to get some podcasts I want to listen
| to without it?
| ajryan wrote:
| Uhh Yeah Dude is one of the very first podcasts (est Feb
| 2006). Zero ads.
| h3mb3 wrote:
| I think most podcasts post the exact same episodes to all
| popular platforms. Some may have an ad-free version on
| Patreon.
|
| With Spotify, it's sort of similar to when the paid YouTube
| (Red/Premium) became a thing. Yea, you'd get rid of the
| Google-picked ads, but the in-video sponsored ads added by
| the video creator would still obviously remain.
| phpisthebest wrote:
| >so who/what/where do I pay to get some podcasts I want to
| listen to without it?
|
| Podcasts are still, and I hope stay that way what the web
| should be
|
| Most podcasts offer some kind of Paid / Subscription that
| is Ad Free, but you have a subscribe to them Individually,
| not through a platform like Spotify, then you need a Add
| like Pocket Casts where you can add the Subscriber Feed
| instead of the public feed.
|
| I do not want Podcasts to become an other Platform Pay
| Walled thing that Spotify, Apple, and other want to make
| it, Keep Podcasts Independent and Platform Agnostic
| alias_neo wrote:
| Thanks that's really helpful to know!
| c0wb0yc0d3r wrote:
| Yes, but that sort of thing isn't included as part of a
| normal Spotify subscription. It looks like Spotify has
| support for podcasts subscriptions, but it's all on a one
| off basis as far as I can tell.
|
| Out of the podcasts I listen to, I'm not sure a single one
| uses Spotify for subscriptions. Commonly it seems to be
| Patreon.
|
| With all of that being said, many quality podcasts have
| jarring ad segments on purpose. Partly it serves as an ad
| for the ad-free feed but they also serve as a way to inform
| the listener that the following words aren't the
| podcasters' own and they were paid for an endorsement.
| HankB99 wrote:
| > they also serve as a way to inform the listener that
| the following words aren't the podcasters' own
|
| Agreed. One of the reasons I stopped listening to Leo
| Laporte was how subtly he would slide into the ads.
| ESMirro wrote:
| Apple Podcasts "Listen now" tab has a dedicated section
| entitled "More to Discover" that is based on listening history.
| It includes around 20 - 30 recommended episodes, mostly from
| podcasts you're not following. It seems to update daily.
|
| The recommendation algorithm seems to work well, I've
| discovered a few of my favourite podcasts via the feature.
| adwi wrote:
| Adblock plug-in?
| syklep wrote:
| SponsorBlock maybe
|
| https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android/issues/46...
| mellosouls wrote:
| Is this fully open-source, or just the clients? eg. can you use
| them with out any interaction with the pocket cast server, and
| subscribe to podcasts using open/other feeds?
| zdunn wrote:
| The repos they linked are just for the clients. I think the
| server software would be way more interesting, but it's also
| their secret sauce so it unlikely they'll open source that.
|
| I'm with you that allowing the clients to connect to a
| different sync server (gpodder, etc) would be a great feature.
| Though, again, I don't see that happening because it would cut
| into their subscription service.
| mellosouls wrote:
| Hmmm, if that's the case, then except for those who don't
| mind being locked in, its not clear what the motivation is to
| contribute.
|
| Though I suppose if there is enough benefit to the free
| product (I'm not that familiar with it) - and confidence it
| will remain free - that might be a draw.
|
| Perhaps there is also potential for it to be forked for a
| genuinely open service - I'm just a bit sceptical about "open
| source" that doesn't keep the implied convention to be fully
| independent, but perhaps that's unfair or unrealistic here.
| tmaly wrote:
| This is really cool.
|
| I have been using the app for years. First on android now on ios.
| stavros wrote:
| This is great news, I love Pocket Casts. Unfortunately, with
| Spotify acquiring Gimlet, a good chunk of good podcasts has
| become paywalled, and can't be listened to with any player. On
| top of that, Spotify absolutely sucks for podcasts, I can never
| find what I've listened to and what I haven't.
