December 26, 2025 • 15 mins
In this quick episode, we take a step back to appreciate how much podcast listening apps have improved and why that’s such a win for listeners and independent podcasters.
Updates from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast, and Fountain, had three big themes:
- Discoverability: making it easier to find new shows you’ll actually want to listen to
- Interactivity: likes, comments, and recommendations that help great episodes spread
- Quality of life: smarter playback controls, enhanced dialogue, chapters, and fewer accidental taps
It feels like podcast apps are finally competing on listening experience and we think that’s a really good sign for the future of podcasting!
Don't forget to send in your tips as we start planning an episode on how to start a podcast in 2026. If there’s something you wish you’d known when you started, send it our way!
Contact Buzzcast
- Send us a text message
- Tweet us at @buzzcastpodcast, @albanbrooke, @kfinn, and @JordanPods
Thanks for listening and Keep Podcasting!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alban (00:00):
Jordan, how much YouTube do you watch?
Jordan (00:02):
I watch more than I did a year ago, but it's really not
a ton.
Alban (00:06):
So did you see they've changed the controls?
Like the play button is at adifferent spot.
They've moved around like thetitle, the subscribe stuff.
Like it's all started kind ofmoving around a little bit.
Jordan (00:16):
You know what's funny is I haven't noticed.
So I guess that says how littleI actually use it because I
didn't notice a change.
Alban (00:23):
This might just be my personality type, but I love
when these like UI elements,especially ones that are used so
often, kind of shift.
And then you posted, or maybeyou tell us what you posted in
the outline today.
And I feel like it's uh it's aptfor what I was thinking about.
Jordan (00:36):
Okay, so what I wanted to talk about today, we talk a
lot about updates to things likeas a podcaster.
You know, we get like new toolsand all these bells and
whistles, but I've noticed as ofthis year that my life has
improved immensely as a podcastlistener.
And so I thought that we couldjust like take some time this
(00:56):
episode to like expressgratitude to all the developers
for making our lives so muchbetter.
Alban (01:03):
Yeah, we have the years that were all about like all the
news and podcasting was like,oh, somebody acquired this
podcast and it's gonna beexclusive.
And there was like this wholeperiod of exclusives.
Jordan (01:13):
Oh, yeah.
Alban (01:14):
And now we're kind of in a season of all the listening
apps getting better.
Jordan (01:19):
Yeah.
Alban (01:19):
And they're getting better in like different ways,
and they're all kind ofexperimenting with different
things.
Jordan (01:23):
And and it's beneficial to like independent podcasters
as opposed to just the majorones.
Alban (01:28):
Yeah.
And in my mind, I just it kindof juxtapose nicely with the
YouTube world, maybe the Netflixworld, where there's one player
and it's really good.
And I'm not even critiquing it,but there's one way of doing
things, and everyone kind ofjust gripes, but they know that
their complaints just go offinto the universe and never
(01:49):
heard.
But over in this the podcastingworld, like everyone's kind of
trying different things thisyear.
Yeah.
And we're just trying some likenatural experiments.
And some of them, I don't know,you posted it here and I really,
I really liked them.
What's your favorite?
Jordan (02:04):
Okay, so I I kind of grouped these into different
categories because I startedgoing through like, okay, what
did Spotify do this year?
What did Apple do this year?
What did Fountain do this year?
Things like that.
And then I realized that a lotof them are kind of playing into
the same themes.
And so I have them kind of likegrouped together.
So I put the categories as likeinteractivity.
(02:25):
So these are improvements to theways that like listeners are
able to interact with anepisode, discoverability, how we
can find new episodes to listento, and then also quality of
life, which is just, you know,listening improvements, things
like that.
So I personally think that thediscoverability improvements
have been my favorite.
(02:46):
So I'm gonna hop into like thissection real quick.
So Spotify, like they updatedlike a following feed where it
was really hard to like keep upwith podcasts that you were
already subscribed to onSpotify.
It didn't like update you if youhad a new episode out or
anything like that.
And so they they cleaned thatup, which made it a lot easier.
