Tech —

Bye-bye, downloads: Apple’s new Podcasts app enables better streaming

Hands-on with the new browsing carousel and more robust management controls.

With no fanfare other than a featured spot on its App Store, Apple has officially launched a separate app for users to manage and listen to podcasts, straightforwardly titled "Podcasts." The major advantage of the app is that it erases the distinction between podcast episodes that have and have not been downloaded—a longtime hangup in the Music app, and one that podcast makers have previously had to circumvent. The app also adds more robust tools for managing podcasts on iOS devices themselves.

In days of yore, iOS users had two options for getting a podcast on their devices: downloading it to a PC and then transferring it via USB cable, or downloading it straight to a device itself—streaming was a recently added feature, but had few options for navigation and didn't work well. Because podcasts can sometimes be long and rambling affairs, this resulted in tiresome download times. Many popular podcasts, such as "WTF with Marc Maron," circumvented this problem by creating a separate app for the podcast that allowed streaming. Apple has finally decided to erase the download distinction itself, and as a consequence, further smudged the line between podcasts you subscribe to and podcasts you don't.

The front-facing section of the Podcasts app contains icons for your current subscriptions.
The front-facing section of the Podcasts app contains icons for your current subscriptions.

When browsing the Library section, podcasts that users have already subscribed to automatically populate the screen, with both downloaded and un-downloaded episodes displayed chronologically. If an episode isn't yet downloaded, a small gray button with an arrow is displayed next to it that will start the download if pressed. But even if the episode isn't downloaded, users can still tap the episode and hear its content via streaming, provided they're connected by data or WiFi, with much better playback controls.

Each podcast has an individual settings app that makes it easier to manage straight from an iOS device.
Each podcast has an individual settings app that makes it easier to manage straight from an iOS device.
Selecting an individual podcast episode lets users mark it as played.
Selecting an individual podcast episode lets users mark it as played.

Apple has added individual settings menus for each podcast, where users can flip switches to subscribe or not, auto-download or not (if unsubscribed, un-downloaded episodes will not display). Users can sort the episodes by newest or oldest first and mark all as played or unplayed with the tap of a button.

In addition to subscriptions in the library, users can view "Top Stations," which display a bunch of popular podcasts by a carousel of categories such as Technology, News and Politics, and Health. Some categories have subcategories, such as Automotive and Video Games under Games and Hobbies.

One landing on the Top Station carousel
One landing on the Top Station carousel

The display is highly visual and not easily navigated. Fortunately, Apple has preserved the old browsing system from the iTunes app in the Podcast app's Catalog section (likewise, the podcast section is still on full display in the iTunes and Music app; we expect they'll disappear eventually). A toggle in Top Stations allows users to switch between audio and video podcasts, which is underpopulated in some sections like Science and Medicine.

If we select one of the square icons in the Top Stations section, the app will automatically begin playing a (seemingly random) episode of the show. Tapping the small "i" that appears next to the right hand corner of the icon brings up a list of episodes, as well as a subscribe button that will add the podcast to the library. From here, we can listen to recent episodes without subscribing or downloading.

Getting the info for this podcast lets us see and play a handful of recent episodes without downloading or subscribing.
Getting the info for this podcast lets us see and play a handful of recent episodes without downloading or subscribing.
"An iPad dreams of a star-crossed love affair with a Kindle." --The Pod F. Tompkast
"An iPad dreams of a star-crossed love affair with a Kindle." --The Pod F. Tompkast
More controls are hidden behind the picture in the Now Playing screen.
More controls are hidden behind the picture in the Now Playing screen.

The Now Playing screen for Podcasts has received a slight revamp. Rather than only being able to skip back 30 seconds, users can now skip back 10 seconds or skip ahead 30 seconds. The speed toggle that slowed podcasts by half or sped them up double-time is no longer anywhere to be found. (Update: a reader notes that swiping up on the podcast's icon will turn up the missing speed controls, as well as a scrub bar and a sleep timer. We've added a screenshot above.)

While the new library organization model is a vast improvement over the old one, we're not sure how useful the Top Stations section will be, based on its content or layout. The app negates some of the major downsides that previously forced podcast creators outside the normal iTunes system into apps of their own. But on the other hand, we wonder if the newly blurred lines between subscribing, streaming, downloading, and listening won't muck up the listener counts that podcasters are so fond of using as a metric.

Channel Ars Technica