| simoneau wrote:
| I have a moment of morning when a podcast I love disappears
| behind a firewall, most recently Heavyweight. Then I remember
| there are tons of other great podcasts out there I've never
| even tried and move on with my life.
| trts wrote:
| Heavyweight though sadly is in a league of its own. The
| double insult is that if you pay for Spotify you still get
| ads.
| mcfedr wrote:
| A couple of years ago I downloaded every podcast app I could find
| to try them, and landed on pocket casts, I've found it the best
| organised for how I want to listen, and this is great news on top
| of that!
|
| Now I can finally see about making a PR to show buffering status
| moltar wrote:
| Are they open sourcing the backend?
|
| The global search is just so bad. I've told them multiple times
| about it. I'd try to contribute a fix if that was possible.
| grey_earthling wrote:
| It's called "Pocket", so probably not ;)
| neverrroot wrote:
| Hope someone can add a feature for recording snippets, and maybe
| even one for bookmarks with notes. One of the hardest things to
| keep track of, getting back to the interesting pieces of a
| podcast. Every episode I listen to has something worth
| remembering, right now managing that is truly cumbersome / time
| consuming.
| heliostatic wrote:
| I'm a happy pocketcasts user, but started also using Snipd for
| that very reason. https://www.snipd.com/
| skinnymuch wrote:
| Airr.io and Snipd.com do the note taking. Both also do the
| snippets part.
| scarface74 wrote:
| Overcast for iOS added that feature a couple of years ago.
| Marco Arment (Tumblr cofounder , Instapaper) is the author
| glenstein wrote:
| I believe Podverse does that. It's an F-Droid podcast app with
| a paid subscription. I don't love it overall but like you I
| believe clips are a good feature.
| hackeraccount wrote:
| I either want pocketcast to get a snippet type feature on
| snipd/overcast to have a web client. One or the other isn't too
| much to ask I think.
| say_it_as_it_is wrote:
| Java..
| eropple wrote:
| Reading this made me grin. Pocket Casts is one of the only
| applications that's survived me bouncing between iOS and Android
| and back again over the last who-knows-how-many years and I paid
| for their web player a long time ago, too. I've tried other
| players and none of them stick; the differences in affordances in
| something like Castro or Overcast send me back to Pocket Casts
| every time.
|
| They seem to have had a rough time of it over the last few years,
| and seeing them end up at Automattic ("land of the misfit web
| toys") was nice. This is a cherry on top.
| bestham wrote:
| Spot on: "the land of the misfit web toys" or "this would have
| been killed at Google".
| mturk wrote:
| I kind of dislike the "Google graveyard" discourse, but ... I
| started using Pocketcasts after the demise of Google Listen.
| RefSnow wrote:
| I've been a user for years, and I have nothing to complain about.
| I hope they evolve even more.
| freediver wrote:
| The best podcast player. Great move, excited for its future.
| Karsteski wrote:
| I really like Pocket Casts. I have basically used it every day
| since 2014.i don't really like that I bought it years ago, then
| they switched to a subscription model and I lost access to the
| one feature I cared about, which was syncing to their webapp.
| Always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and it really made me not
| want to support any more young companies.
| iscrewyou wrote:
| I paid for Pocket Casts back in the day. When they switched to
| subscriptions, they grandfathered me to the Pocket Casts Plus
| as a lifetime user.
|
| I have access to the web app and it syncs the podcasts as well
| as the play position.
|
| Are you referring to something else?
| tunnuz wrote:
| Same.
| dtrizzle wrote:
| Looks like the people who are grandfathered in are people who
| paid for web access. If you purchased the Android or iOS app
| (like me), you are not grandfathered in and do not get a free
| plus account.
|
| Source: https://blog.pocketcasts.com/2019/09/18/major-new-
| update/
| reustle wrote:
| > When they switched to subscriptions, they grandfathered me
| to the Pocket Casts Plus as a lifetime user.
