Apple Podcast: Interface, Discover shows, Reviews and More

What devices is the Apple Podcast on?

Although, as we have said, Apple Podcast is one of the most popular apps, it is not present in all operating systems. In fact, its availability is only in some of the main products of the apple brand, being these in which it can be found:

• iPhone
• iPad
• ipod touch
• Mac (macOS Catalina and later)
• Apple Watch (watchOS 6 and later)
• Apple TV (tvOS 12 and later)

It should be noted that in all of them it is a completely free app . On Macs with macOS Mojave and earlier, despite the fact that the app does not exist as such, it is possible to access Apple Podcast from the iTunes application. Something similar happens in Apple Watch with watchOS 5, which did not have a dedicated app but can play its content that starts playing on the iPhone.

Can Podcast be deleted from iPhone?

Yes, and also the iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, although not on the Apple TV. The Podcast application, despite being native, is one of those that can be removed without any problem from the aforementioned devices. And like any other application, if at any time you want to recover it can be downloaded again from the App Store completely free of charge.

Apple Podcast Interface

Although in the different devices it may change due to the screen dimensions, in all the devices we find identical functionalities. The design is intuitive and is not far from what is seen in other native Apple apps such as Music, although it has certain characteristics that should be known to fully master the application.

Listen tab

This tab would be something like a subscription feed. In it you can find all the episodes that are being uploaded from the different podcasts to which the subscription has been enabled. Although it is true that the appearance changes depending on the device or even the software version, in short, the same possibilities will always be found in this section.

Browse and find new podcasts

Probably one of the most interesting tabs on the Apple Podcast if you want to discover new shows or find out which ones are the most popular. Based on active subscriptions, it will be possible to find programs that the Apple algorithm understands that may be relevant, either individually or classified by themes.

One of the star features of Apple Podcast that is in this section is to be able to see the ranking with the most listened to podcasts , having a general one in which all kinds of topics are mixed and another with the rankings ordered by categories. The same happens with the episodes, since it is possible to see the most popular classified in those same ways. Of course, it does not always mean that they are strictly the most listened to, but that they are a trend due to a specific peak, because they are new, because they have accumulated many reviews in recent days or for any other reason that the algorithm considers to highlight it.

Podcast subscriptions

In the Library tab it is possible to find a quick access to the feed of each program to which a subscription has been activated. Also here we find the possibility of accessing the downloaded programs to listen to them at any time without having to have an internet connection.

To subscribe to a podcast, just click on its cover to open its page, press the three dots at the top and then choose the option “Follow” or “Subscribe” (depending on the device you are using). A similar process must be followed to delete a subscription.

Information about podcasts and episodes

Useful information such as the notes left by the podcaster for that episode or its broadcast date can be found in the respective podcast and episode tabs. In the general tab you can find other useful information such as the episode feed, the reviews it has obtained, the rating it has, the recommended age, as well as the participants of the program. If the creator also has a web page, you can also access it from the information section.

During playback

Although the way you watch it may vary depending on the device being used, the Apple Podcast interface during playback is ultimately the same in any case. There is the obvious play / pause button , as well as a timeline to know how much episode has already been heard and even manually advance or delay the playback to a specific minute.

In addition to that, you can find the possibility of jumping forward or backward for a few seconds (we will see it in the settings section). We also find the possibility of determining the playback speed, which can be as follows:

• x0.5: slow playback
• x1: normal playback
• x1.5 : fast playback
• x2: very fast playback

Content search

One of the final sections that we can find in this native podcast app is to search for content manually. You can enter the name of the podcast you want to subscribe to in the search button, although you will also have several genres available to speed up that search and that serves as a complement to the explore section.

Podcast categories that can be found

There are many topics available on Apple Podcast and although some of them may seem very general, within there are podcasts of all kinds of different subcategories. For example, in Technology we can find very varied programs from those that talk about Apple to those that talk about Android or give lessons on programming.

Apple recognizes the following topics when cataloging programs:

• Comedy
• Culture and society
• News
• Economy and business
• Real crimes
• sports
• Health and fitness
• Religion and spirituality
• History
• Film and Television
• Sciences
• Technology
• Music
• Children and family
• Leisure
• Fiction
• government

How to add a private podcast to the app

In recent years we are witnessing the rise of premium podcasts, which have an identical format to normal podcasts, only in this case they are not published on public platforms but only for a certain audience. Access to these is usually by paying a subscription, although there may also be other types of private podcasts for a certain audience. Be that as it may, these can be played on the Apple Podcast and although you will not be able to find them manually and it will not offer information such as reviews and others, you can add it to the feed so that it appears in your library.

To be able to add it, you just have to go to your library, click on “Edit” and then “Add a program by URL …”. At that moment a pop-up window will open in which you must add the address of that podcast and probably the username and password that you have assigned to be able to listen to it. Once you do, you will receive each new episode of that podcast as if it were one more.

About iTunes Podcast Reviews

It is still popularly known as iTunes reviews, although they are really called podcast reviews, since in the end they are really that and more since there is this own application for this content. These are a series of comments that listeners can leave to assess the different programs found in the application.

How to view podcast reviews

Reviews are in the podcast overview. Regardless of the device you are on, you must enter the program, scroll down and you will see the reviews section, being able to get a view of more reviews by pressing “See all”.