Pocketcast has like a revampsearch experience, and um, they
(03:08):
also added playlists forlistener curation, which I think
a lot of people were reallyexcited about.
And then they also added smartplaylists so that the app can
like automatically gatherepisodes for you when you're
listening.
Alban (03:21):
Yeah, and Apple did this too.
So I ran into this a bit when Iwas doing that how to get new
and noteworthy or boost yourvisibility in Apple Podcast
blog.
And one of the things they didwas they had that browse
section, which now they've justmade new.
And it's kind of like acombination of the podcast
charts, but also the editorialpieces included.
(03:45):
So they're kind of surfacing newepisodes, what things they think
you should be listening to next,kind of bringing it all together
so that these are new, I guessto you shows and try to
highlight things that they thinkyou would like.
Jordan (03:58):
Yeah, I actually think that that's a really good
improvement because before Iwould browse like their curated
lists only, and I never evenlooked at the top charts.
And so maybe they had thatinformation.
They were like, okay, we got toget charts like in front of
people somehow.
The other thing that they did toimprove discoverability is just
with this newest 26.2 update,when they added the ability to
(04:21):
look at podcasts mentioned in apodcast episode.
So, like in our BuzzCast episodelast week, we reviewed a whole
bunch of podcasts, and those aregonna be featured on Apple
Podcasts on that episode, whichis super cool.
And they'll be timestamped andstuff.
So we're gonna see how it likepops up on the now playing
screen.
I just I really think that that,along with having those linked
(04:44):
in the actual transcript,because the transcript's now
interactive.
You can click on it, you canlike explore other podcasts.
I think that that is just such ahuge discoverability improvement
for Apple.
Alban (04:55):
Yeah, I think that people are not as likely to remember
the podcast name that they hearabout and then go click through.
But if it's popping up on thepodcast player, the chances they
click through are going to bequite a bit better.
So maybe we'll see more peopledoing feed drops or promo swaps
or you know, guesting on otherpodcasts to get the, you know,
(05:16):
their podcast exposed to theworld a bit more.
In the world of interactivity,my number one update was
actually a I don't know, what'sthe opposite of interactivity?
Jordan (05:28):
No.
Alban (05:28):
Not interacting.
Um, so Overcast had this thingwhere on the lock screen you
could like scrub along anepisode.
Jordan (05:36):
Oh my gosh.
Alban (05:38):
If you do that, every once in a while, I'd be like
running, or I'd do something,I'd put my pop phone in my
pocket, and then we'd like jump.
And so now it's like just lessaccidental taps.
Yeah.
So sometimes interactivity goesthe other way and it's an
improvement.
Jordan (05:55):
This is just kind of like a quick one, but Fountain
added some interactivity andthey kind of did it a different
way than the other one.
So, like, uh, so Spotify, youknow, they have comments, they
added threads, so they likereally expanded upon the
interactivity ability.
Like you can add emojis and likeboost comments and things like
that.
And then Fountain, I think thatthey just did something that was
(06:16):
like really understated, butit's in a cool way.
So when you like an episode inFountain, anyone who follows you
will also see that you likethat.
So I think that that kind ofgoes with the like
recommendation algorithm alittle bit more.
It's kind of cool because if youlike something and someone else
enjoys some of the same thingsyou do and they see that in your
(06:37):
feed you liked it.
I think that good pods was verysimilar.
Alban (06:40):
Yeah, I think good pods really leaned into this early
on.
It's a shame that not morepeople got into good pods
because the ability to followpeople and someone to be kind of
like a podcast taste maker.
Jordan (06:53):
Yeah.
Alban (06:53):
Uh was definitely there.
And it would have been fun justto see, you know, people liking
shows and you're like, oh, fourof my friends.
I mean, this is how I useGoodreads.
Jordan (07:02):
Yeah.
Alban (07:02):
When I go on Goodreads and I'm looking at a book, I'll
natur I'll just see like fivefriends on Goodreads have read
the book.
And there's a few people, likeif different people from
different areas of my life allliked the book, it's like a
hundred percent guarantee it'sgonna be good.
Jordan (07:20):
Yes.
