I spent half a day and tried them all - this one is the closest to good!
I spent half a day trying every single ad-skipping podcast app I could find. Tried about 8 so far. In the end, this is the only one I’m using. But it’s still quite limited. I listen to podcasts all day in my car and every night to fall asleep to. So far, because of its limitations, I’m only using this app at night for just a few podcasts whose ads have gotten horribly irritating.
Pros:
* it’s currently FREE
* does its ad-skipping analysis completely on my phone. No mysterious third-party server stealing my data! (Or giving a reason to charge me a huge subscription fee.)
* Works FAST and is very effective at skipping ads. I do appreciate that it’ll start right into a podcast with just a few seconds of processing to skip introductory ads. It misses some on occasion, and sometimes it cuts off an episode’s ending prematurely but that hasn’t been a problem.
* shows a nice clear timeline in the player window of progress, content, and ads.
* Effectively imported my OPML file from overcast, including a few premium paid podcasts.
* the live transcript works ok and allows me to skim/read through a podcast to find the place I want.
* I like the ability to see exactly what my storage use is and which episodes are taking up space.
Cons:
* #1 dealbreaker: doesn’t work with CarPlay—at all. It’ll play for about half a second and then it’s just silence. This is the #1 reason why skipper isn’t currently my main podcast app. Reconnecting/restarting/reinstalling/rebooting haven’t worked to fix this issue.
* the UI is… well… hideous. The skeuomorphism looks like an app from 2008. It’s just a mess and needs a complete overhaul. I avoid the home page entirely and only use the library page.
* lots of little missing quality-of-life features:
- needs the ability to hide played episodes! The list of episodes for each podcast is pretty badly cluttered.
- it would be great to have the ability to mark all episodes before a certain date as played; the “episode limit” sorta does this, but I’d prefer the ability to separate “download only x# of episodes” from “show only x# of episodes in the list.”
- I’d love the ability to turn on automatic downloads as a default instead of a per-pod feature that’s off by default.
- I’d like to be able to filter the library list by only those podcasts with new episodes
Anyway, this app does work to skip ads! It just needs a few more things to work before I can make the switch entirely.
Pros:
* it’s currently FREE
* does its ad-skipping analysis completely on my phone. No mysterious third-party server stealing my data! (Or giving a reason to charge me a huge subscription fee.)
* Works FAST and is very effective at skipping ads. I do appreciate that it’ll start right into a podcast with just a few seconds of processing to skip introductory ads. It misses some on occasion, and sometimes it cuts off an episode’s ending prematurely but that hasn’t been a problem.
* shows a nice clear timeline in the player window of progress, content, and ads.
* Effectively imported my OPML file from overcast, including a few premium paid podcasts.
* the live transcript works ok and allows me to skim/read through a podcast to find the place I want.
* I like the ability to see exactly what my storage use is and which episodes are taking up space.
Cons:
* #1 dealbreaker: doesn’t work with CarPlay—at all. It’ll play for about half a second and then it’s just silence. This is the #1 reason why skipper isn’t currently my main podcast app. Reconnecting/restarting/reinstalling/rebooting haven’t worked to fix this issue.
* the UI is… well… hideous. The skeuomorphism looks like an app from 2008. It’s just a mess and needs a complete overhaul. I avoid the home page entirely and only use the library page.
* lots of little missing quality-of-life features:
- needs the ability to hide played episodes! The list of episodes for each podcast is pretty badly cluttered.
- it would be great to have the ability to mark all episodes before a certain date as played; the “episode limit” sorta does this, but I’d prefer the ability to separate “download only x# of episodes” from “show only x# of episodes in the list.”
- I’d love the ability to turn on automatic downloads as a default instead of a per-pod feature that’s off by default.
- I’d like to be able to filter the library list by only those podcasts with new episodes
Anyway, this app does work to skip ads! It just needs a few more things to work before I can make the switch entirely.
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AMAero Maestro
1.6.2 still has carplay connection problems
The skipping function of the app is great! However, 1.6.2 still has the issue of connecting to carplay for 1-2 seconds, the app is still playing the podcast, but the audio stream drops.
I verified that the app is connected to “carplay”. Apple Music and Apple Podcasts don’t have this problem
for me. Also a bit irked that I paid $8 for unlimited podcast subscriptions 2 weeks ago and now it is free?
I verified that the app is connected to “carplay”. Apple Music and Apple Podcasts don’t have this problem
for me. Also a bit irked that I paid $8 for unlimited podcast subscriptions 2 weeks ago and now it is free?
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FFreqflyfly
Response from developer
You diagnosed this better than we did - thank you. CarPlay audio stopping a second or two in was a real regression in 1.6.0, and it's fixed in the update that's with Apple now: Skipper now reattaches audio when a CarPlay route attaches mid-playback. Sorry it took a report from you to find it.
App has turned a corner!
This is the now my fav podcast app
accuracy is great and I love the design, reminds me of delicious library
accuracy is great and I love the design, reminds me of delicious library
Eeleanorh234
Makes Listening to Podcasts Enjoyable Again!
I had almost given up on some of my favorite podcasts because there were just too many ads. This app really does reduce the number of ads and makes it more enjoyable to listen again. The usability of the app is great including the option to snooze after a set amount of time and also to remove silences. 100% would recommend!
Update: This app keeps getting better. The newest version is working great!
Update: This app keeps getting better. The newest version is working great!
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CCChelsea Coal
Buggy
This app does a pretty good job at skipping ads. I do find that occasionally the audio gets very jumpy when my phone is in standby. When I wake the display, the audio stops being jumpy or if the phone is open and I’m in any app. Not sure what’s causing this, but I am able to crash the app and then open it back up resume playing and turn off the display.
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NNTMW
Response from developer
Thank you for the detail - the screen-off case is exactly the one that was hardest to see from here. Audio that stutters or goes quiet while the phone is asleep is a bug we've been chasing, and the next update rebuilds the audio output when it detects it has stopped, rather than carrying on as if it were playing. If you still catch it after updating, leave a note here and I'll dig further.
