The Best Podcast Manager for Android

Posted on August 17, 2015 by resourcefulman

There is no shortage of podcast managers for Android, and many of them are really good. We have many favorites, but today we think Pocket Casts is your option for finding, downloading and organizing podcasts on your Android phone as well as on your other devices.

Pocket casts

Platform: Android Price: $ 3.99 Download Page

Functions

Supports audio and video podcasts
Automatically downloads new releases on schedule or on demand
Supports cloud syncing of played, downloaded episodes, play locations and filters, all of which can be synced to Pocket Casts on the web or on other Android, iOS, or Windows Phone devices.
Can be set to download podcasts over Wi-Fi only, at night, or when the phone is charging.
Supports customizable interactive notifications across multiple devices including Android Wear when new releases are available or downloaded and ready to play.
Allows you to control playback from within the app, as well as from the notification shade, home screen widget, or even through external devices such as earbuds with control buttons, Android Wear devices, Pebble smartwatches, Bluetooth devices such as car head units or headphones, etc. D.
Add your own channels manually (and privately), import from OPML (or export to OPML), or browse Pocket Casts’ huge catalog of over 200,000 shows and podcasts to find new ones to subscribe to.
Supports manual playlists, so you can create your own playlists of different podcasts (or even episodes of those podcasts) to listen to
Supports custom categories and filters, so you can filter by custom categories or simply by characteristics such as “all unviewed”, “all unviewed videos”, “all video podcasts”, etc.
Offers variable speed playback (0.5x to 3x)
You can remove silence from podcasts so you can save time and listen to meat without pauses
Volume up feature for each podcast or app to improve quiet podcasts or podcasts with poor sound.
You can switch video podcasts to audio only if you just want to listen
Supports casting podcasts to Google Chromecast
You can play episodes while you download them, or you can only set up live streaming of podcasts without downloading anything
Remembers the playback position so you can go back to where you left off after exiting the app
Has quick jump buttons to jump 10 seconds backward or 30 seconds forward with one press
Has day / night themes and a sleep timer so you can fall asleep to a podcast or set it to automatically shut off after a certain time
Suggests new podcasts based on the ones you’re currently subscribed to, pops up on trending, trending, and other featured podcasts if you’re interested.
Supports offline playback, no internet connection required
You can set to automatically delete the played scenes after listening, or set a specific number of scenes to keep and save before automatically clearing
Can be configured to play custom media if you place it in the Custom Sequences folder.
Supports phones and tablets
Supports Tasker integration and custom actions

Where is it best

Let’s get this straight – Pocket Casts is probably not the most feature-rich podcast app out there. However, this is the one with the most features that people are likely to use the most, combined into a great looking Material Design that works really well in every way. Perhaps its best features are cloud syncing and backing up things like play location, downloaded episodes, and podcast subscriptions. You don’t have to worry about uninstalling and reinstalling an app, failing to update, or getting a new Android phone means that you will have to set it up all over again from scratch. Likewise, because of this cloud backup, you can also use Pocket Casts on other devices like iOS devices, Windows Phone devices, and even a web app that’s perfect for listening on your computer if you prefer.

Variable Play is an essential feature for many die-hard podcast fans, and the fact that Pocket Casts gives you such complete control over it is remarkable. Removing silence from podcasts is another great feature, and while in some cases it cuts show time by just a few seconds, for others it might just be the ticket you need to finish a podcast in flight or while commuting. about the need to pause it and come back later. We should also mention that the way Pocket Casts handles notifications is almost perfect, and in many cases I had no reason to open the app – I could do everything via Bluetooth or through the notification bar. I think if I was using an Android Wear device it would be even better – I’ve seen how the podcast art and playback controls look on the Moto 360 and that’s enough for me to think of one thing.

Plus, we have to admit – their patch notes are hilarious and their user manual is incredibly succinct, helpful, and well written. It’s worth taking a look at, even if you use the app the way it is configured out of the box.

Where it fails

As we said, Pocket Casts isn’t perfect. This is great, but there are a few notable problems that stand out when using it. First, Pocket Casts does not support private, secure, or authenticated podcast feeds. This is a tricky question considering many other podcast apps for Android do this. However, they point out that if you can get your own custom url that doesn’t require authentication, it will work and it won’t be passed along when you add it. However, we see this going to be a headache for many – especially people with premium podcasts or people who crowd-fund podcast creators and get access to special episodes and channels.

Likewise, Pocket Casts cloud sync and updates are both a blessing and a curse. Some users report that other apps update podcasts faster because they don’t need to sync the play status and new episode status with the app’s own servers first – this means a new episode may be released and it may take a while before you receive a notification. that it is ready to download. However, this complaint was pretty patchy and we didn’t see it in our tests, so skepticism and all.