Alban (07:21):
That still is there for podcasts.
It would be so much fun if Icould go on there and be like,
oh, like Jordan really likedthis episode.
Also, my uncle liked thisepisode.
Also, a friend from collegeliked it.
Okay, that's three verydifferent people.
If they all liked it, there'sprobably something really
interesting here uh for me tolisten to.
Jordan (07:42):
Yeah.
Okay, so in the quality of lifesection, I'm really gonna focus
hard on Apple Podcasts for thisbecause this last update has
just been amazing.
They improved their speedcontrol and they like boosted it
up to 3x playback.
Obviously, I'm not a fan ofthat.
I'm probably not gonna evergonna use that.
I think the only person out ofthe three of us who's gonna use
(08:03):
it might be Kevin.
Alban (08:07):
We don't encourage what are you doing?
Jordan (08:09):
I know, like, why?
Alban (08:10):
So when we did the research for this episode, this
is like the most common updateof the year, was people are like
enhance playback speed controls.
Uh and it's like you can now go0.5 and you can now go up to,
and then they like put awhatever number, three.
Jordan (08:27):
Yeah, I think YouTube like increased it to like 4.5 or
something.
It's like insanity mode.
Alban (08:34):
I think this that's a maybe a bad sign for the podcast
apps.
If you're like, hey, our bigupdate this year is you can go
4.5 times as fast as you usedto, um, that actually might be
uh a bear case.
unknown (08:47):
Yeah.
Jordan (08:48):
But one of the things that they added that I am so
happy with, and I know otherpodcast apps already had this,
but I use Apple Podcasts all thetime.
And a lot of the podcasts Ilisten to on Apple Podcasts
maybe don't have magicmastering, and so they don't
have the auto-leveling andthings like that.
Uh, one of the things that theyadded is the enhanced dialogue,
(09:09):
and you can like turn it on forspecific uh podcasts.
And there's one podcast that Ijust love, but I actually
stopped listening to them forprobably like two or three
months because their audio wasso much quieter than the ads
that they had.
And I was so pumped to like trythis out on it.
And I could hear their podcastperfectly.
And when an ad came on, itdidn't like blow my ears out.
(09:31):
So they kind of likeauto-leveled it a little bit for
me.
That was kind of a huge one forme because now I can listen to
this podcast I love again.
Alban (09:38):
Yeah.
Well, I I love that people whenthey you have something you can
clean up the audio becausesometimes the content is really
good and it's really what youwant to listen to.
I'm uh riding high.
The Jacksonville Jaguars arewinning a bunch of games, and
they actually look kind of goodright now.
And so I found a dailyJacksonville Jaguars podcast,
and I've been listening to it,but the audio is not like all
(10:02):
the way there.
Jordan (10:03):
Yeah.
Alban (10:03):
So it's really nice.
Um, Overcast has some tools likethis.
You're using the one from ApplePodcasts.
It's just nice to turn it on,clean up the audio a little bit.
It's mostly not that bad onheadphones.
But what I find is if I'mdriving in my Jeep where there's
just lots of road noise, badaudio quality plus road noise,
plus being in a truck.
(10:25):
The combination is just you canbarely understand what people
are saying.
Oh, yeah, even when it's liketoo loud.
Jordan (10:30):
Or when you're doing the dishes and like the water's
running.
Alban (10:32):
Yeah.
I need to get some uh, you know,the noise canceling headphones.
Maybe some of those would cleanit up a bit.
Jordan (10:38):
Maybe.
Alban (10:39):
All right.
Let me ask you about this one.
Okay.
Um, I didn't see this in youroutline, and we never have
talked about this, but Overcastmade this update.
It's called like promo and rerunfilter.
So maybe you can guess what thisis.
Yeah.
The idea was you turn it on andOvercast tries to identify hey,
(10:59):
this episode is just a rerun ofan old episode.
This episode is actually just afeed drop promoing their other
new show.
And to eliminate that feeling offrustration where you're like, I
thought my favorite podcast everis back.
No, they're just reminding methat they did do episodes back
in like 2012.
Jordan (11:18):
Yeah.
