Review Insights · App Store
Apple Podcasts
Apple · 2,070,254 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
2,070,254 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 55 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"podcast"
23 negative reviews mention this · 42% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Podcast app suddenly gone crazy. Various podcast shows abruptly start, stop, speed up. Shows from various sources stop, restart or, most often, speed up to unintelligible to the end where they revert to normal speed and start the process again. No controls work as they run wild. Uninstalling and reinstalling fails to fix as i…" - Mtn4me
2
"podcasts"
16 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used it for years but now I’m bailing. Uninstalled then re-installed but the app continually crashes. Has been this way for weeks now. Very unapple of you, Apple. Male sure to keep pushing those video podcasts, though 🙄" - MikeyRamone37
3
"apple"
15 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used it for years but now I’m bailing. Uninstalled then re-installed but the app continually crashes. Has been this way for weeks now. Very unapple of you, Apple. Male sure to keep pushing those video podcasts, though 🙄" - MikeyRamone37
4
"episodes"
13 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be great. Every time there is a update, the app becomes unstable. The library has to be rebuilt and I lose episodes that had previously been available. There are more reliable alternatives." - Aa2c18
5
"shows"
10 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Podcast app suddenly gone crazy. Various podcast shows abruptly start, stop, speed up. Shows from various sources stop, restart or, most often, speed up to unintelligible to the end where they revert to normal speed and start the process again. No controls work as they run wild. Uninstalling and reinstalling fails to fix as i…" - Mtn4me
6
"episode"
10 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be great. Every time there is a update, the app becomes unstable. The library has to be rebuilt and I lose episodes that had previously been available. There are more reliable alternatives." - Aa2c18
7
"been"
8 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Podcast app suddenly gone crazy. Various podcast shows abruptly start, stop, speed up. Shows from various sources stop, restart or, most often, speed up to unintelligible to the end where they revert to normal speed and start the process again. No controls work as they run wild. Uninstalling and reinstalling fails to fix as i…" - Mtn4me
8
"downloaded"
8 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Won’t remove downloaded shows. Even after deleting all downloaded episodes, my Downloaded section in my library still displays Shows with no downloaded episodes. It says shows have 1 downloaded episode when they have 0. This is really frustrating because it’s messy and m…" - sunrise_moment
9
"delete"
8 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Downloaded episodes delete randomly. This app worked flawlessly for years, but it keeps deleting my downloads. Moving on to new podcast app." - Nestof3
10
"listening"
8 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Won’t let me see the app to delete it. I can open the podcast app by searching for it, but it won’t let me see where the icon lives to delete it. How do I delete this app? I don’t use podcasts. I thought I had deleted it years ago but my phone updated and now I’m getting notific…" - VoynichJean
11
"update"
7 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be great. Every time there is a update, the app becomes unstable. The library has to be rebuilt and I lose episodes that had previously been available. There are more reliable alternatives." - Aa2c18
12
"play"
7 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not consistent. Specific subscriptions don’t show up in the feed or are limited. Some non subscriptions keep on popping up in « play next » instead of active ones. The « play next » is working off and on with no rhyme and reason" - 123Bbb123
📋 All 55 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Podcast app suddenly gone crazy. Various podcast shows abruptly start, stop, speed up
Shows from various sources stop, restart or, most often, speed up to unintelligible to the end where they revert to normal speed and start the process again. No controls work as they run wild. Uninstalling and reinstalling fails to fix as if they haven’t been reinstalled at all. Totally useless and a horrific waste of time
Used to be great
Every time there is a update, the app becomes unstable. The library has to be rebuilt and I lose episodes that had previously been available. There are more reliable alternatives.
Your Own Backyard podcast
Why isn’t this podcast syncing? Is someone there related to Paul Flores? Fix this.
What a waste of my life
I want Marcos Rangel Ruiz in jail now
Used it for years but now I’m bailing
Uninstalled then re-installed but the app continually crashes. Has been this way for weeks now. Very unapple of you, Apple. Male sure to keep pushing those video podcasts, though 🙄
Downloaded episodes delete randomly
This app worked flawlessly for years, but it keeps deleting my downloads. Moving on to new podcast app.
Help
Audio is not loud enough. I feel like I can barely hear anything.
Cuts off beginnings of words
The app does this very annoying thing where it cuts off the beginning of the first words when people are talking. There is no way for me to turn this “setting” off. No one asked for this.
