Podcast players
Podcast players are failing en masse at the most basic job — play audio reliably and remember where you stopped — and every monetization or AI update only accelerates the exodus toward independent and open-source alternatives. The category winner won't be the app with the most features; it will be the one whose playback engine doesn't lie.
Three findings
An engine that doesn't lie
Reliable playback is the core of the category — and it is broken everywhere. Episodes skip, replay chunks, and clip the ending; pause loses your position; downloads vanish before a flight; background playback cuts out or drains the battery. Anyone who ships an engine that plays straight through, remembers exactly where you stopped, and keeps offline files intact walks away with the disillusioned loyalists of all ten competing apps. This is not a feature; it is basic hygiene that no one currently provides.
Podcast breaks itself: skips, repeats, and cuts the ending38
The playback engine randomly jumps back by minutes, replays chunks, then drops the same amount from the end — the episode never finishes, even though the same audio plays cleanly in other apps
It randomly skips ahead. It randomly repeats parts. It randomly drops the last 10 minutes of a podcast and marks it completed. I have never had this issue with other apps.
it will--seemingly randomly--skip backwards, in the episode 1-10 minutes. Then that amount of time is cut off from the end of the episode. Third phone with this app and issue persists. Downloaded or streaming, doesn't matter.
Pretty much all podcasts I listen to will cut to and replay a previous part. This can happen once or multiple times but it happens with every podcast.
Downloaded for the flight — folder is empty22
The app shows "downloaded" but episodes don't play offline and vanish from the list within a day or two; downloads delete themselves, stall mid-way, or simply refuse to start without a connection
Downloaded a few podcasts to listen on a flight – when I opened the app on the plane, the downloads list was empty, even though I saw "downloaded" notifications. Had to raw-dog it. Thanks, guys!
My downloaded podcast episodes don't play when offline! 🙄
App used to be good. It now will randomly delete your download and remove it from your now playing. takes 1-4 re-downloads to get it to work.
Paused it — now it's starting over21
Take off your headphones, answer a call, or switch apps and your position is gone — the podcast plays from the beginning; users have to jot down timestamps manually before every pause
the player no longer holds my place in a podcast. If I have to pause halfway through and come back to it later, it restarts at the beginning of the episode. I have to look at the timestamp when I pause so I can find my place later
If I pause a podcast and switch to literally any other app when I come back to this app it restarts the podcast. if I pause the podcast with my earbuds and switch to my car stereo the podcast starts from the beginning.
anytime you open your phone from black screen the app starts the podcast over from the beginning.
Background playback versus battery18
The podcast stops the moment the screen turns off or the app goes to the background; granting background permission fixes that but drains battery several times faster than active screen-on use
Absolutely insane battery usage lately, I'd hate to switch apps again but 50 minutes of background usage consumed THREE TIMES as much battery as 40 minutes of SCREEN ON TIME in another app.
unusable when not given background permissions, but vampires your battery for like crazy unless you force-quit the app after you're done listening.
stops playing when screen turns off since recent update
Cross-device progress sync breaks12
When it works, seamless handoff between phone, computer, and tablet is the top reason to stay (Pocket Casts, Player FM web) Listening progress stops syncing: the second device starts from zero, "played" marks reset, everything disappears after a phone swap
App has recently stopped properly syncing listening progress between devices. Quite annoying to see a podcast with the progress bar part way through the episode, only for it to start at the beginning when one hits play
why do they not showing listened and not listened episodes consistently? What has been listed on Android is new on Apple and vice versa! A mess
With PocketCast, I can easily move between my computer at work, my Android phone, and the tablet I use, and listen to the rest of the episode I'm listening to without interruption.
Burns mobile data despite "Wi-Fi only"11
Every setting is on "download on Wi-Fi only" and background data is off, yet the app burns hundreds of megabytes or gigabytes of cellular data on a short walk — carrier bills and throttling follow
EIGHT HUNDRED MEGABYTES of data used on a 30 minute walk. Zero episodes downloaded, settings specifically say only on Wi-Fi anyway.
App suddenly downloaded almost 3 GB using cellular data without warning even though I have it set to only download on Wi-Fi and I only listen to downloaded episodes.
It downloaded 8 GB of data over the last few days for no reason at all!
Honesty instead of dark patterns
Listeners are willing to pay — they just won't tolerate being deceived: paid "ad-free" that still serves ads, fake close buttons, auto-subscriptions, rate-us spam, consent screens that force per-vendor opt-out, and hostile responses to reviews. Trust is the product. One-time or transparent pricing, strictly optional ads, a single "reject all" button, respectful support, and zero unsolicited AI slop turn a paying user into a brand advocate.
Too many ads, too loud, and layered over speech30
Dynamic ads are injected over speech and music, play louder than the podcast, and repeat back to back; a 22-minute episode can carry four or five unskippable insertions — the ads outlast the content
After years of use have had to finally delete this app because of the excessive amount of ads inserted. 20 mins of ads on a 40 min episode makes the time investment not worth it
5 adverts in a 22 minute podcast is unacceptable! Absolute joke! I'm paying for something else instead
There are now audio ads that loop while playing over podcasts. Now I can't listen without constantly muting the ads every time they restart.
Fullscreen ad with a fake close button hijacks the screen24
Fullscreen ads with a fake X button fire even when trying to pause; tapping the X either does nothing or opens the app store — the only escape is restarting the phone
Now, I get ads with a fake X that forces me to open the Google Play store then exit out to close the ad. I can't be bothered to do all this to put on a podcast quickly for my daily commute. Time for a new podcast app.