Alban (11:19):
So they're filtering it out.
What's your take on that?
Jordan (11:22):
I have to be honest, like, this one gives me mixed
feelings.
As a listener, I'm going, yes,there are a few podcasts I'm
subscribed to that I've thoughtvery seriously about
unsubscribing from because theyrun so many reruns, like it's
like one or two a week.
But at the same time, as apodcaster, there are times where
I'm actually like promotingsomething that is really
(11:44):
important to me.
And I'm saying, you know, forexample, if I have a
subscriber-only episode and Ineed to take a break that week,
and I'm saying, hey, you know,if you subscribe, you get more
episodes like this.
I have over a hundred subscriberepisodes like this one.
Would it filter that out for thepeople that I am trying to show
how good my subscription is?
Alban (12:03):
Only if they've turned it on.
So I've never, I have not turnedit on.
Jordan (12:06):
Oh.
Alban (12:07):
My feeling is if you're going to abuse the podcast inbox
that I have and post a bunch ofpromos, I might just unsubscribe
to the whole show and move on.
Jordan (12:19):
Yeah.
Alban (12:19):
But it just was interesting because it feels
like a spam filter, but withemail, anybody can send you an
email.
And so spam is a really bigproblem.
With podcasting, it's allopt-in.
Yes.
And so it's kind of a knownperson.
You're like, oh, Gimlet did itto me again.
They gave you another promodrop.
Jordan (12:36):
Whereas require all.
Alban (12:38):
Yeah.
So I'm just going to, you know,complain to Gimlet.
Jordan (12:41):
Yes.
Alban (12:42):
Sorry, Gimlet that they may not be able to do that.
But you know what I'm saying?
Like that I know who did it.
And so I feel like I can justunsubscribe.
And then we've got a few qualityof life improvements.
And I think the biggest has gotto be these chapters that Apple
Podcasts is doing.
Jordan (12:59):
Yeah.
Alban (13:00):
Um, where they're going to be doing chapters
automatically.
And I think that just not onlyencourages podcasters to
actually create chapters evenmore now that they can see
chapters are available moreoften, but it's just nice as the
listener.
There's plenty of podcasts thatthey'll do like an interview and
some news, or they'll dodifferent segments.
(13:22):
Buzzcast, we have lots ofsegments.
I'm sure the people are like, Ienjoy the podcast bits, but I
don't really like the personaltalk.
So they can just skip past thosesections.
Jordan (13:32):
Yeah.
Alban (13:32):
I think this is a great way to do it.
You respect whatever thepodcasters put in the feed by
default, but if they don't putanything in, then Apple fills it
in so that there's more adoptionfor listeners.
So they know, oh, if I'm gettingkind of bored, I can just skip
the chapter rather than bouncingaround hoping I can find a place
where things get good again.
Jordan (13:53):
Another um improvement that they had with chapters that
I was personally really excitedabout is that they changed the
way that they do chapterartwork.
So you no longer have to havethe artwork embedded in the
audio file.
Is that right, Alban?
Alban (14:05):
Oh, yeah.
This is one that was funny.
I feel like this snuck past mebecause we added chapter artwork
to the MP3 files, like right atthe same time that Apple said,
fine, we'll use the ones in theRSS feed.
So we did them together.
So now Apple could pick them uptwo different ways.
Jordan (14:24):
Yeah.
Alban (14:24):
Overall, just you know, a little bit more support for
chapter artwork.
Uh, we are doing right before westarted recording, you asked me
for a picture we mentioned uhduring a different episode of
Buzzcast because you're gonnaput it in the chapter artwork.
So uh I think it enhances theexperience a little bit.
Not everyone's gonna look at it,but for the times that you do,
(14:45):
it's nice to have the little bitof a bonus.
Jordan (14:48):
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I think that is probablyenough of us gushing about all
the awesome updates this year.
So thanks again to all thedevelopers of the podcast apps
for constantly improving ourlistening experience.
We appreciate you so much.
Alban (15:03):
And if you have any recommendations on how to start
a podcast, things you wish youknew, tools that you wish were
there when you started, let usknow.
