Popular podcast player Overcast has reached its long-awaited third iteration on the iOS App Store, with improvements to episode management and a slew of other UI enhancements.
Designed by Instapaper developer Marco Arment, Overcast 3's most obvious change is that it adopts the design language of iOS 10, such as the use of stacked views which Apple introduced in Apple Music, so screens including Now Playing, settings, downloads, and recommendations, now appear as stacks that slide up from the bottom of the interface. There's also a redesigned Now Playing view, in which users swipe right to adjust audio settings, and swipe left to view episode information.
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A new episode action tray features in the app, grouping actions that were previously hidden behind swipe gestures or other menus. Tapping an episode in a list now displays buttons to share, star, play, add to queue, and delete the selected podcast episode.
Elsewhere, Peek and Pop 3D Touch gestures are now supported in episode list screens, allowing users to quickly preview episode contents and access play and delete shortcuts by sliding up the Peek card. An Overcast 3 widget for the home screen has also been developed, which allows users to see what's playing, resume playback, and see upcoming episodes in their Up Next queue.
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Also included in Overcast 3 is a redesign of its Apple Watch component, with the ability to view upcoming episodes from the wrist.
Overcast 3 is available as a free ad-supported app, while an optional $9.99 in-app purchase gets users a premium ad-free version. Overcast 3 is available for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
Unfortunately it is a $9.99/year subscription.
This developer has a bad past with respect to that, Accepting a payment for a permanent ad free version, then putting the ads back in a while later, seems misleading. He keeps changing the model to try and monetise more. I think he's just a bit too greedy when you consider what the competition; pocketcasts, downcast can do for a single payment.I would happily pay $10 to unlock the full version even if it meant paying another $10 next year for version 4, but I'm unwilling to be perpetually held hostage with a subscription for certain app categories when there's no guarantee that the developer will do anything with the fees I pay. .
I use the iOS podcast app myself, after trying all the rest, because it finally works reliably and I prefer the design. $10 a year actually gets you very little extra when you look at what the free app does.
Do you have "continuous playback" toggled on or off under settings?
I have that toggled on and I have found that something I mark to "play next" doesn't play at all unless you are in the Queue playlist. This functionality is terrible and I'm not sure how this got past a beta. Like most apps, including Apple's (which actually does it well), Play next should auto play the marked episode regardless of what playlist you're in. I hope this gets corrected ASAP.I have been an Apple Podcast app user for a long time and EOD it just works. It's simple and does what I need and includes video podcasts as well. Also, because it's Apple's app, it works great with Siri (more important now that I am using AirPods), and CarPlay is rock solid. I'm not holding much hope for Overcast staying on my iDevices for long.
Update: This app is a buggy mess. A couple of crashes so far this morning, Widget doesn't show currently playing podcast. Overcast started out as with clean and simple UI and was FAST. Over time, it has become an unreliable and inconsistent performer and I am not sold on Arment's design choices and beta testing capability.
I've been a Overcast user for a year or so now and I used the playlist feature for the first time this morning. I thought I must have done something wrong when the next podcast didn't start playing after the first one on the playlist finished.
Why does it not do this?! Strange
I did a quick test where i was listening to a podcast in a playlist, i manually moved it to about 30 seconds from end. it play that part then stopped.
Do you have "continuous playback" toggled on or off under settings?it makes the app a non starter for me.
oh well, i am happy with apple podcasts, have tried them all but for me, it works for me the best.
wait.
I've been a Overcast user for a year or so now and I used the playlist feature for the first time this morning. I thought I must have done something wrong when the next podcast didn't start playing after the first one on the playlist finished.so if you have a playlist and you are playing your podcasts in a row, like you are driving or something, this app does auto play the next podcast after you complete one?
i am missing something right?
Why does it not do this?! Strange