|
| iirc we were only grandfathered in for 3 years.
| tapoxi wrote:
| they fixed that and made it permanent.
| nxte wrote:
| really? my 3 year period just ended and they asked me to
| pony up.
| Karsteski wrote:
| I didn't get grandfathered in. I never saw whatever
| notification or email they sent out. I only saw last year
| that that was what happened, and by then I was obviously too
| late. Obviously, having paid for an online product and having
| it stolen from me is something I will never forget.
| bestham wrote:
| No one stole anything from you. An online service you are
| not continuously paying for is not a service where you are
| the customer.
| nl wrote:
| Wow. That's a new take on the old trope "if you aren't
| paying you aren't the customer".
|
| It's obviously untrue. For many services the marginal
| cost of supporting a paid user on an ongoing basis
| approaches zero.
|
| I'd imagine this is one. They presumably store some
| subscription and profile data and that's about it.
| bestham wrote:
| But each added user should not only cover the marginal
| cost but alt least the average cost. If we disregard that
| there can be several tiers of users and price models, it
| might stand to reason that each user at the least on
| average have to bring in as much money as they cost the
| service to serve. Many customers brought this up when
| Maciej Ceglowski had a fixed price model for perpetual
| Pinboard, he just bushed this off but has since come
| begging oldtimers for more money. Nothing wrong with
| that, but it's tiresome to have the same journey with
| every service you want to depend on. This is a trait of
| the VC world of "we figure out profitability after we
| have all the customers".
| mrobins wrote:
| Respectfully disagree. An obligation to maintain a
| service in perpetuity for no revenue becomes a huge
| unfunded liability.
|
| What if the app falls out of favor and new marginal
| revenue can't cover fixed costs?
|
| What if the business wants to innovate in a way that
| dramatically changes its cost structure (maybe introduce
| a feature that requires a usage based license)? Sure you
| can gate older users but how long do you have to maintain
| a separate set of features for them?
|
| Obviously it's the apps responsibility to make a fair
| deal with users and stick to terms offered. Sure some
| companies can make a model that amortizes an upfront
| payment effectively over decades. In reality though, all
| that really matters to a company is new cash that pays
| expenses. If you're not contributing to that at some
| point you are no longer the customer.
| rubslopes wrote:
| This must be an error. I bought it years ago and I was
| grandfathered for life. Get in touch with them; they are great
| devs, I'm sure they'll solve this.
| Karsteski wrote:
| I actually will try that, thanks
| fermentation wrote:
| Just FYI I got in touch with them (I had purchased the app
| in 2014) and they told me to pay up.
| rdegges wrote:
| Exactly... I've been using Pocket Casts since forever.
|
| I bought the full featured version and was soo happy... Until
| they killed it off. Now I'm on an iPhone and Apple Watch and
| it's ridiculous to pay to subscribe just to be able to control
| it from my watch. Feels ridiculous.
|
| If they brought back even an expensive, $80 one-time purchase
| fee I'd be more than happy to support.
| scarface74 wrote:
| Software development in the age of mobile requires continuous
| development. Who is going to pay for development of new
| features?
| Karsteski wrote:
| I mean, that's all fine and well. Just don't sell products
| then take them away after because you can. Imagine buying
| physical goods and having the business owner come to your
| house and take it away because it was costing them too
| much. Insanity.
| scarface74 wrote:
| So should they be obligated to keep supporting their
| servers forever?
|
| The better analogy would be like me expecting NordicTrack
| to service my exercise equipment for free forever. They
| aren't going to take my physical equipment away. But they
| also aren't going to keep sending me replacement parts
| and service techs out anytime I call them unless I keep
| paying the annual warranty.
|
| And before anyone replies that it must be shoddy
| equipment to keep needing repairs, heavily used exercise
| equipment constantly has moving parts that wear down.
