# Pocket Casts: Podcast Player — user reviews > 1,321 indexed App Store user reviews of Pocket Casts by Automattic, rated 4.50/5 from 15,597 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pocket-casts-podcast-player/id414834813/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pocket-casts-podcast-player/id414834813.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 12,584 · 4★ 1,048 · 3★ 390 · 2★ 387 · 1★ 1,188 ## What do users think of Pocket Casts? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Customizable playback controls - 👍 Intuitive and clean interface - 🚀 Cross-platform sync - 👍 Robust organization and filtering options - 🚀 Reliable performance - 👍 Useful features like trim silence and volume boost **Cons** - 🐛 Playback issues like skipping, pausing, and audio cutting out - 🐛 Syncing problems between devices - 🐛 Bugs and crashes - 🔧 Confusing UI changes and loss of functionality after updates - 💰 Expensive subscription model **Commonly reported bugs** - Podcasts disappearing from Up Next queue - Archived episodes reappearing - Inconsistent playback progress tracking - Search function not working as expected **Most requested features** - Ability to create custom playlists or folders - Improved podcast discovery and recommendations - Better Apple Watch support with offline playback - More granular control over episode management ## Newest reviews (14 of 1,321) ### 4/5 — App muito bom, pequenos pontos para melhora *2026-08-29* O app é realmente muito bom. Uma única coisa que incomoda é que quando baixamos para a memória do dispositivo um podcast, ele fica com um nome genérico (como se fosse um hash). Quando baixo diversos podcasts e deixo dentro de “arquivos” no iOS, fico sem saber qual podcast é qual, pois eles não baixam o nome original. Única crítica que gostaria de melhora. No resto, excelente app, parabéns ! ### 4/5 — Cache issue needs addressing *2026-08-26, version 8.18* Close to perfect - but for me it really needs a dedicated option to clear the cache. I don’t have much storage on my device so I never download podcasts - but I was surprised to see that Pocket Casts was taking up over 2.5gb of storage. Unfortunately I’ll probably move onto something else unless there can be a feature to clear the cache in future. ### 3/5 — Cross play good! *2026-08-17, version 8.17* Still needs my favorite like Rox Knits and in the style of The Object from MIA. Thx ### 2/5 — New ux stinks *2026-08-15, version 8.17* Their recent ux update basically ruined the app. ### 2/5 — UI regression *2026-08-15, version 8.17* Not sure what the logic was for the recent update, the controls are now hidden and tiny, making the app borderline unusable ### 3/5 — Not fan of the new UI hiding things *2026-08-07, version 8.17* The new UI collapses the controls and hides things, requiring searching for things because their location changes, or is hidden until you press other buttons to expose them. Just give us a clean UI without hiding stuff. ### 5/5 — Wonderful Podcast Handler *2026-08-05, version 8.17* I have used this on every os I’ve used and it just works. If you’re techy it supports it all. If you are not and just wanna listen to podcasts, this is it. Period. You’re done searching. Love the updates and features that constantly flow in. I honestly can’t say enough good about pocket casts. ### 5/5 — Best podcast app ever! *2026-08-05, version 8.16* I'm totally in love with this app. The clean interface and the easy navigation helped me listen to more podcasts than ever before. Highly recommended!! ### 3/5 — They Can’t Fix Their Own App *2026-08-04, version 8.16* This app always has bugs in it. For the past 8 weeks, there’s been a bug that causes the phone app to not sync with the Apple Watch. The watch usually shows no podcast playing even when one is playing. Then, the controls on the watch never work and syncing ALWAYS fails. What’s worse is they either can’t or won’t fix it and I’m paying them for their incompetence. 