Reviews for Pocket Casts - Podcast App

I purchased the app many years ago to support them and get complete access and functionality. In the last few years, the app has started going down the dark hole of advertising itself to paid users to switch to its subscription, and now has more recently placed a banner ad for the same. It will only be a matter of time before I, as someone who purchased the app, will be forced out. Again, I paid for the app to remove ads.

I paid full price for this app because I did not want to see ads in my podcast app. The app has now started showing ads, and it is demanding a subscription fee to hide them. Edit: apparently this app is free now. It didn't used to be. Some of us paid for it. i don't remember the exact price, but it was at least $5. Enough to expect no ads!

Long time fan and heavy user of the app. I get that you have to pay for development but adding ads to an ad free app isn't the way. I'd happily support you with a one time purchase but not at the current cost structure of the subscription. The features and value are simply not there. The app is otherwise a 5/5 and does everything you'd want it to do.

It's a decent app and used to get the job done. I've used it for a very long time. I've paid for the full app, only to see them add subscriptions later. That's fine, I didn't need any of those features. then they started shoving the subscription features in your face. And now they've added Ads everywhere. it's stopped being the central source for my podcasts, and just an annoyance

Switched to this app from another due to ads. Now this app, which I've used for months without issue, is showing ads in the player when it wasn't before, and specifically for their $40 a year subscription plan. I just need a basic player without fancy features and no ads. If the ads aren't removed by the end of the month, I'm finding a new podcast player.

I've used this app for years and love it, but I'm now looking for a different podcast player. I have an un-closable banner ad across the top of the player window. When I try to close it, I get directed to the page to subscribe to the app. If I could pay a 1-time fee to just remove the ads and support the dev, I definitely would. But I don't have any use for the other "plus" features, and I would never consider paying a subscription fee for a podcast app.

I do appreciate an app that listens to its customer base, even if it's just because they want to boost their ratings again. Going to stick with Pocket Casts for now. If you need to uninstall/reinstall the app for any reason, be prepared to lose all downloads. I figured it would have saved all of the ones you previously downloaded and you'd just have to re-download, but that's all lost. No idea which episodes of certain shows I had saved up.

I used to love this app. I paid a one-time fee for it originally, but then they decided shortly after to switch to a subscription model and call me a "free" member. It's been mostly fine since then, except I don't get new features. I could overlook that. But now they're putting ads everywhere in an app that I paid lifetime price for. No thanks, I'm moving on.

Added intrusive ads on both your feed and the podcast player with the last update. They're getting overly greedy by having ads on these pages, plus sponsored posts on the Discover page, plus asking for a subscription fee. BTW, I paid a one-time fee for the premium app a long time ago and I guess that's just null and void?? Eh, I guess that's just way of world these days with tech. Look up "ensh#ttification." That's what's happening here.

The decline continues. I loved this app so much that I paid for it way back when. When they switched to a subscription service after that, I was annoyed but continued to use it anyway. The app has only gotten worse since then. Frequent freezes and crashing, along with the introduction of adverts, is driving me away from this app. Unfortunate.

I'm so sad to be losing an app that has been part of my daily life for nearly a decade, but the devs introduced huge, undismissable ads even though I paid for ad free way back when. and you know, I like pocket casts enough that I wouldn't even mind paying an annual fee to get rid of the ads, but the subscription fee is absolutely ridiculous. I don't want any of the features included in plus, I just want no ads. or even just less obtrusive ads.

Well, this was a five star app, the perfect podcast player, flawless in design and function... Until now! They just recently added a notification at the top asking to upgrade the app that you cannot get rid of without paying. I might be willing to pay for additional features, but paying to remove that block at the top of the player? Get outta here, uninstalled! While I was considering paying for the app, I won't even use it now.

It just started playing randomly at 12:45am. I've never un-installed an app faster in my life. I'm typing this out at 1am bc it started playing the next ep. of the paused pod I was listening to while I was ASLEEP. I had already been having issues bc Auto Play completely stopped working, and the app was adding 2 additional hours to each ep. of my fav pod and, if paused, repeating segments of the eps to fill the extra hours. I had been trying to find solutions to these problems, but now I'M DONE!

I'll come back in a year to try again. Tried to bring over my 85 entry opml file. Success, but no subscriptions. Ran the import again and they showed up. Two larger podcasts don't have all their episodes listed - this is covered in a FAQ entry and requires me to contact support to fix. One of these caused the browser tab to hang, although it worked in another browser. Refreshes had a strange error message, and this went away. Another podcast, 2x/day BBC News, stopped updates 3 days ago.

The base app itself is great! Works well, good functionality. I'm not a fan of the new persistent ad for Plus. It's ugly. Look, I'd pay 10 bucks to remove that, and because the devs deserve money. Hell, I'd pay 10 bucks a year. But I truly have no use for the Plus functionality, and I'm not paying 40 bucks a year just to remove the ad banner. I guess the devs will see if the whale model serves them, or if they should've gone with a more practical financing system

(Android 15) app is extremely unresponsive, episodes from various podcasts take ages to load, while other apps load content in the blink of an eye. The search function for finding podcasts is also garbage. Half the time it will show only episodes and not podcasts, even when doing a search like "serial", where I know there is a podcast of that name.

For over a decade, this review read simply "Works for everything I need." I've come back to edit it and drop my review from 5 stars to 2, because like most recent reviews I'm really disappointed in the decision to insert banner ads. i'm thinking of trying to find an APK of the previous version. I'd gladly use that forever - you don't need a subscription business model so you can fund continued development, the app was great already.

Looks like it's time to switch. I've had frustration with pocket casts over the years, but I stuck with it because it's familiar and reliable. I now have ads, which can only be disabled with a subscription. I paid for pocket casts, so suddenly forcing ads seems pretty sleazy. There are a lot of better alternatives. Thanks for the push to switch!

Another user that's been using this app for close to if not over a decade. I've paid for the app before because it was a great app. now that they've implemented unremovable ads for those who've paid this is a 1-star app. I've seen responses that if we subscribe to their monthly subscription it'll remove the ad. I think that's a slap in the face of those that have supported Pocket Casts by purchasing in the early days. stay away. find a different app.

I've used this app for years and have liked it a lot, but lately it's been glitching more and more. It marked unplayed a bunch of episodes from my most heavy rotation podcasts, so I have no idea which episodes I've already heard. More seriously, it recently stopped being able to find the episode notes from most of my podcasts older than a couple months, making them unsearchable as well as not displaying the notes. Hope these issues are resolved.