Leave a Review Overcast
The only podcast app I love
I’ve been using this app since 2014 - first as a teenager, now as an adult. It’s very, very good. Like password managers, I try all the different options every now and then. And like 1Password, I keep landing back on Overcast, because it’s just that good.
There’s a few usability nitpicks here and there. The playlist interaction model isn’t very intuitive, and the podcast description is beneath the podcast chapters (to me, chapters would make more sense to have below the image, scrolling to get to them, or maybe expanding something?).
The fact that *that’s* the kind of thing that I take issue with says a lot more about the excellent state of the rest of this product. You can tell how much thought and care went into every corner of it.Show lessRobert Clover
2 steps forward, 1 step back
My previous review after the big update is below, but I’ve added another star now because several of the key features have been reinstated, albeit in less user-friendly ways than the original version. Unfortunately now new problems are popping up, most notably that the app just randomly crashes and completely closes itself out in the middle of podcasts. When I reopen the app I have to re-find the episode I was on and figure out and fast forward to wherever I was when it crashed. On top of that, this app is suddenly massively draining my phone’s battery incredibly fast, so I can’t even listen to podcasts if I won’t be able to charge my phone right afterwards.
……….
This was my favorite podcast app by far until the update took the features that were most important and useful to me and either removed them or made them significantly harder to use. It’s very clunky and unintuitive now and much harder to navigate. Plus most of the changes just flat out make it less functional — The worst ones are that the link to navigate back to the podcast from the individual episode is gone, and the “play next” feature is gone. Sleep timer is less flexible and harder to navigate. And everything takes more tapping to access, whereas it used to be easy to swipe and access a lot of features.Show lessJeb0114
Huge time saver, great iPhone and iPad versions
I really like Overcast would never switch to another podcast app, my main reason is the massive time saving that comes with the “smart speed” function that simply “shortens silences” as the UI aptly tells you. But there are many other reasons why I love this app:
The developer clearly takes a lot of care not only planning his app overall and its features, but also closely monitors usage and user feedback.
His complete rewrite of his app using Swift originally got a lot of, er, constructive criticism, mainly about the streaming function having been removed. He brought it back, even though it meant a lot of additional coding in the new system and a lot of server overhead and other complications. Streaming means that you can start playing a podcast immediately before the episode has downloaded fully. It makes a huge difference to me.
Also: With the Swift rewrite, the iPad version now is absolutely gorgous and I can see myself starting to use it regularly when listening at home.
Overcast is the app I recomend to those who listen to podcasts a lot. Casual podcast users might as well stick to Apple’s basic app, but you will quickly find it indispensable if you are a regular podcast listener.Show lessA publisher and programmer
UPDATED: for a single dev, very responsive
My issues below have been resolved, thank you! I must say, I am impressed by this devs ability to quickly respond. Great work and great app.
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I have a special playlist setup in overcast for news podcasts. These podcasts get multiple updates per day, so, I really only want the latest ones in the playlist and don’t need/want to listen to any that I have missed, as they are now “old news”. I set this up by following the podcast, and then in the podcast settings, I would set the “episode limit” to 1. I created a playlist and added each podcast to the playlist. Worked. After the update, however, only one of the podcasts has been limited to 1, and all the others download everything. I’ve tried removing and re-adding the podcasts, changing the settings again, nothing works. I just have to go through the playlist and delete all of the unwanted episodes, which is getting annoying, especially since some of them release about once an hour! I don’t want to reinstall the full app because I have some other playlists that I have where I do t want to lose where I am in those series. I tried reporting the issue via email as well, but, this is a volunteer app, and free, so, I get it. But, it is still a bug.Show lessArougthopher
Recent updates are intriguing but frustrating
I have loved this app for many years, but the last few months have been frustrating. I use this app daily, and I really depend on it to be predictable and well-tested.
Currently, my main frustrations are that playlist ordering has some confusing issues. When new episodes are downloaded of a podcast, they’re supposed to show up in the playlist in a configured order, but that doesn’t happen consistently. Sometimes they seem to add in a non-sequential order within a single podcast in the playlist. When I add a set of podcasts to my Apple Watch playlist, they don’t get added in the order I add them-instead, it enforces the playlist configured order, which I think is really wrong, in the way that reordering a playlist into configured order after a user’s manual reordering would be. Maybe this one is just… missing functionality. I want a queue playlist that I can just add to to tee up a set of podcasts sometimes, and IIRC it used to work that way?