8/4/26-Now I get notifications of new Episodes, but said new Episodes aren't available 😩 ### 5/5 — Watch sync iffy *2026-08-04, version 8.16* I’ve been trying to find a good way to download podcasts to my Apple Watch. Even though this app doesn’t always download my entire Next Up list when idle it is better than its competitors and at least you can explicitly download a podcast. ### 2/5 — Subscription Fishing *2026-08-03, version 8.16* I’m enjoying this app and I’d really like to access the folders feature because it’s the only app my shows partner with that has this feature available, but I really don’t think that visually sorting my podcasts is worth $40+ a YEAR. The app is hard to navigate without this, but you’re grossly overestimating the value. If I could pay $10-15 ONCE, you’d have my money. But as it is, you have zero instead of even that. ### 2/5 — New Issues *2026-08-03, version 8.16* The app worked good before but recently new episode don’t show up in my feed until hours after they are posted. I will get the notification that a new episode was posted but when I click on the notification the episode is nowhere to be found. Most of the time it shows up hours later for all my podcasts. I check Spotify and the episodes are available on there so recently I have just been listening on Spotify since the episodes actually show up on time. Also the recent updates have made the UI more frustrating to use. ### 5/5 — Great App! One small thing.. *2026-08-03, version 8.16* I love this app! It’s amazing. I can import any audio file I like and audiobooks 🙂 One small thing I think would be great for this app is PLAYLISTS. My Monday morning podcasts all in one place. I like the idea of folders but Playlists would be a great addition and would change the way I see the app. Thanks for reading! ### 5/5 — Amazing app *2026-08-02, version 8.16* I really love this app ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Experience is horrible *2026-08-28, version 8.18* Fix the problems. Can’t even stream and pick a time to start just stuck loading. So frustrating ### 1/5 — Pocket Casts Now Has Ads *2026-08-17, version 8.17* This used to be the perfect podcast app. They now have ads across all podcasts, regardless of what you’re listening to. What an absolute disappointment. ### 1/5 — % podcast listened *2026-08-15, version 8.17* I have 9 seconds left on a podcast. It’s clearly finished but is still shown as not finished. Just use Apple Podcasts, it’s so much easier ### 1/5 — Poor new update👎👎👎 *2026-08-11, version 8.17* It’s difficult to verify the playlist ### 1/5 — No Sort in Search Results *2026-08-05, version 8.17* App still lacks the ability to sort episode search results by date which has been requested for 2 years. I don't want to scroll dozens and dozens of results trying to find more recent results. ### 1/5 — Buttons still too small and so much wasted space elsewhere *2026-08-05, version 8.17* UPDATE #2: Yet another update has been released (8.17) that doesn't address the microscopic mini-player and the artwork collage that takes up half the screen and can't be hidden. These are two of the issues myriad other reviewers have criticized for weeks, but the developers refuse to do anything about them. And this update hasn't fixed the other major issue where new episodes arrive hours after notifications appear for them. This was *the* podcast app for so long, but it's been so utterly broken for a while now. --- UPDATE: There have been multiple updates since I wrote this review. The buttons on the mini-player remain far too small to reliably press correctly, and the new location on the right is infuriating when you have the phone in your left hand. Meanwhile, the artwork collage at the top of playlists is such a waste of space and there's no way to turn those off. The developers know these elements are extremely unpopular, but they have so far refused to properly fix them. Why?!? --- Some of the recent updates for the app miss the mark for me. The latest version of the minimized audio control bar within the app has shrunk the play/pause/skip buttons so much that it's difficult to hit the button you want every time. This seems to have been done to create space on that bar to show the episode name and progress indicator, but I'd rather just be able to reliably hit the buttons correctly as on previous versions. Conversely, the playlists now include a giant episode art collage at the top that takes up SOOOOOOO much space at the top for no actual benefit. Give us more space at the top of playlists and bigger buttons on the control bar! ### 1/5 — Buttons still too small and so much wasted space elsewhere *2026-07-23* UPDATE: There have been multiple updates since I wrote this review. The buttons on the mini-player remain far too small to reliably press correctly, and the new location on the right is infuriating when you have the phone in your left hand. Meanwhile, the artwork collage at the top of playlists is such a waste of space and there's no way to turn those off. The developers know these elements are extremely unpopular, but they have so far refused to properly fix them. Why?!? Some of