Overcast Podcast App Gains New 'Black' Dark Theme, End of Episode Sleep Timer, and More

Wednesday November 22, 2017 11:48 PM PST by Tim Hardwick
Popular third-party iOS podcast app Overcast reached version 4.0.1 on Thursday, bringing some much-requested features including a new true-black dark theme and sleep timer option.

New Black dark theme compared to Light theme with System font option enabled

The new Black theme, shown above, joins the existing Light and Dark themes, and has been designed with the iPhone X in mind, offering a slick new look for the smartphone's 5.8-inch OLED display as well as being easier on tired eyes.

As before, users who like to change things up depending on the time of day (or night) can swipe up or down with two fingers to quickly change between a light and dark interface – the only difference being that the Light-Switch gesture now simply chooses the most recently used dark theme.

In another neat UI appearance tweak, users can now also opt to turn on the system font for whichever theme they choose.

Elsewhere, there's a new sleep timer option that stops playback at the end of the currently playing episode, plus a bunch of smaller improvements including one that's supposed to fix auto-resume playback after taking a call.

Overcast 3.1 is available as a free ad-supported app for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Overcast
24 comments


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576316
11 months ago
Argh. Dark themes must be so nice on the X. It’s almost like Apple should offer a system wide dark theme...
Rating: 7 Votes
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MacGizmo
11 months ago

I purchased Overcast but fail to see how it’s better than Apple's Podcasts app.

I used to love Apple's Podcast app... in the last updates to it, I fail to see how it's even useable.

Overcast's ability to remove dead air in podcasts and speed up play speed in smaller increments than Apple's Podcast app makes listening to podcasts a much better experience. And the podcast management is a lot clearer... shows don't appear 2 or 3 times on a single screen, and deleting a podcast does just that instead of simply removing it from a list requiring you to navigate back to some arbitrary location where the actual file exists in order to delete it.

PS: Overcast is free. Always has been.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Westside guy
11 months ago
It’s good that the third-party podcast app developers are working to improve their apps, since Apple’s own app team seems hellbent on whittling the features of the company’s app down to nothing.
Rating: 2 Votes
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ArcAngel66
11 months ago

Overcast used to charge (I paid for it), then screwed over its paying customers by becoming ad supported even after you had paid full price for the app.

Apple's podcast app has always been free and has had no ads.

You decide which is better.


This.

I paid money for it as well. Since it went freemium, nobody who initially paid has had full access to every feature.

I get developers want to make a living (though it’s hard to feel bad for Marco in his $100K Tesla)...

But if you initially charged money for an app - and later decided to move to freemium... how dare you not give full “pro” access to those who were early adopters/supporters. No argument justifies what Overcast, and many other apps, did.

It’s one thing if a huge update comes along, such as Things releasing an all new version. But Overcast literally has gone back and forth on stupid UI decisions - and is constantly breaking (both UI and functionality) because Marco is too good to use standard iOS resources.

It’s sad... Instacast is still miles better than Overcast. And it’s general design hasn’t changes in years. But remains relevant because it adheres to iOS’s design standards. Glad Instacast Core is around now, and being maintained.

And ironically, Overcast looks more and more like Instacast with each UI refresh.

The silence skipping is the only thing I can find appealing... but honestly, what’s the point? What use is it, at the end of the day?

The EQ is no better than iOSs Late Night setting, which applies system wide.

Are these trade offs worth relying on a non-standing audio engine requiring ongoing fixes? I personally don’t think so.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Michael Scrip
11 months ago
I wish Overcast had orange accents on the dark and black themes.

I don't know why the white theme has orange... but the darker themes have "Seafoam Green"

:p
Rating: 1 Votes
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riverfreak
11 months ago

It’s good that the third-party podcast app developers are working to improve their apps, since Apple’s own app team seems hellbent on whittling the features of the company’s app down to nothing.

Not just the podcast app. Other core apps like Calendar and Mail are languishing. I so badly would like to use Calendar but it just isn’t as useful or collaborative as google calendar. But I digress. Back to podcasts :)
Rating: 1 Votes
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urtules
11 months ago

Is a “dark theme” now the most requested outstanding feature for iOS?

Overcast had dark them almost from the beginning. In this update "black" theme added specially for iPhone X screen.
Rating: 1 Votes
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MacGizmo
11 months ago

I agree, I also used to love Apple's podcast app. However, in my opinion, Apple destroyed their podcast app in iOS 11. The navigation is horrible.

Was it only iOS 11? I thought it was earlier than that. Or maybe it just seems that way because I quickly adjusted to Overcast after switching.
Rating: 1 Votes
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mcvaughan
11 months ago
I purchased Overcast but fail to see how it’s better than Apple's Podcasts app.
Rating: 1 Votes
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BMcCoy
11 months ago
Is a “dark theme” now the most requested outstanding feature for iOS?
Rating: 1 Votes
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