Search for ‘Overcast’

Popular iOS podcast app Overcast has received an update that adds listening stats and 48-hour listening history. The app has also received a price increase - Overcast Premium is up from $9.99 to $14.99 a year. (You absolutely don’t need Premium to use the app, but supporting developers is always a good idea).

OPML exports are coming back to Overcast in the next update.

The release of iOS 18 has been announced for next week. New in Apple Podcasts - hold down the playback bar to scrub forward and back, and you’ll notice that you can now see chapter points and chapter titles. More reason to add chapters to your shows before next week when everyone will see them: many podcast hosts have direct support for them, or you can use tools like Forecast or Hindenburg to add them.

Marco Arment is on Mac Power Users this week, talking about development in Overcast: and especially why he reinstated streaming.

Podcast iOS player Overcast has brought back a few features. Smart Speed now displays its current speed again, so you can show off at how fast you can listen; and streaming playback, which was removed a month ago, has returned “by popular request”.

In the Podnews Weekly Review this week, Gordon Firemark (the Podcast Lawyer) talks about copyright, licences and fair use; and Sam and James discuss all the week's news, including the new Overcast and a music licence for podcasting in the UK.

As we mentioned on Jan 11, Overcast released a new, rewritten, version of the popular podcast app. Developer Marco Arment says it’ll be easier to add new features and iterate faster. The latest episode of the Accidental Tech Podcast dives into the detail. He also adds: “Try to get used to it for like a few days before you yell at me too much, please.” (We like it).

Get ready for a brand new rewrite and redesign of popular independent iOS podcast app Overcast, according to developer Marco Arment on the latest Under the Radar podcast. It’s due to be released before Overcast’s tenth birthday, on July 16 - with a different look and feel.

New feature: if your podcast app understands an OPML feed, this is for you. Every page with a list of podcasts, like The Ambies winners or Edison Podcast Metrics top 25 for the UK for example, now comes with an OPML feed so you can import all those shows straight into your podcast player. Find the OPML feed linked at the bottom of the page: they work with Pocket Casts, AntennaPod, Overcast, Podbean, Castro, GoodPods and more.

Writing on his personal blog, our Editor says that Overcast is designed differently: “almost all podcast apps don’t appear to have done anything special for the thing you use them 99% of the time for: actually playing the podcast”

TWiT podcasts were added to an advertising block list used by Eero and PiHole, rendering them temporarily unplayable. We've seen this behaviour affect other shows, too; technical details are below in the tech stuff.

For a time yesterday, Substack was blocking popular podcast app Overcast, and the Podcast Index, from accessing shows hosted on the platform. The shows are hosted using the Cloudflare CDN - "Do not host podcast feeds behind Cloudflare", says Overcast's developer Marco Arment, before explaining what settings to use if you do.

Marco Arment, the developer of Overcast, is interviewed by The Verge in The Vergecast. "I think what sets the Overcast apart today is it is designed by a podcast lover for podcast lovers and it puts your needs above any kind of weird data, analytics, tracking, promotional algorithm kind of stuff."

Synching podcast audio to your Apple Watch only works when the screen is on. Overcast has a crafty hack to get you to keep the screen on, by asking you to play a little game.

Christmas comes early part 2: Overcast's developer, Marco Arment, has announced he is not going to remove Overcast's web player after all. He promises it'll continue to be very basic, and kind of ugly, but will remain for the forseeable future.

Vizzy, a web-based podcast enrichment platform, is looking for early adopters to use its tool. Images, chapters and links can be added to podcasts, and are viewable using Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Podcast Addict and others.

Overcast is to close its web player next year. "I’ve never had the time or the modern-web-development skills to make it a great way to use Overcast", says developer Marco Arment, adding that the experience is "terrible". /ht Justin

Though widely criticised in the comments, Marco Arment's recommendation to turn off Cloudflare's protection for your RSS feed highlights a mismatch between anti-DDOS protection and RSS. We'd recommend a) setting a separate firewall rule for your RSS feed, rather than the whole site; and b) writing that RSS feed to a static host like S3 or R2. The RSS feed for our podcast trailers podcast is served directly from S3.

Tanner Campbell is spending money on Overcast to promote a show, and explains why. He's also posted a number of other places you can pay to promote your show (costs and details).

The July 19 dump of data from The Podcast Index now includes descriptions and categories. 369,000 shows have no description at all; most podcasts have about 22 characters; and only 44,000 have descriptions of more than a thousand characters. Apple doesn't search your podcast description field; but Spotify, Overcast, Google and most others do; so we'd recommend putting more in there if you want your podcast found.

