# Playapod — user reviews > 77 indexed App Store user reviews of Playapod by TMSOFT, rated 4.70/5 from 620 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playapod/id1246857049/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playapod/id1246857049.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 518 · 4★ 57 · 3★ 23 · 2★ 7 · 1★ 15 ## What do users think of Playapod? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Honest and caring app - 🚀 Works perfectly on iOS - 🚀 Plays both video and audio podcasts - 🚀 Easily share podcast clips - 👍 Fantastic individual settings - 👍 Elegant and simple design - 👍 Powerful customization options - 👍 Seamless cross-device syncing - 👍 Excellent podcast management - 👍 Clean and intuitive interface **Cons** - 🐛 Issues with video podcast downloads - 🐛 Podcast playback issues (pausing, resuming, background playback) - 🐛 Inconsistent episode marking as played - 🔋 High battery consumption - 🐛 Syncing issues and data loss - 🐛 Buggy playlist and queue management **Commonly reported bugs** - Podcast downloads failing or timing out - Playlist issues (not playing next episode, losing queue) - Episodes marked as played before finishing - Inconsistent behavior on different devices and platforms - Data loss when device is turned off **Most requested features** - Volume boost and normalization - Silence skip feature - Ability to reorder individual playlists - Video podcast playback support - Diagnostics and troubleshooting tools - Search by episode title ## Newest reviews (15 of 77) ### 3/5 — So close to perfect… but buggy *2023-02-16* For those of us scouring the App Store for a free—and ad-free—podcast app to replace our phone’s default app, Playapod seems perfect. No ads, lots of customization, and pretty easy to navigate after using the app for a bit. But there are some serious bugs. The Play Next feature works spottily at best on the main playlist. Most of the time, an episode ends, and then silence. The next episode in the playlist doesn’t start. I listen to podcasts on lengthy commutes, so this is basically a dealbreaker. Also, the app marks episodes as “listened” even when there are several minutes left. This can preemptively remove those episodes from the playlist, resulting in the same problem above: an episode ends, and the next one doesn’t start until I manually open the app and select it from the playlist. I really thought Playapod was the holy grail podcatcher I’d been searching for, but probably not if basic playlist functionality is broken. Devs, fix these bugs! ### 3/5 — Needs to louder volume *2022-05-20* I love the fact that this app uses the free and open podcast index however it’s missing many features I’m used to coming from pocketcast. It needs the ability to double the volume of the audio on all the podcasts. Volume normalization needs to be added. Also it would be nice if I could mark some podcasts to be placed at the top of the queue. Speaking of queues the app at times looses its queue especially when I reorganize my playlist. I don’t care about playlists or clips or sharing I just want what’s playing next to be in a certain order and the episodes loud enough to hear them in a noisy room. ### 4/5 — Still my favorite *2020-05-30* Playapod is the podcast app I keep coming back to, and the most recent upgrade makes it even better. New ways of organizing and viewing podcast stats, clear, sensible, etc. however, did you lose the ability to unsubscribe from a podcast in the recent update? Used to be a long press on the podcast icon got you there and it’s gone now. Otherwise it’s a great app. ### 5/5 — Playapod *2020-03-28, version 2.1.4* Best pod player out there ### 4/5 — Of all the podcast apps, this is my favorite *2020-01-22* I have an old phone, and most of the other podcast apps cause my phone to crash with their interface and constant downloading. I love the simplicity of this app, and how it offers streaming/downloading options. My one suggestion would be to add a search by episode option. As of right now, there is only a search by podcast option. For example, if I want to listen to an episode on a certain topic, I could search for a episode on that subject using keywords in the episode title. Thanks!! ### 5/5 — Very nicely done *2020-01-04* I’ve been looking for a podcast app that transitions from audio podcasts to video ones, and this one is filling that bill well. It’s a solid interface with a nice design and good use of gestures. Glad to have found it! ### 5/5 — Love Playapod! *2019-12-09, version 2.1.4* I’ve tried several podcast apps and this is the best! ### 4/5 — Best podcast app but still needs improvement *2019-11-20* Hands down this is the best podcast app right now but it still is lacking is two important features. #1 this app seems to download podcasts much slower than other apps. #2 the automatic downloads don’t start downloading until after I open the app while several other podcast apps will just have the podcasts already downloaded and ready to play when I open the app. ### 5/5 — Best free podcast app! *2019-09-11, version 2.1* I listen to podcasts much more often since I started using this app. Thank you TMSoft! ### 5/5 — Gotta love it *2019-09-06, version 2.1* The player is fluid and narry an issue . ### 5/5 — Only app you need for Podcasts! *2019-09-06, version 2.1* Playapod is great for keeping my podcasts organized; easy to use interface and works well when Bluetoothed to the car. I recommend this app for ease of use. ### 5/5 — Excellent *2019-09-02, version 2.0.3* Brilliant features, simple to use. Can’t recommend highly enough. ### 5/5 — Use Playapod daily *2019-08-05, version 2.0.3* I use Playapod daily so I was worried when I upgraded my iPhone to an XR. Playapod transfer was seem less. ### 3/5 — Marked as played *2019-06-12, version 2.0.3* Once I listen to a podcast I want it to go away and play a podcast I already listened to! ### 5/5 — Great app *2019-06-11, version 2.0.3* Love it, ITM ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — NOT AD FREE *2023-06-25, version 2.4.9* Another lying scum