| Karsteski wrote:
| I think you're missing my point. I don't mind that they
| switched to a subscription service, I fucking hate being
| lied to. Given that they eventually came around to
| grandfathering the purchasers (who I guess had to go
| click a button somewhere), they obviously knew they were
| wrong on that front.
|
| Don't sell products then change them afterwards. I paid
| for a thing. Then they made it so that the thing I
| purchased required more payment indefinitely. That's
| bullshit.
| tomrod wrote:
| Yes, they are obligated because that's what a lifetime
| subscription means even if they added snotty fine print
| in a EULA.
| scarface74 wrote:
| And what court is going to force them to run servers
| forever and keep updating the software?
| tomrod wrote:
| Federal courts, and probably state courts.
|
| https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/truth-advertising
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_advertising#United_St
| ate...
| scarface74 wrote:
| And the federal court is going to force a provider never
| to shut down a service?
| tomrod wrote:
| You can't Socrates your way into a philosophical win
| here, especially by repeating the same tapped vein of
| questions. A bait-and-switch of lifetime service for a
| fee to a monthly service for a fee for the same feature
| set is not some precedent setting benchmark nor a useful
| time spent arguing on the internet about. Some people are
| rightfully still upset by the switch. Let me suggest we
| move on since you've not realized we can agree to
| disagree yet.
| [deleted]
| doublepg23 wrote:
| I think you were absent when this happened years ago.
|
| Part of their marketing was "No subscription fees" and the
| premium was marketed as "lifetime".
|
| It was a pretty big bait-and-switch and the r/PocketCasts
| is a good example of bad customer relations.
| nataz wrote:
| I'm the same. Long time paid app user, then when the switch
| happened I got reverted back to the free tier.
|
| I still use the app, but like you said, it does still irk me to
| this day.
| gernb wrote:
| I just went to check it on the iPhone App store. I know that
| ratings might not mean anything? but, I noticed it was rated 3.9
| of 5 stars vs several other podcasts with up to 6x to 90x more
| votes and 4.5 to 5 stars.
|
| Is it just a popularity contest or are those other apps better?
|
| Podcast App (4.8, 228k votes)
|
| Google Podcasts (4.7, 10k votes)
|
| Overcast (4.7, 33k votes)
|
| Podcast Player - Castbox (4.8, 98k votes)
|
| Pocket Casts (3.9, 2.8k votes)
|
| Stitcher (4.8, 4.7k votes)
|
| Discounting the apple podcast app (4.9, 973k votes) since it's
| built in and therefore has an unfair advantage.
|
| Might explain why it was sold if it was clear it wasn't winning.
| I certainly like the idea of a player that doesn't report to
| someone my interests.
| benhurmarcel wrote:
| It might have something to do with brigading back when they
| pissed off existing users by switching to a subscription.
|
| https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873611/pocket-casts-plu...
| ESMirro wrote:
| A decent portion of those negative reviews stem from various
| controversies the app has gone through over the years combined
| with a passionate and easily angered user base.
|
| The main two being:
|
| - The 7.0 UI update in which certain features such as playlists
| were removed & the UX streamlined.
|
| - The move from a paid app to free with subscription.
|
| It's an excellent app for the most part, certainly on par with
| others in that list.
| samatman wrote:
| App developers love to pop up a 'nudge' to rate the app,
| because they know people are nice, and also, they want the
| fsking popup to go away, so people know that 1-5 stars is the
| only way to dismiss it and go with 5.
|
| An open-source app will have... passionate users. Great way to
| shoot ourselves in the foot here.
| IndrekR wrote:
| Previous post on the same news with more comments:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33269858
| niklaslogren wrote:
| Pretty off-topic, but:
|
| > I hope that Pocket Casts can do for podcast clients what
| Firefox in the early days and Chromium now does for browsers --
| push the state of the art, be manically focused on user control,
| and grow a more decentralized and open web.