The developer of Overcast, Marco Arment, describes "cheap, sloppy dynamic ad insertion in podcasts" as something that "continues to degrade the experience for listeners" in a tweet, concerned that listeners are blaming the podcast apps.

The Cult of Mac website thinks Overcast is the best podcast app out there.

First look: Popular podcast app Overcast is to release a redesign today. The biggest redesign in its almost eight-year history, expect a radically different homescreen, new typography, and a number of new features and enhancements. A blog post with all the changes will be on developer Marco Arment's blog later today; get Overcast on the Apple App Store.

Acast says: (our emphasis) "Acast+ will work on all podcast listening platforms that give their users the ability to add any RSS feed of their choice. This means that a few podcast players - like Spotify - are currently excluded because they work differently. However, we are part of their OAP programme and we are continuing to work with them on their approach to how they manage subscriptions to ensure that the end product meets what's best for Acast creators and the open ecosystem - which is for podcasters to have direct relationships with their listeners. Acast+ works on the majority of podcast apps and players including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Castbox and is available to access for 80% of our listeners."

Anchor podcasts are unplayable in some podcast apps. Popular podcast app Overcast rushed out an update after files are "now being served as AAC in some way that breaks Apple’s ExtAudioFile API," said developer Marco Arment, which "makes them unplayable in Overcast as downloads, but playable as streams". The fault in Anchor's audio also affects other apps. Arment tweeted more technical details; and added, in a tweet to Anchor: "It’s been two weeks that you’re serving malformed files, breaking media players, and losing the audiences of your customers. Do you care about this medium at all?" The company hasn't responded.

With the exception of Podcast Addict (see above), no major podcast app supports transcripts - Pocket Casts, Overcasts, or others. That seems an opportunity. Podscribe offers a transcript player which can be embedded on websites; Captivate's podcast player also includes transcripts.

The implementation adds ?t=(seconds) at the end of the URL. YouTube and Spotify use this too, as does Pocket Casts and Podfriend, and it works on Overcast. Google Podcasts works differently; Apple Podcasts doesn't let you do this at all.

Google Podcasts is emailing every podcaster with last month's play statistics. If you've not got your email, claim your podcast at Google Podcasts Manager. (A reminder that since Google Podcasts doesn't normally auto-download, so your figures will be lower than platforms like Apple or Overcast which do).

That fake Overcast app is still in the Google Play store. Marco Arment, the developer of the real Overcast (and owner of the trademark) describes Google Play as "a garbage fire of copyright and trademark infringement".

Caution: A version of Overcast appears to be on the Google Play store for Android users. It isn't Overcast: it's the codebase for AntennaPod with lots of ads thrown in, and just uses the Overcast logo and name. We'd recommend PocketCasts if you're looking for a decent podcast player.

Marco Arment, the developer of podcast app Overcast, writes a blog post accusing Apple of being dishonest, factually wrong and extremely insulting. As its relationship with developers gets worse, Apple's relationship with podcasters isn't much better.

Congratulations to Marco Arment, the developer of podcast app Overcast which has been inducted into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame for its high degree of accessibility for blind and low vision users.

Megaphone appears to have been added to Eero's Block Ads service. If you use this service, or similar, you may discover that no shows hosted on Megaphone currently play. Overcast users will get a helpful error message.

Like Podnews, Overcast is also submitting new shows to Podcast Index, its developer Marco Arment has said.

How long can your episode notes be? Preliminary tests seem to show that PocketCasts, Overcast and Spotify deal with at least 10,000 characters; Google Podcasts (Android) truncates after about 5,000 characters; and we gather that Apple Podcasts currently truncates after about 4,000 characters.

Overcast has quickly integrated Podcast Index like this, so that users of that app should be unaffected.

Marco Arment from Overcast reversed his experiment of skipping some analytics prefixes when played in the app, within a few hours of our publication yesterday.

Use Chartable or Podsights to measure your traffic? Overcast will no longer appear in your data: Marco Arment, the developer, has decided to skip those redirects entirely, after they have, he claims, become increasingly affected by ad-blocking DNS servers. "Most download links that would otherwise redirect through these widely-blocked domains will now try to skip that hop and go to whatever’s after them", he says on Overcast's Slack channel. "I keep getting emails and tweets from people whose downloads are being blocked at the network level by these DNS blocklists, and they’ve gotten frequent enough that I need to do something." Podtrac is currently unaffected by this action, though.

