Castro Podcast Player

Name: Castro Podcast Player
Rating: 4.67094 (7965 reviews)

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Castro Podcast Player

News

4.7

8K ratings

Age Rating

Seller

Tiny Podcast Company Ltd.

In-App Purchases

$2.99 – $29.99

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User Reviews for Castro Podcast Player

I love this app

I love everything about this app. The design—I love how compact the episodes are in the queue. So many other podcast apps are bloated design-wise, where you can only see 3 or so episodes at a time. I hate that. I don’t want to be inundated with info. I just wanna see the titles. I love the drag and drop (in particular the ability to move multiple items at once.) The inbox is brilliant. There some podcasts with multiple formats of which I only like one. This allows me to archive the others without having them dumped in my queue and downloaded. But my hands down favorite features are the archive & history. There are some podcasts that I don’t listen to on a regular basis but like to check in on every so often. This allows me to follow them so that I don’t forget about them but to go find an episode when I want to. And of course history. I’m usually on the go when listening and don’t have time to note episodes I really enjoy. With the history I can do back and see what I heard. Sometimes the impact of an episode doesn’t hit for a week or more. With history I can still go find them. Simple but essential. And the dates they were listened to on is saved as well! —just an impressive level of care. Fingers crossed for smart speed/silence skipping, a speed between 2x & 3x and custom playback settings for individual shows — nobody should listen to Song Exploder at 2x.

ChadAHall, Jan 26, 2018

Excellent save for one issue

Excellent podcast player. There is one issue that bugs me personally though and that is if network conditions are spotty, the podcast dings out and then gives a red notification in the app stating as much. I work outside and have to wear gloves while driving machinery so although the network might be spotty it comes back right away. However the episode I was listening to does not attempt to reconnect and even if I select it again it still does not play. I have to quit the app restart it and then when I select the episode I was listening to it starts from the beginning which is annoying if I am a long ways into an already long podcast. This isn’t something I can just stop working for and deal with. It’s not much more than an inconvenience any other time, but it’s forcing me to try other apps that don’t have this issue, and since I really love the work put into Castro and enjoy its many other advantages. Please fix it. I’m happy to give it top rating regardless but sure am counting on you to read this and fix it.Sorry but had no o cancel the subscription as the issue of stopping the podcast stream for anything but the clearest signal has not been addressed at all. Moved on to other players that can keep streaming should the connection weaken. Don’t understand why this was so difficult to do but maybe in the future somewhere down the road it will be.

Double nope, Apr 08, 2020

SO Close

This app is ALMOST perfect. I was looking for a long time for a good podcast player after losing my patience with Apple’s. This is by far the best I’ve found (so much so that I subscribed to the paid version) but it’s missing a few things to make it perfect. For one, it would be super nice to be able to sort or reverse the oder of episodes both in your inbox and on the show pages themselves. So many shows are serialized and it’s a pain to have to scroll all the way to the bottom, especially when there are a lot of episodes. Also, while I like the queue feature, I would love to be able to just click play on my inbox or on a specific show and it runs through all my episodes there, without having to add them individually to the queue. I know you can set it up to have new episodes automatically added to your queue, so this feature would mainly be helpful when you want to just plow through an entire show at once. Finally, it would be super convenient to add all episodes from a show to your inbox at once, so you don’t have to drag each episode over individually. Overall, it’s a slick, easy to use app!

dr.when, Dec 22, 2021

Support

My favorite podcast app. This is my go to app for podcasts.....for now. This app gives you a logical new way to organize your podcasts which is a breath of fresh air when it seems like podcast apps just try to out feature their competition while all being similar in their interfaces. This one focuses on organization which is both simple and smart. Why knock off 2 stars? App support seems to be lacking. Clicking feedback link in the app sends an email to the devs. The catch? No acknowledgement and no fix. One of the 6 podcasts I subscribe to doesn't display entire episode history and only shows 6 total episodes out of 30+ that I can listen to. Apple podcasts and my second fav podcast app 'pocket casts' both display the entire episode history. Feedback sent and issue still exists. As much as I hate to say it if I have to go another app to hear one of my podcasts that doesn't work in this app I will drop Castro for the simple reasoning that if a paid app cannot provide me the content that free podcasting app built into iOS can, it's time to move onto something better. Just not practical to have multiple apps that have the simple function of playing a sound file.