|
| It's pretty funny to see the claim that Chromium is "manically
| focused on user control" and "is growing a more decentralised and
| open web" :-)
| Barrin92 wrote:
| it's true though isn't it? Some people keep complaining about
| chromium related apps, but from different browsers to electron
| based apps it has without a doubt pushed open source like
| almost nothing else, it's sort of the OS of the web.
| turminal wrote:
| It's an OS for the web, but the web is increasingly in
| control of the same entity that controls chromium. And
| chromium helped them a lot in getting that much power over
| the web. I don't think that qualifies as improving openness
| or user control.
| simjnd wrote:
| The OS of the web crippling extensions and plugins because it
| hurts its ad-business is _not_ what I would call "being
| focused on user-control". They're focused on control, yes,
| but not in our favour.
| izacus wrote:
| Users of Chromium have announced that they will reenable
| those extensions and plugins - so what, exactly, is the
| problem there?
|
| This is opensource working as intended - someone else can
| build it with feature set you want.
| simjnd wrote:
| The problem is that OP used Chromium as an example of a
| project "focused on user control" when in fact it is
| actively trying to remove control from the users's hands.
|
| I was citing extensions and Manifest v3 as an example of
| that, I don't care about the feature and what people can
| do to go around this.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| That bit caught my eye as well. I read it as a backhanded swipe
| at Mozilla, which given the news is unnecessary. But then he
| goes further and strokes his buds at Google with statements of
| questionable validity?
|
| Why?
|
| Why go so far as to distract from his news? Why not mention how
| being OSS should ideally mean improvements in sec and privacy?
|
| It just seems weird.
| lucasfcosta wrote:
| I quite like Pocket Casts, and I think that's the right move for
| them.
|
| I really hope folks don't entirely move to Spotify and their
| proprietary app and protocols.
| nxte wrote:
| Unless Spotify adds support for adding podcasts via RSS Feed
| URL, I don't think there will be major risk of a large scale
| move.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| I imagine very few people care about that.
|
| I can't remember the last time I had to paste in a podcast
| url anywhere. I just search for a podcast in-app and click
| "Subscribe".
| doublepg23 wrote:
| Paid subscription podcasts are very popular nowadays. It's
| essential to add your paid RSS feed to an app.
| nxte wrote:
| Most of my subscriptions are like that too. But there are a
| few creators who I support on Patreon, and they provide
| special feeds with extra content, etc. These paid
| subscriptions are a small % of my overall lineup, but not
| coincidentally, they're my "essentials". I don't think I'm
| alone!
| JamesonNetworks wrote:
| Not to hijack the thread to advertise, but if you are looking for
| a one off fee podcast player, I've been using iCatcher and I
| really like the experience. One time fee for the app, and I
| really hope it stays that way. Developer is responsive and the
| app is really solid.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| > The team has been working really hard to make those clients
| totally open source...
|
| I wish he would have expanded on this, or at least link to
| something that did. It would be interesting to understand what a
| transition like that entails, what they did, why, etc.
|
| I would have preferred this over the backhand swipe at Mozilla.
| shimonabi wrote:
| I was using it a few years ago, but then I switched to Google
| Podcasts.
|
| I will try it again, because Google Podcasts makes a "pop" sound
| notification every time it begins to download new episodes and it
| can't be turned off in the settings. It's very annoying.
| donatzsky wrote:
| Can't you use the Android system level notification settings?
| Many apps don't have any notification settings themselves,
| since Android provides them.
| jimmySixDOF wrote:
| After being a user for many many years, I just recently tested
| out to Snipd [1] and have not looked back since. Pocket Cast were
| great but I don't see them innovating. With Snipd there is almost
| always a full text transcript available including a surprisingly
| accurate AI generated Table of Contents to cue through. Then I
| can easily save a transcribed clip of some section I am listening
| to for export to a TfT program like obsidian. Not sure how I ever
| lived without these features now I am used to them lol.
|
| [1] https://www.snipd.com/
| zppln wrote:
| > I don't see them innovating
|
| For a podcast app that's a feature, not a bug.