Other larger podcast apps have already changed: Spotify and Audible use "follow", Stitcher uses "+ follow", and Amazon Music uses "♡ follow". Meanwhile, Google Podcasts and Castbox use "+ Subscribe", and Overcast and Castro uses "Subscribe".

We had 1,489 downloads yesterday of our podcast. Here's how people listen: Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and Overcast are our top three podcast apps.

What is Dave Jackson's favourite podcast? In a recent look at peoples' favourite podcasts on The School of Podcasting, he reveals all. Here's a link to that section.

Want to do a "Spotify Show With Music" but not use Anchor? You can, actually - as a playlist. This playlist uses Spreaker for the talk, and Spotify for the music. It still is only playable in Spotify, though.

Marco Arment, the developer of Overcast, has posted concern about the level of piracy on Anchor, and says that he may restrict Anchor shows from appearing in Overcast's search. (Podnews coverage here and here).

The new version of Overcast, an iOS app, has gone live. As Podnews started doing in January, the app shows podcast hosts and analytics companies like Podtrac and Chartable; and highlights privacy information.

To advertise your podcast, what does $400 in Podcast Republic and $420 in Overcast get you? The host of Weird AF News tells us.

In his podcast, Adam Curry says he's building something called Podcast 2.0. It's a new podcast that outlines an alternative to the Apple Podcasts directory. "I think we've figured out some incentive for developers," he says. He also says he'll be on the first show from Joe Rogan's new studio in Dallas.

The next version of Overcast, the world's third biggest podcast app, will remove one way for podcasters to earn revenue, and highlight another as a concern. A new "privacy screen" in the app's latest beta release adds a brightly-coloured warning alert for any podcast that may earn revenue from dynamic advertising and geolocation. And for smaller podcasters, the "donate" button, launched in August 2018 by the app's developer, Marco Arment, will be removed "because nobody used it and it’s not worth today’s app-review risk", he writes - referring to Apple's notoriously strict app approval process. The donate button is also in apps from Breaker, RadioPublic, PodcastAddict, Castro, and our own podcast pages. (From Sounds Profitable, here's more about how geolocation works in podcasting).

Because podcasts hosted on Anchor are not subject to the normal Apple Podcasts approval process, these pirated copies are instantly appearing in searches using Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and apps that use that data, like Overcast and Pocket Casts. Many of the copies have enabled Anchor's Listener Support, to gain financially from their copies. None of these plays will be credited back to the original owner; and ads will not earn the publishers revenue.

Artwork changes should now be reflected in Overcast within a day or less, instead of roughly a week, says developer Marco Arment.

That new 'exclusive' Apple News Today podcast, that we reported on yesterday? It has an RSS feed after all, and has been added to some podcast apps, including Overcast (via a 'hack', says Marco Arment, though apparently the feed address is visible in iTunes desktop software). However, the RSS feed is hidden from third parties in Apple's API and its mirror URL has also been disabled: so the intention appears to be that it's an exclusive, and The Verge described it as such.

"Fuck Spotify, and fuck any "podcast" that's only playable in one app", tweeted Overcast's Marco Arment, adding that "moving an existing, open, free show behind a proprietary wall results in massive audience loss. I hope he at least leaves his public feed up so he can return to it when his Spotify exclusivity fails."

The best-of-breed podcast app Overcast has released an update that improves the Apple Watch functionality, allowing you to stream over cellular direct to the watch. You lose the voice boost and smart speed functionality, sadly.

Popular iOS podcast app Overcast has had an update, including a rebuilt Voice Boost function, which boosts the volume of podcasts to make them easier to hear. It promises a significantly better-sounding "boost" to podcasts, and normalises all podcasts to -14 LUFS, a level that developer Marco Arment claims "closely matches the volume of Siri and most iOS turn-by-turn navigation voices". (Google Podcasts? Please licence this. Thanks.)

We don't use the censored titles in Podnews, so you can compare this Anchor podcast on Apple with our naughtier listing of it; or this Podbean title on Apple with our listing. In both cases, the artwork contains the potty-mouthed word, though. The naughty words are not censored in Castbox, Overcast, Luminary, Podchaser, RadioPublic and Spotify; and this one isn't censored in Google Podcasts either.

Procast, a German podcast app, now supports the donation button, joining apps like Overcast. (They've chosen an excellent example). We've updated our page on how to add a 'donate' button.

