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Ask HN: What features do you want from a podcast app?

3 points by thetanuj ↗ HN
I'm building an open source podcast app for Android, mostly for learning purpose. Data will come from listennotes.com and the app design and features will be heavily inspired from Spotify because I'm a big fan of Spotify UX. I was wondering if I can add any specific feature to make it more interesting for frequent podcast listeners. Thank you.

14 comments

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bruceb
The apple podcast can put the newest episode first, so annoying. You look at recently updated of the podcasts you have it shows some episodes, but you have to click on available episodes to see by date order. Maybe I just haven't figured it out.

I also use Podcast Republic. I subscribe to podcasts but I can't arrange the order of which they show (the podcasts, not the episodes). I want to drag some to the top. I don't have it set to auto download because I want to check out the episode description before downloading.

thetanuj
I have used apple podcasts and I know what you're talking about. The UX of that app is unbelievably bad. I'm sure that none of those issues will be in this app.
bruceb
I meant The apple podcast CANT put the newest episode first, so annoying. but you understood my point.

Yes hard to be worse than apple one.

pctutor
Yes. One big button on the player that, when tapped, will take the last 30 seconds of audio and send it to me by email. When I'm out walking or driving and something comes up in a podcast that I want to remember or take note of, there is no easy way to do this currently. I use Podcast Addict now, but a feature like that would be enough for me to change players.
thetanuj
This is really interesting. Although I was thinking that instead of emailing, I can create a bookmark like feature. It will save the timestamp of the episode which you can easily visit later. I'm definitely going to add this feature.
John_47
Search capability is key. I really like the ability to search for keywords in episode titles and show notes that is provided by the Castbox app. Something like this is super important to me. I fully support open source and would prefer an app that is free and open, however. Linux user here.
thetanuj
I'll be using listennotes.com apis and it allows you to search podcasts, episodes and descriptions. Overall, looks good.
chupoamatik
So remember to add what Spotify failed miserably

- Mark an entire Podcast as heard/listened

- Disable recommendations needs to be an option

- Start screen needs to be whatever the user want, so make it adjustable in settings

- Auto download and auto erase of played episodes

thetanuj
Great! All of it can done. The start screen will be filled with your recent activities and podcasts related to the topics you choose. Why do you want to disable recommendations though? Recommendations seem like a good for discovering new podcasts.
chupoamatik
It's about not having the option

For instance Spotify always tries to make us listen to irrelevant podcast makers, connected to political Fighting

There's no problem having recommendations The issue comes when you can't disable then

niyare
It may be a good idea to add pop-up games. How do I explain this. If I am recording a podcast and say the first 10 listeners to click the pod-up on their screen can claim a prize, that'll encourage people to open the app and click the pop-up. I'm not technical so its hard to explain but yeah.....just a way to make interactions between hosts and listeners etter
thetanuj
I like the gamification aspect and I know at least one big music/podcast app which has really great click rates on their pop-up banners. Having said that, this doesn't seem to fit well with what I'm trying to build, which is a no-nonsense open source podcast app. Some might like the pop-ups you're talking about but I'm sure that more than enough people will complain about it.
niyare
It may be a good idea to add pop-up games. How do I explain this. If I am recording a podcast and say the first 10 listeners to click the pop-up on their screen can claim a prize, that'll encourage people to open the app and click the pop-up. I'm not technical so its hard to explain but yeah.....just a way to make interactions between hosts and listeners easier. Happy to explain this in detail (cultureclasspodcast@gmail.com) reply
razkaplan
Hi, Check out https://Audioburst.com, we offer tools for both podcast creators and app publishers. You can freely use our SDK for your app to get sound-bites from podcasts.