Choosing the right podcast app has a big impact on your listening enjoyment. They all play audio, but how they do it and the features they offer are different. Here are some of the best podcast apps for iPhone and iPad.
Why Your Podcast App Matters
As podcasts continue to grow in popularity, what users want from podcast streaming apps (or “podcatchers”) has also grown. Some apps do the bare minimum—they play podcasts. You might be able to speed up playback, but for more advanced controls, you need a more feature-rich podcatcher.
That’s where the more complex apps come in. They bring more interesting interfaces and fuller feature lists, as well as the ability to side-load audio files, share audio clips, skip silence, and more.
The best podcast app for you might be different from what’s best for someone else. And thankfully, there’s enough competition in the podcast-playing space to cater to everyone.
Best of the Best: Overcast
There are some features all podcast apps have to offer to become popular, like chapter support, and options to change the playback speed. Overcast is a great example of what’s possible when a developer goes the extra mile. It has two standout playback-related features: Voice Boost and Smart Speed.
Voice Boost increases the volume of speech and makes hosts sound clearer and louder without distortion. The volume doesn’t increase for music or jingles, which makes listening to podcasts more pleasant.
As great as Voice Boost is, Smart Speed offers the biggest change. Most apps allow users to listen at 2x, or other speed increments. But Smart Speed removes the silence in podcasts and makes them shorter. So, it reduces your listening time without making anyone sound like a chipmunk. There’s more science to it than that, but once you listen to a podcast with Smart Speed active, it’s difficult to go back.
