# Pika - Podcast Player — Podcast App for Podcast Lovers

> Podcast App for Podcast Lovers (iPhone/iPad app by John Isaac.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pika-podcast-player/id6476018142 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [John Isaac](https://appshunter.io/developer/338427378)
- Category: Entertainment, News
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 12+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 41 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2026-06-15
- Data updated: 2026-08-03
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pika-podcast-player/id6476018142/reviews.md

## What is Pika?

Pika is a podcast player built for people who just want to listen.                                                                                                                                                                     

 - Playlists
 - Search & Subscribe                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
 - Download for Offline Listening   
 - Sleep timer                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
 - Picks Up Where You Left Off
 - Background Playback
 - Skip & Seek Controls
 - Clean, Focused Interface


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.3.1 — 2026-07-31

- Lock-screen/Control Center reliability fixes (audio session activation, playback state syncing)
- Fixed a launch crash
- Smoother scrubber — fixed jumps/lag and a bug where swiping down the player modal could kill dragging mid-scrub
- Toast confirmation when toggling new-episode notifications for a podcast
- General performance: animations and background timers now pause when the app isn't active
- Fixed a crash-adjacent bug in sign-in network requests

### 1.3.0 — 2026-07-23

What's New

Playlists are here — organize your episodes into custom playlists, right alongside your subscriptions.

This update also makes playback significantly more reliable:

• Fixed an issue that could cause audio to stop playing shortly after locking your screen
• Play/pause now responds instantly and consistently — no more stuck or reversed controls
• Downloaded episodes start playing immediately from your device instead of re-downloading over the network
• Dragging to seek within an episode is smoother and lands exactly where you drop it
• Episodes start playing faster, especially over cellular
• "Allow Cellular Downloads" is now properly respected for automatic downloads
• Better support for larger text sizes and VoiceOver throughout the app
• Refreshed episode list design with improved dark mode support
• Numerous smaller bug fixes and stability improvements
• Fixed an issue with Sign In with Apple

### 1.2.2 — 2026-07-07

Bug fixes

### 1.2.0 — 2026-07-01

Waveform 1.2.0

What's New

Sleep Timer
- Volume gradually fades out over the last 15 seconds before the timer fires, so playback ends smoothly instead of cutting off abruptly

New Episode Notifications
- Get notified when a podcast you follow publishes a new episode
- Tapping a notification takes you directly to the episode or podcast
- Per-podcast control — enable notifications only for the shows you care about most

Auto-Download
- New setting to automatically download new episodes when they arrive, so your favorites are ready to listen to offline

Now Playing
- Animated audio bars in the player show live playback activity

Offline
- A banner appears when you lose your connection, so you always know when you're browsing cached content

Fixes & Performance

- Fixed an issue where the app could get stuck on "Signing in…" at launch
- Fixed a bug where the wrong track state could briefly appear when switching episodes
- Improved performance on the home and podcast screens — less battery use during scrolling
- Fixed podcast episode list scroll position on navigation
- Dark mode improvements to the offline status banner

### 1.0 — 2026-06-15

No release notes.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-03.*