We're gonna do a whole episodeon how to start a podcast in
2026.
And we would love to includeyour info, your tips, your
strategies.
So tap text the show in thedescription, send us your tip,
(15:24):
send us your strategy, send uswhat you would have liked to
have known, and we'll mentionyou and your tip in the next
episode.
So you'll see your podcast showup in those beautiful podcast
banners that we have beentalking about in Apple Podcasts.
But until next time, keeppodcasting.
Jordan, how much YouTube do you watch?
Jordan (00:02):
I watch more than I did a year ago, but it's really not
a ton.
Alban (00:06):
So did you see they've changed the controls?
Like the play button is at adifferent spot.
They've moved around like thetitle, the subscribe stuff.
Like it's all started kind ofmoving around a little bit.
Jordan (00:16):
You know what's funny is I haven't noticed.
So I guess that says how littleI actually use it because I
didn't notice a change.
Alban (00:23):
This might just be my personality type, but I love
when these like UI elements,especially ones that are used so
often, kind of shift.
And then you posted, or maybeyou tell us what you posted in
the outline today.
And I feel like it's uh it's aptfor what I was thinking about.
Jordan (00:36):
Okay, so what I wanted to talk about today, we talk a
lot about updates to things likeas a podcaster.
You know, we get like new toolsand all these bells and
whistles, but I've noticed as ofthis year that my life has
improved immensely as a podcastlistener.
And so I thought that we couldjust like take some time this
(00:56):
episode to like expressgratitude to all the developers
for making our lives so muchbetter.
Alban (01:03):
Yeah, we have the years that were all about like all the
news and podcasting was like,oh, somebody acquired this
podcast and it's gonna beexclusive.
And there was like this wholeperiod of exclusives.
Jordan (01:13):
Oh, yeah.
Alban (01:14):
And now we're kind of in a season of all the listening
apps getting better.
Jordan (01:19):
Yeah.
Alban (01:19):
And they're getting better in like different ways,
and they're all kind ofexperimenting with different
things.
Jordan (01:23):
And and it's beneficial to like independent podcasters
as opposed to just the majorones.
Alban (01:28):
Yeah.
And in my mind, I just it kindof juxtapose nicely with the
YouTube world, maybe the Netflixworld, where there's one player
and it's really good.
And I'm not even critiquing it,but there's one way of doing
things, and everyone kind ofjust gripes, but they know that
their complaints just go offinto the universe and never
(01:49):
heard.
But over in this the podcastingworld, like everyone's kind of
trying different things thisyear.
Yeah.
And we're just trying some likenatural experiments.
And some of them, I don't know,you posted it here and I really,
I really liked them.
What's your favorite?
Jordan (02:04):
Okay, so I I kind of grouped these into different
categories because I startedgoing through like, okay, what
did Spotify do this year?
What did Apple do this year?
What did Fountain do this year?
Things like that.
And then I realized that a lotof them are kind of playing into
the same themes.
And so I have them kind of likegrouped together.
So I put the categories as likeinteractivity.
(02:25):
So these are improvements to theways that like listeners are
able to interact with anepisode, discoverability, how we
can find new episodes to listento, and then also quality of
life, which is just, you know,listening improvements, things
like that.
So I personally think that thediscoverability improvements
have been my favorite.
(02:46):
So I'm gonna hop into like thissection real quick.
So Spotify, like they updatedlike a following feed where it
was really hard to like keep upwith podcasts that you were
already subscribed to onSpotify.
It didn't like update you if youhad a new episode out or
anything like that.
And so they they cleaned thatup, which made it a lot easier.
Pocketcast has like a revampsearch experience, and um, they
(03:08):
also added playlists forlistener curation, which I think
a lot of people were reallyexcited about.
And then they also added smartplaylists so that the app can
like automatically gatherepisodes for you when you're
listening.
Alban (03:21):
Yeah, and Apple did this too.
So I ran into this a bit when Iwas doing that how to get new
and noteworthy or boost yourvisibility in Apple Podcast
blog.
And one of the things they didwas they had that browse
section, which now they've justmade new.