Kairofan98, Dec 11, 2017

Truly one of the best podcast apps, with a few caveats

This podcast app is great. Arguably probably one of the best, if not the best. The fact that it organizes podcasts into an inbox so that the user can decided yay or nay on specific episodes is great. I feel like I really have fine-tuned control over my podcasts between that and being able to organize and manipulate the order of my queue on the fly.Now, the areas it could improve. The discover/search section is just not up to par with other podcast apps. If you already know what shows you care to listen to, you're pretty golden. However, if you are new to listen to podcasts or want to find new shows to listen to, this app will not be very helpful. Every modern podcast app has lots of features for discovery of podcasts. Featured sections, top charts, browse by podcast network, etc. Castro only has about 10-15 genres to browse through with like 10-20 podcasts in each. It is just not good in that regard and prevents me from giving it a full 5 stars.

Matthew Paul Smith, Jan 26, 2019

Clean, Simple, Fantastic, ONE complaint

I’m a picky guy, and to me this is the perfect podcast player. First of all, the mental model of an inbox is exactly what I was looking for. Simple to understand, and keeps you from being overwhelmed if you follow a lot of podcasts. Also, since you’re less likely to be overwhelmed, you end up following more podcasts, and getting exposed to great content you would not otherwise have listens to. The UI is gorgeous and is perfected down to the last detail. I happily pay The subscription for this app, and you should do the same.Now, the one complaint. If I am trying to start a series of podcasts before going on a long road trip and I have poor connectivity, the user experience is very confusing. I’ll move a bunch of stuff into the playlist queue, but because the connectivity is poor, many things will start and then stop downloading and I’ll get spammed by a flurry of could not download alerts. This behavior surprises me, because as far as I can tell, my settings are such that these podcasts should already be downloaded. Other than this complaint, the app is great!

mmccroskey, Sep 25, 2018

Buggy with CarPlay

A nice app overall. UI beats Overcast every time, especially the inbox and queue functionality. It’s a really pleasant app to use and the look at, compared to Overcast, which I used for a long time and to me always felt homemade, rather than professionally developed, at least on the front end. I find The inbox is almost always current. I like the streaming of podcasts, which saves space on my phone. I often airplay to my HomePod, which works great, or Bluetooth to a device. My one complaint: it doesn’t always play nice with CarPlay. Sometimes the library won’t scroll past the first screen. Sometimes the app freezes on the screen on my car, but works fine using the phone. I’ll need to start a podcast from the phone and CarPlay takes a while to catch up, sometimes 8-10 minutes into a podcast. Sometimes both CarPlay and the phone freeze. I need to unplug and reply to get it going. Sometimes I need to force-quit Castro. Once in a while I need to actually restart my iPhone. Kinda annoying. I never had these issues with Overcast and CarPlay. I have these issues in both of my vehicles, an Audi and a Toyota, so I don’t think it’s the manufacturer’s CarPlay implementation, but I’m not a tech guy so who knows. It’d be great if the Castro folks could take a look at this bug. Thanks!

msinert, Feb 08, 2021

It gets worse and worse with every update

It’s bad enough when yet another developer jumps on the absurd subscription bandwagon and decides to screw the users who had paid for the app by restricting all new features to ones who subscribe while also creating an equally restricted experience for the previous purchasers and the free users. It is another story to now shove an intrusive advertisement on the top of the podcast queue for the same users who shelled out money for the privilege of not being bombarded with advertising. That is the literally in the top 3 priority list of any customer that ponders whether to buy or not buy any app. The developer may respond by saying it’s just a little banner at the top or by making promises to limit himself to just this one ad. If there is one truth that experience with all manner of businesses which force ads on their customers shows it is this: don’t believe them. They are now in the selling of ads business which means one ad is not going to suffice. More and more intrusions will come over time. As insulting as it is to shove ads to purchasers of the app is—any future user of this app that chooses to not subscribe should be aware that the experience of using this app has and will continue to worsen over time. If you don’t want to pay for another outrageous subscription for something you can get for free elsewhere with none or most of the features that are restricted here then you should skip downloading this app.

Sixseveneight, Feb 21, 2020

Still no trim silences?

UPDATE: Lowering my review to two stars. The fact that there's still not trim silences is kind of unbelievable. It feels at this point like the developers are just folding their arms and pouting and putting their feet down because they're tired of the requests, but I've listened to their podcasts and I know they understand that this is easily the biggest, most requested missing feature. It just baffles me that they would rather dedicate so much development time to other features than just buckle down and add this one that is absolutely standard in today's podcast player market. Not to mention they still don't save playback settings per podcast or support chapter markers. What? It's a wonderful, unique app in a lot of ways, but it's missing crucial features that hold it back. It's kind of heartbreaking. ORIGINAL: I want to love Castro, but to me, trim silences should be considered a standard feature in a modern podcast app. I've tried to get into Castro so many times now because they add such cool stuff with their big updates and the general hook of treating podcasts like an email inbox, but it's been months and trim silences, a long-requested feature, is still nowhere to be seen. (As well, I want Castro to remember playback speed settings for each podcast.) So yet again, back to boring old Overcast for me.