developer, claiming their product is ad free. It most certainly is not ad free. Lying scum. ### 1/5 — Loses all info when phone is off. *2020-12-18, version 2.2.5* I have logged into my account and saved my shows there. But now whenever my phone turns off, everything is lost. No longer interested in dealing with this anymore. ### 1/5 — Version 2 - lost new episodes *2019-05-27, version 2.0* I really liked version 1.4.5, but for some reason they took away my favorite feature. The new episodes available allowed me to choose whether or not I want to download a podcast. Now I need to look at each subscription and determine whether a new episode exists and then open it up to download. Computers are supposed to make things easier, not harder... ### 1/5 — Finally had to delete Playapod *2019-04-21, version 1.4.5* Where do I begin? Playapod has issues saving your progress, saving your playlist, continuing play on a playlist, downloading new episodes, deleting old episodes, resuming play on wired, Bluetooth and hands free devices, requires me to press play twice every time I need to resume play...In other words; stick with the stock podcasts app. For all of its flaws, it still can’t hold a candle to this buggy mess. ### 1/5 — Great cross platform app *2018-06-10, version 1.3.3* Syncs across my cross platform devices bringing a huge relief in tracking my podcasts. One star taken off for the seemingly high battery usage. ### 2/5 — Issues with Videos *2026-02-10, version 2.6* Since the 2.6 update it is no longer possible to download video podcasts. The download always times out after a few minutes. ### 2/5 — I started using this for cross device syncing but that’s broken now *2024-09-13* This player works well even with a UI that’s unusual. Sadly the cross device syncing appears to be broken now. It used to work fine for the most part (it was laggy sometimes) but now it is just doesn’t work. Sadly there is no diagnostics to help you understand what’s going on, but progress and listened/not listened just doesn’t seem to sync anymore for me. So avoid this is you are looking for a good free option with working cross device syncing. This isn’t it anymore. ### 2/5 — I want to love it, but... *2018-11-13* I downloaded this because it had multi device syncing. I want to love this so bad, but it seems to me like it could use a bit more work first. Episodes were downloading multiple times and there was a timer before they would delete that couldn’t be altered. The playlist doesn’t loop so if you jumped anywhere in the list it wouldnt start again at the top and look for I played episodes when done. I think there’s potential but for me it’s not ready to be my primary podcasting app. ### 2/5 — No Streaming????? *2018-06-02, version 1.3.3* I used the tmos and boad app that are powered by playapod and I hate it because half of the time the downloads fail and without a stream option i am left refreshing and trying to Re download over and over again Todd...... fix it please. ### 3/5 — Podcast stops playing *2025-11-04* This has happened a few times before with this app, when my screen goes to sleep the podcasts pause. You also can't run it in background, or open other apps. It's like every few months, then it seems to fix itself for a bit. I listen while I work, clean etc. and I can't keep tapping my screen ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Honest, caring and good *2025-12-07, version 2.6* At last, an app that doesn't lie to you. It is so refreshing to find this exceptional free app. Thank you developer, I really appreciate it. ### 5/5 — My favorite podcast app *2025-05-12, version 2.5* Developers did a great job. Works perfectly in iOS ### 5/5 — Best podcast app *2025-04-20, version 2.5* Uses open podcast index by default so no podcast is censored. Plays both video and audio podcasts. Reads text rss feeds. Easily share podcast clips with your friends ### 5/5 — I’m impressed *2023-06-02, version 2.4.9* The individual settings on this app are fantastic. It’s great having individual settings on different shows for example On developer website refers to this as a “passion project” and I get it ### 5/5 — Love it *2022-08-31, version 2.4.8* The cleanest sound on the net! Simply the best! ### 5/5 — This Podcast is the Best Yet *2022-07-10* I’m not sure how to articulate why this free podcast player is the best but the most relevant to me is to contrast this player with the HORRIBLY designed iOS player. This player’s approach to listening to podcasts is 100% opposite of iOS so if you like iOS you may not like this one. This player is elegant in its simplicity. It’s powerful in its design allowing you to fully customize EVERYTHING with your subscriptions, either individually or globally. While listening to a podcast you can customizable on the fly as you’re listening. It has easy to FIND and understand tools/settings. So far, I’m LOVING this free podcast player - it finds ALL available podcasts and allows maximum freedom to play now, play later, timer, download, assemble playlists, etc. ### 5/5 — Best podcast app *2022-01-14, version 2.4.5* So much better than Apple Podcasts Uses the open podcasting index by default Works great with CarPlay. Can create playlists. Can listen to all new podcasts one after another. Can share podcast clips with friends. You friend does not need a podcasting app to listen to the clip. Playapod provides a unique web page with a media player for each clip you send. Many Many more great features. ### 5/5 — Great podcast app *2021-12-11* Bookmarked/skipped areas feature is unique and indispensable! ### 5/5 — Dream App … *2021-07-28* I listen to a lot of podcasts and have for a long time. Apple’s app has been pretty terrible and is now worse than ever. Used it as long as I could … tried a few others … this one has all manner of great features and keeps me super ‘unfrustrated’ … download and dig into features … you’ll never look back! ### 5/5 — Amazing app *2021-05-10, version 2.4.1* Simple to use and fast. --- *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 2026-06-09.*