And it's kind of like acombination of the podcast
charts, but also the editorialpieces included.
(03:45):
So they're kind of surfacing newepisodes, what things they think
you should be listening to next,kind of bringing it all together
so that these are new, I guessto you shows and try to
highlight things that they thinkyou would like.
Jordan (03:58):
Yeah, I actually think that that's a really good
improvement because before Iwould browse like their curated
lists only, and I never evenlooked at the top charts.
And so maybe they had thatinformation.
They were like, okay, we got toget charts like in front of
people somehow.
The other thing that they did toimprove discoverability is just
with this newest 26.2 update,when they added the ability to
(04:21):
look at podcasts mentioned in apodcast episode.
So, like in our BuzzCast episodelast week, we reviewed a whole
bunch of podcasts, and those aregonna be featured on Apple
Podcasts on that episode, whichis super cool.
And they'll be timestamped andstuff.
So we're gonna see how it likepops up on the now playing
screen.
I just I really think that that,along with having those linked
(04:44):
in the actual transcript,because the transcript's now
interactive.
You can click on it, you canlike explore other podcasts.
I think that that is just such ahuge discoverability improvement
for Apple.
Alban (04:55):
Yeah, I think that people are not as likely to remember
the podcast name that they hearabout and then go click through.
But if it's popping up on thepodcast player, the chances they
click through are going to bequite a bit better.
So maybe we'll see more peopledoing feed drops or promo swaps
or you know, guesting on otherpodcasts to get the, you know,
(05:16):
their podcast exposed to theworld a bit more.
In the world of interactivity,my number one update was
actually a I don't know, what'sthe opposite of interactivity?
Jordan (05:28):
No.
Alban (05:28):
Not interacting.
Um, so Overcast had this thingwhere on the lock screen you
could like scrub along anepisode.
Jordan (05:36):
Oh my gosh.
Alban (05:38):
If you do that, every once in a while, I'd be like
running, or I'd do something,I'd put my pop phone in my
pocket, and then we'd like jump.
And so now it's like just lessaccidental taps.
Yeah.
So sometimes interactivity goesthe other way and it's an
improvement.
Jordan (05:55):
This is just kind of like a quick one, but Fountain
added some interactivity andthey kind of did it a different
way than the other one.
So, like, uh, so Spotify, youknow, they have comments, they
added threads, so they likereally expanded upon the
interactivity ability.
Like you can add emojis and likeboost comments and things like
that.
And then Fountain, I think thatthey just did something that was
(06:16):
like really understated, butit's in a cool way.
So when you like an episode inFountain, anyone who follows you
will also see that you likethat.
So I think that that kind ofgoes with the like
recommendation algorithm alittle bit more.
It's kind of cool because if youlike something and someone else
enjoys some of the same thingsyou do and they see that in your
(06:37):
feed you liked it.
I think that good pods was verysimilar.
Alban (06:40):
Yeah, I think good pods really leaned into this early
on.
It's a shame that not morepeople got into good pods
because the ability to followpeople and someone to be kind of
like a podcast taste maker.
Jordan (06:53):
Yeah.
Alban (06:53):
Uh was definitely there.
And it would have been fun justto see, you know, people liking
shows and you're like, oh, fourof my friends.
I mean, this is how I useGoodreads.
Jordan (07:02):
Yeah.
Alban (07:02):
When I go on Goodreads and I'm looking at a book, I'll
natur I'll just see like fivefriends on Goodreads have read
the book.
And there's a few people, likeif different people from
different areas of my life allliked the book, it's like a
hundred percent guarantee it'sgonna be good.
Jordan (07:20):
Yes.
Alban (07:21):
That still is there for podcasts.
It would be so much fun if Icould go on there and be like,
oh, like Jordan really likedthis episode.
Also, my uncle liked thisepisode.
Also, a friend from collegeliked it.
Okay, that's three verydifferent people.
If they all liked it, there'sprobably something really
interesting here uh for me tolisten to.
Jordan (07:42):
Yeah.
Okay, so in the quality of lifesection, I'm really gonna focus
hard on Apple Podcasts for thisbecause this last update has
just been amazing.