Castro, "the iPhone podcast player for podcast fanatics", now allows podcasters to pay to promote their podcasts within the app. A week's promotion with Castro in all categories costs US$249. A similar method exists with Overcast: from August, here's how that works.

Personal supporters like Stacey G and Kellie R helped build this: "I want to subscribe to this podcast on my phone... but I'm looking at it on my laptop." Our thoughts entirely. Our podcast pages now have a little QR code (on desktop only) which does that for you. Just take a photo of your screen, and click the link when it appears to subscribe. We've also added Overcast's web player. Thanks for your support.

Only 14% of podcast listens on Apple Podcasts are downloads, according to new data from Simplecast: the rest are streams. In comparison, on Overcast 87% of podcasts are downloaded first. "Podcasts apps ought to default their audio delivery to streaming", says the company.

You can advertise your podcast in Overcast - The Podcast Host explains how it works.

Podcast app Overcast was updated last week. You can now share up to 90 seconds of a podcast on social media, and it features a better recommendation engine (which no longer uses Twitter).

Rob Walch from Libsyn has released the latest download figures for podcasts hosted on Libsyn on mobile apps: Apple Podcasts 59.9%; Spotify 10%; Overcast: 2.9%; Castbox 2.5%; Stitcher 2%; Podcast Addict 1.6%; Google 1.3% and Pocketcast 1.2%. This is the first time, he notes, that Apple have slipped below 60%. (Libsyn's podcasts aren't all in Spotify, incidentally.) You can hear commentary on this in The Feed.

Data: that feature in Overcast that skips past silences in podcasts? So far, it's saved all of humanity "a little over 1,898 years". (And that's before any savings from playing podcasts at increased speed).

Podiant has introduced clip-sharing from their web player, joining Overcast and Castro. It produces videos for social media sharing, but also gives a URL for each clip (so you can link to it from wherever).

Castro, an iOS podcast app, has added support for creating and sharing podcast clips to social media. It joins Overcast in offering this functionality natively within the app.

New podcast host RedCircle has launched tipping. The new feature, for which RedCircle charges an "industry-leading" 4.5%, only works from the company's web player - they tell Podnews they will also support the standard donation link for podcast apps like Overcast or others that support it.

Testing how show-notes display in over 40 different podcast apps, Podnews has uncovered vast inconsistencies between different podcatchers. Only 60% of apps support links to websites. Spotify is the worst app to display show notes, based on total downloads; Pocket Casts and Overcast were the best according to our tests.

Popular podcast app Overcast has launched "clip-sharing", a way for listeners to share up to 60 seconds of their favourite podcast with other people. The app produces a video or audio file to share; or a link to a website.

Libsyn's The Feed usually contains some nice stats. In the latest show, for March, 62% of Libsyn's podcasts were downloaded from Apple Podcasts; 9.6% from Spotify, and 2.8% from Overcast (with Google Podcasts at #8, with 1.2%). (Fewer than 40% of Libsyn shows are available on Spotify).

Good news for CBC podcast fans who use Overcast: everything is working again.

The CBC's podcasts are no longer appearing in Overcast, a popular iOS app. Everyone claims it's a harmless mistake and that they'll be back soon.

A rejig of part of NPR's podcast hosting has resulted in many users not being able to download their podcasts if they run ad-blockers. NPR's Stacey Goers says that the company recently transitioned ad vendors, and that NPR is planning to make changes in the coming days that should solve the problem.

Overcast, a popular iOS podcast app, has released v5.1. The author, Marco Arment, is most proud of instant search (which uses a cache on your device). Data point: over 80% of podcasts are added in Overcast by searching.

Another form of marketing: paid-for ads on the popular iOS app Overcasts. A Redditor posts their experience of booking ads, and gives some hints on how to get the most out of it.

These iOS Podcast Apps Are Way Better Than Apple's Default App, claims Lifehacker. Pocket Casts, Overcast or Castro gets higher scores than the purple one. Meanwhile, 9to5mac carries "Four new features Apple Podcasts should add in iOS 13".

Westwood One, a US broadcaster, has released data showing that audio ads + visuals are beneficial to advertisers. Chapter images (for sponsorships) are possible in some apps (notably Overcast), and Entale is an interactive podcast platform with an emphasis on visuals.

Apple Insider reports that Apple "offered their feedback" on NPR's RAD analytics system. Meanwhile, Overcast's Marco Arment, responding to our article on what RAD means for privacy, claims that "each downloaded MP3 could have unique RAD URLs, therefore tracking a user between all IPs they happen to be connected through while listening to a single podcast episode, and building cross-IP profiles of individuals."