How to add a review

To carry out this process, you must know that the reviews are public and can be seen by both the creator and the rest of the users who consult them. They are done having logged in with an Apple ID, although to leave the review it will not be necessary to show your email and your name or nickname will suffice. To do this, you must go to the same interface where you see the reviews, but instead of proceeding to see them all, look at the blank stars that appear in “click to rate” and add 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars. Remember that the lowest score is 1 and the highest 5. These will serve to give an average score to the programs.

If what you want is to leave a text in addition to the stars, you should go where it says “Write review” and you will find the following sections:

• Stars: as we have previously indicated, they will serve to give an average score to the programs.
• Title: the title of your review, which should be short, and can be an adjective that describes your opinion.
• Body: this section is optional, although it is the main part of the review. It is in this section where you can broadly express your opinion about the content of the podcast that you are evaluating.

It should be noted that the time it takes for reviews to appear can vary between 24-48 hours, since they do not appear automatically but must go through a series of filters. If after that time they do not appear, check that you sent it correctly having an internet connection.

Can the reviews be edited?

Yes, either to change something of what you have written, add more text or completely change your assessment, even being able to choose a different star rating with which to assess it. At the end of the day, opinions can change and you can show that change in the reviews, either for better or for worse.

Delete podcast reviews

If editing is not enough and you want to delete any type of evaluation made to a podcast, you can do it, although not from the app but from the device settings. You must do it from the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch by following these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on your name.
3. Go to Content and purchases and click on “View account”.
4. Click on “Ratings and Reviews”.
5. Find the review you want to delete and swipe it to the left.
6. Confirm that you want to delete it.

Once you have done this, not only the content of the review will be removed, but also the star rating. At any time you can leave your review again in the same way explained in previous points.

Available Apple Podcast settings

We made reference in a previous section to the settings of this application. In them you can configure various aspects with which to adapt some elements of the application interface more to personal taste.

Settings on iOS and iPadOS

Go to Settings> Podcast to find the following:

• Permissions
  • Siri and Search: permissions about finding the app through Siri or the search engine of the iPhone / iPad / iPod touch.
  • Notifications: you can set what type of notifications to receive from the app or even not receive any.
  • Update in the background: if activated, the app will be updating its content without having it open.
  • Mobile data: permissions about its use with mobile data or if it is preferred to use only with WiFi.
• Language : the interface and content will be adapted to the language chosen.
• Podcast Settings
  • Synchronize podcast : if you want your different devices to be synchronized to see if you have played an episode or not, if you have subscribed to a new one, etc.
  • Block downloads through the mobile network: there is the possibility of using the app with mobile data by activating an option mentioned above, but that automatic downloads are only done with WiFi by activating this option.
  • Continuous playback: if activated, another episode of a podcast can be played when playback ends.
• Episode Downloads
  • Data downloads: it is possible to set a size limit on data downloads
  • Delete played downloads: a very useful option so that, once listened to, the downloaded episodes are deleted from the device.
• Automatic downloads
  • Activate when following: if you want the program episode downloads to be automatic as soon as you subscribe to them, you must activate this option.
• Saved Episodes
  • Download on save: when an episode is saved it will automatically download to the device.
• Viewing episodes
  • Hide played episodes: activating this option will remove previously played episodes from the feed.
• Forward / back buttons
  • Advance: allows you to configure the seconds you want to advance in the episode by pressing the corresponding button.
    • 10 seconds
    • 15 seconds
    • 30 seconds
    • 45 seconds
    • 60 seconds
  • Go back: allows you to set the seconds you want to go back in the episode by pressing the corresponding button.
    • 10 seconds
    • 15 seconds
    • 30 seconds
    • 45 seconds
    • 60 seconds
• External controls Functions that allow the podcast to be guided with headphones or any other external control element with its own forward and backward buttons, either to go from one episode to another or to advance or rewind in it.
  • Next previous
  • Forward / backward
• Privacy
  • Podcast and privacy: access to all the information about the privacy of the app.
  • Reset identifier: the advertising identifier of the app will be reset if the box is checked.

Settings on Mac

To manage Apple Podcast settings on a Mac computer, open the application, go to the top menu and click where it says “Podcast” and then go to “Preferences”.

• General tab
  • Update podcast: Choose how often to update the app feed.
    • Hourly
    • Every 6 hours
    • Every day
    • Weekly
    • Manually
  • Download episodes automatically: choice of which type of episodes should be downloaded automatically.
    • Never
    • Only the new ones
    • Not reproduced
• Playback tab
  • Continuous playback: you can choose whether you want to have a continuous playback of the podcast at the end of one or not.
    • Play the next episode when the current one ends
    • Stop when an episode ends
  • Forward / Rewind Buttons: Selection of interface buttons to rewind or advance in the playback of an episode.
    • Advance
      • 10 seconds
      • 15 seconds
      • 30 seconds
      • 45 seconds
      • 60 seconds
    • Back
      • 10 seconds
      • 15 seconds
      • 30 seconds
      • 45 seconds
      • 60 seconds
  • Headphone controls : if you have headphones you can choose what function the forward and backward buttons of these can do.
    • Next episode / Previous episode
    • Advance / Rewind
• Advanced tab
  • Library: how to manage the application’s podcast library.
    • Synchronize subscriptions between devices
    • Automatically delete played episodes
    • Show Siri Suggestions in the app