They improved their speedcontrol and they like boosted it
up to 3x playback.
Obviously, I'm not a fan ofthat.
I'm probably not gonna evergonna use that.
I think the only person out ofthe three of us who's gonna use
(08:03):
it might be Kevin.
Alban (08:07):
We don't encourage what are you doing?
Jordan (08:09):
I know, like, why?
Alban (08:10):
So when we did the research for this episode, this
is like the most common updateof the year, was people are like
enhance playback speed controls.
Uh and it's like you can now go0.5 and you can now go up to,
and then they like put awhatever number, three.
Jordan (08:27):
Yeah, I think YouTube like increased it to like 4.5 or
something.
It's like insanity mode.
Alban (08:34):
I think this that's a maybe a bad sign for the podcast
apps.
If you're like, hey, our bigupdate this year is you can go
4.5 times as fast as you usedto, um, that actually might be
uh a bear case.
unknown (08:47):
Yeah.
Jordan (08:48):
But one of the things that they added that I am so
happy with, and I know otherpodcast apps already had this,
but I use Apple Podcasts all thetime.
And a lot of the podcasts Ilisten to on Apple Podcasts
maybe don't have magicmastering, and so they don't
have the auto-leveling andthings like that.
Uh, one of the things that theyadded is the enhanced dialogue,
(09:09):
and you can like turn it on forspecific uh podcasts.
And there's one podcast that Ijust love, but I actually
stopped listening to them forprobably like two or three
months because their audio wasso much quieter than the ads
that they had.
And I was so pumped to like trythis out on it.
And I could hear their podcastperfectly.
And when an ad came on, itdidn't like blow my ears out.
(09:31):
So they kind of likeauto-leveled it a little bit for
me.
That was kind of a huge one forme because now I can listen to
this podcast I love again.
Alban (09:38):
Yeah.
Well, I I love that people whenthey you have something you can
clean up the audio becausesometimes the content is really
good and it's really what youwant to listen to.
I'm uh riding high.
The Jacksonville Jaguars arewinning a bunch of games, and
they actually look kind of goodright now.
And so I found a dailyJacksonville Jaguars podcast,
and I've been listening to it,but the audio is not like all
(10:02):
the way there.
Jordan (10:03):
Yeah.
Alban (10:03):
So it's really nice.
Um, Overcast has some tools likethis.
You're using the one from ApplePodcasts.
It's just nice to turn it on,clean up the audio a little bit.
It's mostly not that bad onheadphones.
But what I find is if I'mdriving in my Jeep where there's
just lots of road noise, badaudio quality plus road noise,
plus being in a truck.
(10:25):
The combination is just you canbarely understand what people
are saying.
Oh, yeah, even when it's liketoo loud.
Jordan (10:30):
Or when you're doing the dishes and like the water's
running.
Alban (10:32):
Yeah.
I need to get some uh, you know,the noise canceling headphones.
Maybe some of those would cleanit up a bit.
Jordan (10:38):
Maybe.
Alban (10:39):
All right.
Let me ask you about this one.
Okay.
Um, I didn't see this in youroutline, and we never have
talked about this, but Overcastmade this update.
It's called like promo and rerunfilter.
So maybe you can guess what thisis.
Yeah.
The idea was you turn it on andOvercast tries to identify hey,
(10:59):
this episode is just a rerun ofan old episode.
This episode is actually just afeed drop promoing their other
new show.
And to eliminate that feeling offrustration where you're like, I
thought my favorite podcast everis back.
No, they're just reminding methat they did do episodes back
in like 2012.
Jordan (11:18):
Yeah.
Alban (11:19):
So they're filtering it out.
What's your take on that?
Jordan (11:22):
I have to be honest, like, this one gives me mixed
feelings.
As a listener, I'm going, yes,there are a few podcasts I'm
subscribed to that I've thoughtvery seriously about
unsubscribing from because theyrun so many reruns, like it's
like one or two a week.
But at the same time, as apodcaster, there are times where
I'm actually like promotingsomething that is really
(11:44):
important to me.