If you have a lot of memory, you may remember when Pocket Casts for Android was a terrible port of its iOS version. It was lacking in features, generally it looked like someone had pasted an iOS app on Android and didn’t work well. Of course, things have changed now, and it has come a long way, but at the same time, it still lacks some features that really excite many, and that could violate the terms of the deal for many. If you find yourself looking at the above list and thinking, “But … what about X?” then this app may not be for you. Their development – which is incredibly active, and their support is very active via email and social media – is focused on keeping the application compact, focusing on core functionality and the “just works” experience. Don’t expect many specific or niche features to appear anytime soon.

Competition

DoggCatcher ($ 2.99) was our previous favorite. So what went wrong? Well, nothing special – we still think DoggCatcher is incredible. This is a feature packed and we cannot stress enough that it is enough. If you need to be able to do something specific, DoggCatcher can probably do it and sing while he does it. Password protected channels? Yeah. Support for your own rss feeds and newsreaders? And so too. An overactive user community and a developer who doesn’t give a damn about people using an app they’ve put their hearts into? Oh yes, there definitely is. In fact, DoggCatcher, even after all these years, is still pretty darn close to perfect, and if your Android phone is the only place you listen to podcasts, or you need a feature not offered by Pocket Casts (or not mentioned above), I am not I just want to push you in that direction – I want to embrace you from the bottom of my heart.

DoggCatcher is fast, flexible, supports almost all versions and types of Android devices, supports phones and tablets, gives you control over when and how your podcasts are downloaded, has its own rich podcast catalog, and more. It’s just great – and while we think Pocket Casts kind of caught up and outdone it with cloud support, cross-platform support, automatic backups and syncing, it’s certainly not much, especially if you don’t care about any of those features.

BeyondPod ($ 6.99) has been around for a long time and does pretty much everything DoggCatcher and Pocket Casts do. BeyondPod integrates with Feedly, which is great if you want to stick with old podcasts that have long been removed from the publisher’s own feed, can create smart playlists based on the podcasts you actually listen to and only download them regularly, plus customizable buttons skip / play back so you can skip forward or backward at your leisure. At the same time, it’s more expensive than other podcast apps, with the same feature set, and its interface is pretty spartan (although you don’t need a ton of bells and whistles for a podcast app, and in the end it looks and feels a lot like Google Play Music, which is nice).

Player.fm (free) is an option if you’re just starting out with podcasts and want to provide discoverability to someone else. Likewise, if you just want to find something fun to listen to, its system of suggesting new podcasts to listen to based on the ones you like, by category or subject, is pretty robust. It also stores your subscriptions, lets you import and export OPML, remembers where you left off when you pause or stop episodes, supports Android Wear, Chromecast, and other devices, and automatically cleans up your subscriptions and old episodes to save space. It’s not as feature-rich or packaged as some of the others here, but if you’re looking for something simpler, without a ton of bells and whistles, and you want something free and ad-free (and as the developers say it will stay), this is worth checking out. Plus, we reviewed it when it was in beta !

Podcast Republic (Free) is another free alternative for people interested in a simpler app to listen to their favorite podcasts. It supports syncing between Android devices, as well as automatic download and cleanup of old episodes, and it remembers play position, streaming as well as download, as well as custom playlists that you can create for new episodes or specific categories or types of podcasts. It’s straightforward, though, and the price is right if you don’t want things like custom categories or granular control over your feeds, imports and exports, and other subscriptions. It’s a small naked feature and a touch bug (not more than anything else, I suppose), but the developer is really passionate and passionate about it, so we definitely support it.

Podcast Addict (free, $ 2.99 to remove ads ) takes a freemium approach that might be better for some people, and has a few cool features that other apps lack, namely the ability to organize YouTube channels along with the rest. your podcasts and support for your own rss feeds. Like the others above, it also has Chromecast support and Android Wear notifications, which is nice. Of course, it also has features like automatic loading and cleaning, variable playback speed, OPML import and export, and more. It’s a pretty feature-rich free podcast app, so it’s worth taking a look if you’re willing to put up with ads. If you’re going to spend money on it, well, it’s tricky as there are other premium podcast apps with more mature interfaces and more useful features to spend money on. However, like the others here, it is definitely worth a look.

Podkicker (Free) is free, simple, and in general quite simple. If you get dizzy with all these bells and whistles and want something that – at least in spirit – reminds you of the old days of Google Listen, when a podcast app would just take a feed and play audio files on that stream, not charge you money for it, this app is for you. There are some great features here, such as per-podcast settings for automatic download and deletion, and Chromecast support, but don’t expect anything crazy. It’s free, you get what you pay for, and I don’t mean it’s bad.

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