Pocket Casts
Address: 
60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Website: pocketcasts.com
Owned by: Automattic
Latest news
- Aug 6: Back in Dec 2021, the National Association of the Deaf and Disability Rights Activists sued SiriusXM for not providing podcast transcripts in its app. In 2022, SiriusXM kicked back, calling it un-necessary and unreasonable. Since then, we've seen Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Spotify and even SiriusXM add transcripts to podcast apps - to the point where it's an expected feature. It now appears that the two sides have reached agreement in principle on all key terms after more than a year of negotiations suspended the court action. Judge Jeanette Vargas has allowed a final deadline extension of Oct 30.
- Jul 29: The next version of Pocket Casts will have HLS support, as well as an audio-only playback setting. Looking at the pull request, the feature will be behind a remote flag for now, so only for selected users. (Pocket Casts already supports MP4 video).
- Jul 28: Pocket Casts is now available on the big screen - as the podcast app launches a new Apple TV app. The Apple TV app is built to automatically sync with your phone's app, so you can listen in the car or on the bus; then continue listening when you get home on the big screen (and the decent speakers). Android TV is coming soon, the company says. We asked about video support, and we were told: "The app is not audio-only. HLS support is currently in beta, and we’re planning for HLS video to work on Apple TV as well."
- Jun 29: Pocket Casts has had a "liquid glass" visual update for iOS users. The app has used more Apple controls for consistency on the platform. And for iOS and Android, transcripts generated by Pocket Casts now highlight each sentence as it plays.
- Apr 29:
"Video functionality" refers to MP4 video episodes, which the company has always made available (and is supported in apps like Pocket Casts and Apple Podcasts);
though the company gives a limited amount of monthly storage for uploads - 162MB for the $8 plan, or 540MB for the $25/month plan.(the company has confirmed this is for audio only; all non-Pro customers get 100GB of video storage per month.)
Data credits: Google Maps, Podnews newsletter