And I'm saying, you know, forexample, if I have a
subscriber-only episode and Ineed to take a break that week,
and I'm saying, hey, you know,if you subscribe, you get more
episodes like this.
I have over a hundred subscriberepisodes like this one.
Would it filter that out for thepeople that I am trying to show
how good my subscription is?
Alban (12:03):
Only if they've turned it on.
So I've never, I have not turnedit on.
Jordan (12:06):
Oh.
Alban (12:07):
My feeling is if you're going to abuse the podcast inbox
that I have and post a bunch ofpromos, I might just unsubscribe
to the whole show and move on.
Jordan (12:19):
Yeah.
Alban (12:19):
But it just was interesting because it feels
like a spam filter, but withemail, anybody can send you an
email.
And so spam is a really bigproblem.
With podcasting, it's allopt-in.
Yes.
And so it's kind of a knownperson.
You're like, oh, Gimlet did itto me again.
They gave you another promodrop.
Jordan (12:36):
Whereas require all.
Alban (12:38):
Yeah.
So I'm just going to, you know,complain to Gimlet.
Jordan (12:41):
Yes.
Alban (12:42):
Sorry, Gimlet that they may not be able to do that.
But you know what I'm saying?
Like that I know who did it.
And so I feel like I can justunsubscribe.
And then we've got a few qualityof life improvements.
And I think the biggest has gotto be these chapters that Apple
Podcasts is doing.
Jordan (12:59):
Yeah.
Alban (13:00):
Um, where they're going to be doing chapters
automatically.
And I think that just not onlyencourages podcasters to
actually create chapters evenmore now that they can see
chapters are available moreoften, but it's just nice as the
listener.
There's plenty of podcasts thatthey'll do like an interview and
some news, or they'll dodifferent segments.
(13:22):
Buzzcast, we have lots ofsegments.
I'm sure the people are like, Ienjoy the podcast bits, but I
don't really like the personaltalk.
So they can just skip past thosesections.
Jordan (13:32):
Yeah.
Alban (13:32):
I think this is a great way to do it.
You respect whatever thepodcasters put in the feed by
default, but if they don't putanything in, then Apple fills it
in so that there's more adoptionfor listeners.
So they know, oh, if I'm gettingkind of bored, I can just skip
the chapter rather than bouncingaround hoping I can find a place
where things get good again.
Jordan (13:53):
Another um improvement that they had with chapters that
I was personally really excitedabout is that they changed the
way that they do chapterartwork.
So you no longer have to havethe artwork embedded in the
audio file.
Is that right, Alban?
Alban (14:05):
Oh, yeah.
This is one that was funny.
I feel like this snuck past mebecause we added chapter artwork
to the MP3 files, like right atthe same time that Apple said,
fine, we'll use the ones in theRSS feed.
So we did them together.
So now Apple could pick them uptwo different ways.
Jordan (14:24):
Yeah.
Alban (14:24):
Overall, just you know, a little bit more support for
chapter artwork.
Uh, we are doing right before westarted recording, you asked me
for a picture we mentioned uhduring a different episode of
Buzzcast because you're gonnaput it in the chapter artwork.
So uh I think it enhances theexperience a little bit.
Not everyone's gonna look at it,but for the times that you do,
(14:45):
it's nice to have the little bitof a bonus.
Jordan (14:48):
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I think that is probablyenough of us gushing about all
the awesome updates this year.
So thanks again to all thedevelopers of the podcast apps
for constantly improving ourlistening experience.
We appreciate you so much.
Alban (15:03):
And if you have any recommendations on how to start
a podcast, things you wish youknew, tools that you wish were
there when you started, let usknow.
We're gonna do a whole episodeon how to start a podcast in
2026.
And we would love to includeyour info, your tips, your
strategies.
So tap text the show in thedescription, send us your tip,
(15:24):
send us your strategy, send uswhat you would have liked to
have known, and we'll mentionyou and your tip in the next
episode.
So you'll see your podcast showup in those beautiful podcast
banners that we have beentalking about in Apple Podcasts.
But until next time, keeppodcasting.
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