Adam Curry has railed against NPR's RAD podcast analytics (Dec 12) in his No Agenda podcast, calling it "completely stupid". Meanwhile, surprisingly to many, Pocket Casts have confirmed that they have no plans to include RAD in their roadmap - the podcast app is part-owned by NPR.

Meanwhile, Marco Arment, the creator of Overcast, has confirmed in a set of tweets that he won't be supporting the RAD analytics standard. "I won’t be supporting any listener-behavior tracking specs in Overcast. Podcasters get enough data from your IP address when you download episodes."

Apple, Google and Spotify have yet to comment about whether they'll support RAD. It's fairly clear that Overcast's Marco Arment won't: he commented earlier this year that "Big data ruined the web, and I’m not going to help bring it to podcasts. Publishers already get enough from Apple to inform ad rates and make content decisions — they don’t need more data from my customers. Podcasting has thrived, grown, and made tons of money for tons of people under the current model for over a decade. We already have all the data we need."

Overcast has also had an update. It now supports the Apple Watch and has had a redesign. Of particular note: it highlights when a podcast is daily or weekly. (And as of now, so do we.)

In an open letter to all podcast apps, in early August, Jerod Santo notes that Overcast gives the total subscriber count every time it checks your RSS feed: and asks for other podcast apps to do the same. Many apps have already started to do this. (We're seeing Feedbin, Breaker, Overcast and Newsblur in our logs). Seems like a nice idea.

Podstand is a new tool, allowing you to share your podcast subscriptions - if you're using a product that allows you to export OPML. The most popular podcast on the service is the Accidental Tech Podcast, featuring (among others) Overcast's Marco Arment.

How to fix Apple Podcasts if it stutters a lot - Apple Insider uncovers a bug that affects some listeners. The fix? Download something else. They like Overcast and Castro.

The latest episode of The Wolf Den features an interview with Overcast developer Marco Arment.

Following announcements last week from Overcast and Anchor about donate links - RadioPublic is also supporting calls to action.

Anchor's Listener Support (Aug 10) is now natively supported in podcast apps, the company has just announced. "Support on Anchor" buttons are now visible in versions of Breaker and RadioPublic, with support from Castro and Podcast Addict promised shortly. Podnews also already supports Anchor's Listener Support links - here's an example. Anchor is also marking up these links using the rel="payment" pattern so they'll be visible in a future release of Overcast.

Marco Arment, the developer of iOS podcast app Overcast, has announced forthcoming support of a new "payment" link for podcasts - a big green payment button will appear in the next version of Overcast to clearly link to donation pages. It's a simple tag in your show notes, now explicitly supported by Omny Studio and Fireside, and Anchor have also said they'll support it. We already display it in our podcast pages (here's an example). Here's how to add one.

A Redditor shares his experience advertising his podcast in Overcast (in the comments).

Apple was responsible for 62.5% of all podcast downloads; Spotify was second with 6.18% of all downloads. Other larger apps: Overcast (2.9%); Podcast Addict (2.1%); Castbox (2.1%); Stitcher (2.0%); Pocket Casts (1.5%). Rob points out that only around 20% of all Libsyn podcasts are listed on Spotify.

Overcast developer Marco Arment tweets about Castro's new release (which includes silence detection), saying "I actually want and need Castro and other podcast players to succeed. My goal of keeping podcasting open requires diversity among player apps: so many apps, all built on open podcasting, that producers can’t ignore or control them all."

Zach McCrite, host of Career in Audio, advertised in Overcast recently. Here's his detailed post of how that worked.

Overcast, an iOS podcast app, has been updated to v4.2. It's an aggressive privacy update: removing the need to register with an email address, and deliberately hampering podcast publishers' efforts to track images shown in show notes. "Big data ruined the web, and I’m not going to help bring it to podcasts. Publishers already get enough from Apple to inform ad rates and make content decisions — they don’t need more data from my customers", says developer Marco Arment. (Of note: Apple Podcast Analytics does not monitor Overcast at all).

The developer of Overcast says, in a tweet, that he's reworking the 'voice boost' feature. "I have a much better understanding of dynamics processing now, and am able to make a much more gentle and adaptive adjustment while retaining the usefulness of the feature".

It only measures devices on iOS 11 (only using the Apple Podcasts app) and iTunes 12.7. Android, web plays, listening using Overcast and other apps are not measured.