I would say that 80% of my mobile phone use is listening to media. Specifically podcasts.
I can’t even walk up to the shop to buy a loaf of bread without popping in some headphones and listening to my favourite episode.
One of the first apps I load onto a new device is the fantastic podcatching app PocketCasts. I love the way that it is able to sync across multiple platforms and even has a web interface which allows me to listen to one of my podcasts from a PC on a web browser.
Recently I was contacted by PlayerFM asking me if I’d like to review their podcatching app. PlayerFM is focused almost entirely on podcast discovery, helping you find new podcasts to subscribe to based on your interests and the topics you like. When I say topic, I don’t mean “technology” or “music”. You can be really specific, like “Iron Man 3” for podcasts talking about the upcoming movie, or “next generation consoles” for podcasts speculating about the next XBox and the already-announced PS4. Like my favourite podcast app, the service saves your subscriptions (I used my Google account) in the cloud so you can get them on other devices, meaning you can pick up a podcast where you left off on another device or even through the web browser player
Upon opening the app you are met with a nice material design, and some options of the sort of podcasts you like to listen to, which helps to tailor the discovery aspect of the app.
I was able to change to settings to a nice dark theme and then to find a specific podcast. I just popped the name in the search fields (I did find quite a good one if you fancy a listen.) Hit the + button and that’s it, you’re subscribed. Then you can go and search for some more of your favourites.
Once you have subscribed to a podcast you can see all the previous episodes for your listening pleasure.
You can choose to stream the episode or download them to your device. The app will also download on WiFi and automatically download new episodes as they are published, with a nice handy notification when you have one of your episodes ready for listening.
The player screen has a nice uncluttered view with big buttons, and the app also features both a homescreen and lockscreen widget.
Conclusion:
The version of the app I received is in Alpha right now (but there is a version available on the Play Store).
I’ve also now received an updated APK which adds a manual delete function, so why pay for Pocket Casts when this is free?
It has got all the features I want from a podcast app (no iOS version as yet ) and it’s free to boot.
If you love your podcasts and want to try some new similar ones, Player FM is worth a look, from the Play Store