| unreal37 wrote:
| Politely disagree. The Pocket Casts app UI can definitely use
| some improvement. There's no such thing as perfection, and
| this app is far from perfect.
|
| Reading about how they were sold in 2018 to NPR explains A
| LOT of why it hasn't changed much in the last 4 years.
| Geezus-42 wrote:
| I think it's pretty close to perfect at this point and is a
| million times better that the interface they had when I
| started using it nearly 10 years ago.
| astorsnk wrote:
| Exactly! What features do we really need? Many "feature"
| suggestions I come across are people trying to make podcasts
| something they're not so that they suit the person writing.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| Snipd's features are great. What kind of feature is making
| podcasts what they aren't?
|
| Taking notes makes sense to me for podcasts. Syncing with
| https://Readwise.io makes sense to me too.
| nxte wrote:
| As someone who's never taken notes while listening to
| podcasts, I'm curious what your use cases are. Do you
| listen as part of your research for a project?
| gernb wrote:
| People say this all the time in all kinds of product
| categories. They are nearly always wrong. There's always some
| feature you didn't think of.
|
| Plenty of good and useful features have been added to podcast
| apps since the first one shipped.
| owlbynight wrote:
| No desktop app, no thanks.
| robga wrote:
| Thanks for this.
|
| Pocket Cast user 2013-2018
|
| Castro user 2018-2022. I switched to them after an awful PC
| rewrite.
|
| Snipd looks interesting. May be my 2022-2026 daily driver.
| nxte wrote:
| When, oh when, will Castro make an iPad app? I'm convinced
| that no one is working on it full time.
| leokennis wrote:
| At this point Castro is either abandonware, or they are
| over-polishing a huge (at this point vaporware) update...
|
| There's "move fast and break things" and then at the entire
| other part of the spectrum is the Castro team.
| gernb wrote:
| wow, to each their own... I just installed spind based on this
| but it wanted me to pick categories so it could spam me with
| suggestions. There's no skipping it so I uninstalled. I have
| zero desire for a podcast app to suggest podcasts to me period.
| I get plenty of recommendations from the podcasters I listen
| to. I don't need more even more ads in my life.
| peheje wrote:
| Snipd is running in a lowered refresh rate when I start it on
| my Android.
| phpisthebest wrote:
| Seems like snipd is only a mobile app, the big feature that
| keeps me on PocketCast is the fact that I can seamlessly
| transition from listening on the Browser in my office, to the
| Mobile app in my car without loosing my place on any podcast.
| donatj wrote:
| This is exactly why I started using Pocketcasts to begin
| with. I was looking for something with a desktop app. I use
| Pocketcasts on my phone, my computer and my Alexa and it's
| all kept in sync.
| Thlom wrote:
| Best part of PocketCast is the stats. It can tell me that since
| 2016 I've listened to 135 days worth of podcasts and apparently
| I've "saved" 46 days by increasing the playback speed and 3 days
| from trimming silence. (I also have 350 hours in my "up next"
| queue ...)
| hairofadog wrote:
| I like Pocket Casts and I'm not knocking the fact that they
| have them or that other people like them, but stats like these
| make me feel existential dread.
| myko wrote:
| That's so interesting, I never considered it but think I
| understand how you feel.
|
| I've always wanted more stats like this. I expected/hoped
| Google Play Music (and now the inferior YouTube Music) would
| provide amazing overviews of what you listen to. I wish I had
| stats on the music I listened to in WinAmp in the 90s and a
| way to see the change in my musical tastes (and the
| consistent threads through the years). I bet I could track
| relationships very easily by the playlists I listened to.
| Thlom wrote:
| I used last.fm back in the early 00's. I don't think it
| logged playlists, but it did log every song you listened
| to. It kind of faded away when streaming services took over
| which he no or variable support for last.fm.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| https://listenbrainz.org/user/<musicbrainz user id>/ is
| what I have used and it has been pretty good so far.