Lastly, when I am playing a playlist, it often just stops playing at the end of a podcast, even though there are more episodes in the playlist already downloaded. I guess this is a known issue, hopefully fixed soon.Show lessnalundgaard
App Redesign has ruined it
Been using this app for over 6 years, but now will have to switch. The App has been a overhauled and now I encounter frequent issues where the episodes won’t stream or download. When I try to skip through an episode the app will crash. A real shame as this is an app I’ve recommended many times over the years. Very poor redesignShow lessFredyTJay
Supports Priorities
I gave up on the iOS podcast ecosystem 5+ years ago; at that time I tried 10+ different podcasts apps and none of them had very good support for creating different categories and having podcasts from one category play before podcasts from a different one. I am pleased to report that the situation is greatly improved! This app, Overcast, lets me create one playlist for current events, my favorite shows, and other podcasts that I want to prioritize. Then I have separate playlists for categories such as tech, exmormon, and gaming. Within each playlist I can mark a show as “high priority” or “low priority” in order to have that shows episodes sorted to the top or bottom of that particular list. I can even have one podcast included in multiple playlists.
This very nearly reaches feature parity with the Android-only “Podcast Addict” app. That app would let me assign a priority level to each show (a number from 1-100), then automatically play the highest priority episode from the highest priority show. By creating separate playlists Overcast very nearly lets me do the same thing. The main difference with Overcast is that I have to manually switch between playlists, whereas with Podcast Addict whenever a new episode from a higher priority podcast was released, it would automatically play that episode next.Show lesswhy must my name be unique
Still great but no longer bulletproof
I’ve been using Overcast since it launched 10 years ago, it ignited my love of podcasts in a way that the Apple app never did. The new rewrite has smart changes to the user interface that have a lot of thought put into them, a much-needed design refresh. LOVE the new chapter browser and ‘undo’ for accidental seeks.
Yet months after launch it is still so, so buggy. Sync between iPhone and iPad used to be immediate and rock solid; now it’s slow and inconsistent for syncing playback progress and episodes I’ve manually added. The “brief rewind after playback interruption” feature is too aggressive: if you receive a few text messages while listening on AirPods your podcast gets stuck in a loop or even rewinds itself. I have completed podcasts stuck as downloads, according to the storage screen.
It’s a thoughtful redesign but it was rushed out the door and still has too many bugs compared with the previous, bulletproof version.Show lessAG_Bear
DO NOT UPDATE
I’ve used this app daily for years as my preferred podcast app. This latest update has bricked the update. I can not even get to the menu to see my podcasts. I get a screen saying ‘synching’ and nothing happens. I tried timing it for this review, after a full 3 MINUTES the app still hasn’t loaded or opened. I’m abandoning the app and starting all over again with a new app, unfortunately I’ll have to try and remember my collection of podcasts and which have been listened to as I can’t even copy them overShow lessToe slider
Still Too Many Presses
September 1, 2024 Update
The ability to export podcast to another app is no longer available. This makes it a little harder to try different apps. I will let you decide why Marco would remove this feature, but I tell you I’m not pleased because I believe it’s to make it more difficult to try other apps. I saved an OPML file when the feature was available so I can easily import my subscribed podcast to other apps and I have tried different apps. I am rethinking my loyalty and my premium subscription.
Updated review. Marco has fixed many of the complaints! You all need to give the re write a chance as there’s nothing much better. I just became a premium user. I still think it takes too much effort to perform the task necessary to get the episodes I want in the queue. Here’s my new wish list. I want to be able to tell at a glance when looking at a podcast that the episode I am looking at is downloaded and in the play queue ( I do not want to open a menu to see this ). I would like to see badges on the home screen allowing me to select what to display (unplayed episodes etc) for each podcast. Add a one touch option to add to the play queue. Generally, simplify the options and make the most used functions easy to get to with fewer presses. The long menus could still be available.Show lessGM in SC