the recent updates for the app miss the mark for me. The latest version of the minimized audio control bar within the app has shrunk the play/pause/skip buttons so much that it's difficult to hit the button you want every time. This seems to have been done to create space on that bar to show the episode name and progress indicator, but I'd rather just be able to reliably hit the buttons correctly as on previous versions. Conversely, the playlists now include a giant episode art collage at the top that takes up SOOOOOOO much space at the top for no actual benefit. Give us more space at the top of playlists and bigger buttons on the control bar! **Developer response:** Hi there, We appreciate you sharing your experience regarding the small button sizes and the layout of the playlists. It’s clear how these changes can affect your enjoyment of the app. We invite you to share more details with our team so we can help — please reach out via in-app support or at https://support.pocketcasts.com/contact-us/. ### 1/5 — Glitchy *2026-07-16, version 8.15* Used to be the best, now it’s glitchy as heck and the new design is counter-intuitive and ugly and unhelpful. Like many apps these days it seems more focused on nonsense features than it is making sure its core functionality and UI are solid. Also commits the cardinal crime of pretending support is human when every email is obviously an AI-generated response. Not worth your money. ### 1/5 — Resume playing never works *2026-07-11, version 8.15* God forbid I have to pause an episode because pressing play just opens my music app. It’s been over a year and multiple “updates” but no, let’s focus on more ui changes instead of bug fixes ### 1/5 — Lots of crashes *2026-07-08, version 8.15* Crashes every time it gets backgrounded after a few seconds. Terrible experience walking around with bluetooth headphones or in the car. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Best podcast app *2026-08-31, version 8.19* Tried them all, this is the best ### 5/5 — Enfin *2026-08-30* Je cherchais désespérément une appli simple rapide et pour pouvoir ranger tout mes podcast par catégorie et cette appli me donne tout ce que j’ai besoin c de loin la meilleure appli de podcast franchement rien à dire en plus on peut retrouver l’épisode en cours en se connectant à son compte sur plein d’appareils c énorme ### 5/5 — Great, but could be better. *2026-08-28, version 8.18* This is a great podcast app on iOS. It’s about the only option available that provides cross platform support for iOS and AAOS, at least for those of us who don’t want to navigate Spotify’s hot mess Home Screen while driving The only downside is the AAOS version struggles when data coverage is patchy leading to buffering issues. Being able to download episodes to the car would fix this. ### 5/5 — Simply the best *2026-08-25, version 8.18* Look I have used it for so many years I am on the lifetime gold tier the best podcast player around works for patreon feeds and normal rss. Can upload custom files and more. ### 5/5 — Being patient with the developers goes a long way *2026-08-17, version 8.17* App developers do take a lot of guff. I admit I might have thrown some around occasionally in reviews. However, after the recent issue about notifications and no episodes I had a really lovely email thread explaining what was going on and helping them fix the problem. I’ve always liked this app but them being communicative and embracing what I was saying gave me more respect for the app itself. For that reason, I’m went up from 4 to 5 stars. ### 5/5 — It’s for sleeping *2026-08-14, version 8.17* I use it to sleep ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-08-11, version 8.17* Used the app for years…best by a mile ### 5/5 — Great App *2026-08-10, version 8.17* This podcast app is the best one for listening and organizing your follows. ### 5/5 — Exceptional (Still)! *2026-08-07, version 8.16* Pocket Casts are cool beans. They showed me love by giving me lifetime access to Pocket Casts Plus since I had the Mac app and the iPhone app and am pretty addicted. They tell me how long I've listened to anything and they leave witty responses. My stats? 98 days 20 hours. During which time 49,815,266,666 tweets were tooted. Toot! Toot! 🐣 Right now especially, the entertainment I find here is better than Netflix. Thanks guys. ### 5/5 — Yep *2026-08-07, version 8.17* Way better than Apple Podcasts. Not glitchy and there’re (weird word) more settings options. --- *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 2026-09-02.*