Pocket Casts has announced that the version 7 of its podcasting application quite some time ago, and the stable build is now rolling out. The company has been beta testing this version of the app for about four months (open beta), and there’s actually a reason why it took that long, this update presents a major change for Pocket Casts in terms of the design, and also functionality, as the menus have been shuffled around.
In its press release, Pocket Casts notes that it did not want to release the app to the stable channel it is ready, until bugs get ironed out, and until the app is truly stable. Well, Pocket Casts seems to think the time has come, though do keep in mind that the app may not roll out to you this very moment, but it will really soon if it’s not yet available. You all know how this works, it’s a staged updating process thanks to the Play Store.
The biggest change in version 7 comes down to your episode lists. This list now clearly shows you what’s downloaded, and what’s already in your “Up Next” list. If you swipe left to right, you will reveal options for “Play Next” and “Play Last”, by the way. If you keep swiping, the app will automatically perform the first action. Authors can now tag shows in a somewhat different way, to make it easier for you to follow them. You can see both episode and season numbers at a glance, the same goes for trailers and bonus episodes.
You can now also play episodes without subscribing to a specific podcast, which was not available until now. You can simply browse the Discover section or find a podcast of your choice, see what’s on offer in terms of episodes, and play it on the fly.
Pocket Casts introduced some additional swipe options, you can now swipe from right to left over an episode in order to archive it. By doing this, you will remove that episode from your filter, and hide it from a podcast page, but you will not change the play status of an episode. This was not available before, in order to remove an episode from a list, you had to mark it as watched, which was not an ideal solution for some people. Some people will miss the “mark as played” approach, though, as Pocket Casts seems to be moving away from that system altogether.
A brand new discovery section has been added in version 7 as well, while a draggable player is also a part of this update. It is worth noting that this is a major update in terms of the design, and if you’re used to the old Pocket Casts design, well, this one will take some getting used to. Menus have been completely reshuffled, and even though we knew what’s going to happen based on the open beta, those of you who did not use it will definitely find this surprising.
Pocket Casts is one of the most popular Android applications for listening to podcasts, it is currently holding a 4.5-star rating in the Play Store, and it has been downloaded well over 1 million times. Truth be said, people are not entirely happy with this new update, based on Play Store feedback, as they complaining that their playlists have been completely removed when they updated. That is just one of the complaints, some people are complaining because some features have been removed, while others don’t like the design in general, as they see it as a step back. All in all, if you’d like to check out the new version of Pocket Casts, you can download / update the app by hitting the link down below.