| gernb wrote:
| yea... reminds me of seeing the number of hours a friend had
| put into EverQuest. I'm sure I'd be appalled at many of my
| own stats for my own activities
| andrepd wrote:
| AntennaPod also has those stats :) I was a pretty hardcore fan
| of pocketcasts but eventually switched to AntennaPod and I
| couldn't be happier.
| mhb wrote:
| Why?
| andrepd wrote:
| PocketCasts is a superb app but I saw AntennaPod on
| f-droid, so I thought to give it a go. I was pleasantly
| surprised, the interface is very nice and syncs with
| gpodder.net
| remram wrote:
| I think the question is: is AntennaPod _better_? Or did
| you switch because it was open-source and _good enough_?
| intuxikated wrote:
| I've been using AntennaPod for years, my question is, is
| there any reason to switch to Pocket Casts? Aside from
| the sync-feature which seems nice. Everything else in the
| feature-list seems available in AntennaPod as well.
| dcormier wrote:
| I don't know if AntennaPod has it, but with syncing you
| also get a desktop (macOS/Windows/web) app. I use this to
| I listen while work, and switch to my phone at other
| times.
| whoooooo123 wrote:
| Wow, I've been using PocketCasts for a couple of years and I
| didn't even notice this feature before. Nice to learn that I've
| hit the "advance 30 seconds" button enough times to have missed
| out on over five hours of ads. What a fantastic non-use of
| time.
| usrme wrote:
| These same stats are also present in Podcast Addict[1]! As an
| aside: my own listening stats show that since 2017 I've
| listened to 149 days worth of podcasts.
|
| ---
|
| [1]: https://www.podcastaddict.com/
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| Imagine how much time we can save by skipping ads and sponsors.
| [deleted]
| cercatrova wrote:
| Maybe someone can make a SponsorBlock fork now that it's open
| source.
| megaman821 wrote:
| Now you are making me feel like a listen to too many podcasts.
| I have 306 days since 2015. They are just so convenient to slot
| in. I listen during household chores, walks, and drives.
| brnt wrote:
| If I use Antennapod, is there any reason to check this out?
| morsch wrote:
| Pocketcasts let's you share individual podcast episodes and
| even timestamps within episodes with a nice interface. Kind of
| nice.
|
| E.g. https://pca.st/jat671rh#t=1861
| tomjuggler wrote:
| I moved from Pocket Casts to Antennapod a few years ago, after
| a major UI update made the features I used the most
| inaccessible.
|
| I remember the new podcast discovery being better, but
| otherwise have been very happy with Antennapod since.
| KingJulian wrote:
| PocketCasts has a feature called _Volume Boost_ which boosts
| the sound level. This is often helpful in some podcasts where
| the audio level is a bit too low in some sections.
|
| To my knowledge, Antennapod does not have this. I've been using
| it for over a year now.
| kasabali wrote:
| Is it a simple boost or is it dynamic range compression? If
| the latter I might be interested.
| gtirloni wrote:
| https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-
| android/search?q=...
| infamia wrote:
| AntennaPod has a volume reduction setting that is per podcast
| which solves the same problem, but from the opposite side if
| the spectrum. All of the podcasts that I subscribe to that
| have poor volume levels are all too loud. I'm sure there are
| lots of others that are too low though.
| fbdab103 wrote:
| This is amusing to me, as my perpetual problem with phone
| audio is that everything is too loud. I am repeatedly tapping
| between the lowest tick and full mute, because I am already
| at the bottom of the standard curve.
| ganesh7 wrote:
| mastax wrote:
| Has anyone else had issues with audio jumping forward/backward
| while playing episodes? I think it has to do with dynamically
| inserted ads causing a different version of the file to be
| served. As pocket casts streams by sending a range request it
| gets different positions in the file due to different length ads
| or VBR.
| kossTKR wrote:
| Yes i've experienced the same thing exactly as you describe.
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