Forces an ad just to PAUSE a podcast? Totally bonkers. I just tried to pause a podcast and it came up with a temu ad which just opened another ad when trying to press the X to close it.
big noisy ad covers all controls, so you can't close it. Will be finding new app.
Paid "ad-free" still serves ads19
Bought premium or a lifetime pass, but ads are still there — banners, mid-roll insertions, and pushed "recommended" shows; support replies that this is "working as intended"
Changed from a 5 star to 1 because they've added pop up ads that promote podcasts, even though I'm paying for premium that describes itself as removing all ads. I contacted support and they said this is a feature
Unfortunately, Podcast Addict is displaying ads since the June 2026 update despite the ad-free package I purchased in 2020.
paid for the removal of adverts, but i still receive adverts every 10 mins in podcasts.... these adverts arent in the same podcast in other apps so its not embedded.... it makes the app unusable for me
App launches itself and hijacks audio17
Even after being force-closed, the app starts on its own at night or when headphones connect, interrupting calls, navigation, and other audio apps — uninstalling is the only reliable fix
keeps starting on it's own, sometimes in the middle of the night walking me up.
This app constantly launches in the background whenever any sort of media device connects, even if you adjust the settings in the app itself that are designed to prevent this. Half the time I was fighting it when I tried listening to music through a different app
if im watching YouTube, pause and then unpause with my headphones, castbox opens and continues my last podcast.
Endless "rate us" and "upgrade" spam15
The rating prompt and upgrade banner pop up on every launch, sometimes ten times an hour, even after a review has been submitted and even for paying subscribers — it's the number-one reason users leave one-star reviews
Anything that interrupts me to say "rate me pls" gets a 1 star
This is to stop the window that demands a review constantly popping up. 10 times in one hour is completely unreasonable.
Absolutely CONSTANT popups that dominate the whole screen BEGGING me to buy a subscription.
New episodes don't arrive, feed freezes14
New releases don't appear without a manual refresh or don't come at all, while other apps already have them; subscriptions and history vanish entirely after an update
Frequently will not update podcasts when new episodes drop, I use this app for only two podcasts and have had to re-subscribe to them both multiple times.
Feeds have stopped syncing. no updates in over a week. I've uninstalled, cleared cache, reinstalled, clicked refresh. still no updates.
A new update deleted 100s of downloaded episodes and the entire set of podcasts I had subscribed to, showing a clean slate.
Control on the road and in your hands
People listen to podcasts while driving, falling asleep, and on the move, so the details matter: Android Auto that actually works with seek and episode dates, playlists that play in the chosen order, per-episode speed and intro trimming, a sleep timer, and a search that finds a show by name. Deep customization keeps power users, but it has to be presented without overwhelming the interface — the balance of power and simplicity is the gap nobody has filled.
Deep customization and true independence keep users loyal26
Per-episode speed, intro/outro trimming, playlists, sleep timer, no mandatory account, open-source or one-time payment — users forgive a lot for these and pay voluntarily The wealth of settings turns into a cluttered interface: newcomers struggle to find basic controls and the learning curve drives casual listeners away
simply the best. I have used this for over a decade. It works, it works simply, it has never enshittified itself, and this app should be the benchmark not just for podcasts but for all utility apps.
the only open source app i have stuck with. love the minimal design, thoughtful user experience, and a great community. i have donated to them before, and will continue to do so because we need more thoughtful human made apps in this era of slop
I really appreciate the ability to adjust playback speeds, into/outro skips, and FF/rewind to each podcast individually.
Queue and playlist do whatever they want16
Drag an episode to a new spot and it snaps back; deleted podcasts reappear; the playlist ignores the chosen order or loops a single episode; "Up Next" plays something the user never picked
reordering the up next section, you'll drag an episode to a different spot and it just snaps back to it's precious spot. this has been a thing for at least a year and no fix.
Can no longer remove items from my playlist - they instantly reappear. Also cant click on an episode in my playlist to open it and play entire playlist from there as I used to be able to do.
Playlist almost never plays episodes as they are listed. In most cases it just cycles a single episode until I manually stop it and start the next one.
Android Auto and steering-wheel controls break after updates14
Skip and seek stop working in the car, episode release dates disappear, "safety pause" resets the list — and the car is exactly where people listen most
Fast forward no longer works with Android Auto. Used to work for years. Oddly rewind works fine. This feature is essential with the amount of ads in podcasts today.
everything was great until an update removed the release date on the Android Auto version of the app. now I can't tell when an episode released so I don't know if it's the latest or not.
it works pretty well, EXCEPT in Android Auto. It won't advance to the next track automatically, and it's rather dangerous to try manually, plus usually doesn't work.
Search can't find a show even by its exact name11
Type the exact show title and get zero results or irrelevant noise; the same podcast turns up in seconds on Google and Spotify but not in the built-in search
The search function is useless! I search for channels or episodes I KNOW exist on the app but I always get zero results or irrelevant results.
The search option is horrible: I type in the exact title and i cant find it. i do a google search it says it is available on PR but i gotta scroll through a hundred titles to not find it
searching for "Company of Heroes 3" results in podcasts about Tupperware and selfish businessmen.
Two more findings — with the breakdown and review quotes.
7 opportunities
Ideas users ask for themselves — each backed by proven demand.