Thomas_Ella, Jan 26, 2018

Used to be my favorite podcast player until...

This used to be my favorite podcast player, after using apple’s podcast app for the longest time. I even purchased the app back when it cost money to own and use, not sure if its free now or not. I loved the clean, hassle free functionality of the app and it was the only podcast player on my phone for the longest time. This was definitely a 5 star app back when they didn't require you to pay for a subscription in order to use all the functions of the app. Now, I understand that everything is moving to the subscription thing because every service tries to continue making money someway but I just opened the app today, went to the inbox and noticed that they added promoted adds at the bottom, which by the way totally ruins the clean look of the app but I also went into the options to see if this was something I accidentally turned on, but come to find out, its a new feature which can not be turned off without a subscription. This would be totally fine if this was a free app, but mined you, I purchased the app already and I have a problem with app creators who limit your functionality even after you purchased their product. So, because of this, the app has dropped down to a one until this is fixed. By the way, all functionality should be available for those that have already payed for the app. Your customers shouldn't have to pay twice!

Wastelander1369, Dec 24, 2019

Description

Castro is a beautiful, full-featured podcast player that makes it easy to track and manage lots of podcasts at the same time. Only listen to the episodes you want and easily skip the rest, queue up hours of podcasts at a time and enjoy a seamless listening experience with carplay compatibility, chapter support, trim silence and much, much more! HOW IT WORKS 1.

New episodes land in the NEW tab. Read their descriptions, add episodes you like to your QUEUE, and clear the rest. 2. Press play to listen to episodes from your QUEUE in order. Queued episodes are downloaded automatically. 3. Re-order your QUEUE to plan your next few hours of listening at any time. Browse your LIBRARY to review the back catalogue, quickly access starred shows, and see your listening history. Subscribing to a podcast is no longer a commitment to listen to every episode. You don’t have to manage a huge list of subscriptions or choose a few shows and miss the rest. WHY OUR USERS LOVE CASTRO • Drag and drop podcasts to plan your listening with Castro’s unique queue • An elegant dark mode and thoughtfully designed sleep timer offer the best in night time podcast listening. • CarPlay support makes it easy to pick up where you left off while driving. • Apple Watch app to control playback and select another episode from your queue. • Episode notifications include a summary of the episode to help you decide if it interests you. Play, queue or clear the episode directly from the notification without opening the app. CASTRO PLUS Castro Plus is an optional paid subscription available for $18.99/year (includes a one-week trial). Plus unlocks a range of advanced features: • Trim Silence — With this option on, the app will analyze audio as it plays to detect silent parts and accelerate those parts. Get through more episodes faster. • Enhance Voices improves the listening experience for many podcasts and makes it easier to hear in loud environments. Under the hood, Enhance Voices applies a dynamic compressor to increase volume just where it’s needed. • Sideloading: Import audio files directly, just by dropping them in iCloud Drive • Mono-Mix — Mixes a stereo podcast to mono, which makes it easier to hear podcasts that pan some guests on left/right channels. • Chapter Support: Artwork, Skipping & Pre-selection. • Custom settings per-podcast: Episode Limit, Trim Silence, Enhance Voices, Mono Mix, Skip Intros, Playback Speed. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING “Castro 3 is an incredible app.” — The Sweet Setup “Castro 3 is everything Castro already was, but better.” — MacStories Castro 3 Is a Great Modern Podcast App” — Beautiful Pixels “Unlike other podcatchers, Castro's primary virtue is its simplicity and ease of use. The app combines sleek visual design with crystal clear audio.” — Tom’s Guide CASTRO PLUS SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Castro Plus costs $18.99 per year. Prices are in US dollars and may vary in countries other than the US. Castro Plus is charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. It will renew on the day before the current subscription period ends. You can cancel auto-renewal any time from the Castro settings screen. You can switch between the two subscription periods after you pick one, but your trial period will end immediately if you do, so it's best to wait till your free week is over before changing. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy Policy & Terms of Use: https://castro.fm/privacy-policy