Tired of hearing repetitive music while working out or listening to a dull audiobook when driving? Want something fresh and juicy? Well, me too.
Of course, I love those Rihanna’s cocky songs in my playlist and have a few The Weeknd’s ones among my favorites, but listening even to this sweet voice can get boring. Thus, I started looking for something new to please my ears, and that’s how I met podcasts.
I have been using Apple products for years and never considered that built-in Podcast app as something useful. So there has always been the app on my phone that lets you choose own content including music and listen to it throughout the day wherever you go. How come I’ve never used it?
For those who is unenlightened as I was: podcasts are free tracks with music, videos, audiobooks, lectures and much more that you can choose depending on your interests, stream online from the Internet or download and listen to them as you please. There are podcasts on almost any theme that you can imagine and a dozen more subtopics. Sounds good, right? But let’s see how it works first.
How to find podcasts on iPhone
To enjoy podcasts and the opportunities that they give, you should find a podcast manager at first. Likely for iPhone users, there is no need to look for a side app because their smartphones have one already. It’s not that convenient to use, but we’ll come back to this later.
So, your second step after opening the Podcast app is to find interesting podcasts to listen to. How do people find them? With the manager! The app offers you to pick some episodes and listen to one or two of them. If your ears like what they hear, you can subscribe to that podcast and whenever a new episode is released, the manager will let you know immediately.
The podcast app is integrated with a wide directory which enables you to look up podcasts by name, search by audio and video categories or browse them by topics as well as look for recommendations based on your interests. So when you have set your favorite podcasts, it’s time to know how to play them.
How to play podcasts on iPhone
This is the simplest part because when you find any podcast that looks nice to you just press on it, pick the desired episode, and the app will start streaming immediately. If you want to download that episode, simply tap an arrow at the right side, and you’re good to go. So there is nothing complicated to make your podcasts play.
As I mentioned above, there is a sync option in many podcast managers which allows you to transfer any podcasts from one device to another. Thus, it’s easy to assume that you can listen to your favorite podcasts not only from your iPhone. For instance, a desktop program allows you to download podcasts straight to your PC, and this can be helpful if you use a single computer and sync it sometimes with a mp3 player. You can also play podcasts directly from your web browser. So if you always switch your devices and have constant access to a wi-fi this option of playing podcasts is the right one for you.
However, most people listen to podcasts on the go with their phones, that’s why there are so many apps for mobile devices. I’ll also make a short review of my favorite one below.
How to manage podcasts on iPhone
Most podcast apps give you two listening options: streaming podcasts through a website or downloading podcasts to your device and access them anytime even without the Internet.
Podcasts usually appear once or twice a week depending on a show’s schedule. Therefore, any podcast manager gives you an option to choose an automatic downloading of new episodes from your subscriptions. As I mentioned above, most of the podcast managers have a synchronization feature. Thus you can keep your podcasts in sync with iTunes and your iOS devices. There is also a function to start downloads on Wi-Fi only so that you’ll save your Cellular-Data.
Moreover, you can set the playback order from new episodes to old once, modify your subscription, make limits on downloading episodes or set up a time when to refresh your podcasts. There are plenty of managing options, and you’ll have to spend some time just playing with them and figuring out how they work.
How to delete podcasts from iPhone
Deleting process in the Podcast app on your iPhone won’t take a long time if you’re an experienced iOS user. So, if you’ve chosen a wrong podcast or it just got boring for you, there is an option to unsubscribe and delete an entire podcast from your iPhone or trash an individual one. For the first one just press the “Edit” button and completely remove the podcast and all episodes. For the latter one press the “List” view at the top right, select the episode, swipe to the left and push the “Delete” button. Repeat this for each episode you want to remove.
The best of the best
After you got closer with podcasts and understood how to manage them with a regular Apple’s podcast app, it might be a time to look for an app with a wider range of functions. So here is the best IOS podcast app that I know - Overcast. This app does more than any podcast manager should do. Managing your podcasts with Overcast is incredibly simple, and its interface is enjoyable to use. It has two bright features that you won’t find in any other manager: Smart Speed and Voice Boost.
The Smart Speed feature takes away all stumbles and delays to cut down on overall play time and doesn’t mess with the voice speed. In other words, it removes silences in talk shows, but doesn’t change any sounds in conversations and saves your time.
Voice Boost normalizes the volume by keeping a compensating balance of quiet and overly loud sounds and makes audio this way more enjoyable to listen to. So even if the production levels are bad, the Voice Boost feature makes them sound good and saves your ears.
Overcast also has an amazing discovery section that lets you access your Twitter and recommend some shows to your friends or get a few from them. You can customize playlists, set own priorities for shows, add additional episodes and much more. To listen to an episode, you don't need to be subscribed to the podcast. Overcast will let you listen to it anyways. This app has a variety of storage options, and if you don’t have any extra space to download podcasts, you can stream episodes instead. Last but not least, Overcast is compatible with Apple Watch and any CarPlay system. So you will stay with your podcasts wherever you go.
Of course, not everyone might want to pay for apps, and there are several free podcast apps on the App Store including an Apple’s own built-in one. But Overcast also has a free version, so there is no reason not to give it a try.
So, if you want to cheer yourself with some entertaining, fresh content, Apple’s own Podcast manager is a perfect app to get started with, and Overcast is an excellent alternative to explore something more about podcasts.
Don’t lose your time. Get the podcast app and listen to Trevor Noah or watch a new episode ofThe Ellen Show on the go right now.
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