Florida In Depth with the Tampa Bay Times and USF
(The story behind the mugshot)
This piece by the Tampa Bay Times and University of South Florida offers a powerful look at the real impact of mugshots. It shows how one photo can shape someone’s life long after an arrest, raising important questions about fairness and media responsibility.
Worst app on my phone
Never wants to load episodes, audio cuts out and it keeps playing in the background. It has single-handedly ruined one of my favorite ways to pass the time. I am getting a different app, I hope this one dies and that the developers are fired and arrested, tarred and feathered, publicly shamed, harassed by the HOA endlessly over meaningless technicalities, I have a list, but I’ll stop here.
Stop deleting my downloads!
This has been a problem since like fall 2025. It was fine for years and years and years, and now it’s broken. Fix your stuff Apple. No, the podcast that’s being deleted is NOT set to remove played downloads.
Won’t let me see the app to delete it
I can open the podcast app by searching for it, but it won’t let me see where the icon lives to delete it. How do I delete this app? I don’t use podcasts. I thought I had deleted it years ago but my phone updated and now I’m getting notifications for podcasts I stopped listening to 9 years ago.
Terrible app
Always super glitchy, not intuitive to use, bad search feature. This app is the WORST
Skips podcasts making listening in order difficult
The app is fine, except when a podcast is over and the next is to begin, it doesn’t begin. When I hit play, it marks that podcast as finished and starts the next one over, so I end up getting spoilers as it skips over episodes AND marks them played. It’s difficult to understand what you have played and haven’t listened to because of this.
The new format is horrible
Why can’t i change the speed quickly and why cant i make it faster than 1.7…. You’ve sherlocked features all over except for podcast in stead you constantly make them worse!
Terrible UI, super buggy
Enough people use this app because there aren’t many better alternatives so there’s no incentive for Apple to make it better. The interface is not intuitive. It takes forever to scroll to episodes I want from a specific show without a search feature or better filtering capabilities. The app is also super buggy - most episodes I queue up skip ahead to 3/4 through the episode and I have to rewind back.
Apple podcast
If it had a simple search function to allow finding older episodes the rating would be great
With Every Update, This Gets Worse
I’m writing this from an IPhone 12. For every update that is pushed out and affects this app among others, the experience is more frustrating and worse each time. Stop shoving unnecessary features I’m never going to interact with. Instead, fix the issue that causes the app to crash/reset when paused and when the phone is locked.
Latest Update
Something happened in the latest update-downloaded episodes that I have deleted keep coming back time after time and it is draining my battery more than it usually does.
Worst user flow you could ever imagine
You open the app, and Apple: “Hey, let me show you all the outdated news and podcasts you’ve already listened to.” Want to find the latest episodes? Good luck-they’re hidden five layers deep in the menu. “Just don’t let users make it in a traffic stop.”
Takes two minutes to load
After updating iOS it takes 2 minutes to pull up recent podcasts. Completely unusable
Fix the delete!!!
Anyone that likes to keep their podcast clutter to minimum, Apple has removed the ability to. Now when you remove a download, you are left with a tile to remind you that you cannot remove it. I now delete and reinstall the app the clear out the clutter. Wait…is that what they wanted all along??? 🤔
AMAZON MUSIC 100% BETTET
OK, I do have a apple iPhone 15 Pro Max plus
So it’s not as though I don’t have the right hardware for the software
I have AT&T cellular service
I cannot recall the last time I clicked on a podcast to listen to, and it started up in less than 5 to 10 seconds that’s that’s lucky if I can get that because often times over half the time they don’t even start at all
I am using voice to text right now while taking a walk through my neighborhood which is when I normally listen to podcasts
so if the punctuation and spelling and choice isn’t quite up to American standard, my apologies
I find it incredible that the podcast app created by Apple Apple devices is so difficult to use
I recently downloaded and subscribed to Amazon music which has podcasts audiobooks as well as music. Imagine that all the services in one app that actually works 100 times better than the Apple software apps.
The only thing I enjoy better than the Amazon compared to Apple has the Apple interface the GUI
Apple is prettier
But no matter how good it looks somebody somewhere get sick of the technical difficulties involved dealing with it
And that somebody is me
I’m reading back through a little bit of the voice to text that it is sounding as though I’m a foreigner speaking English as second or third language, lol
Doesn’t even matter to me as the software Apple has doesn’t warrant me taking the time to go through and make it all proper
This is an update to a previous with you because this app sucks so much still!!!!!!
The only reason I haven’t stopped listening to it 100% is because I’ve spent years adding to my shows that’s like I have too much time investment to leave it but it’s been such a soul suck for so long that I’m going to start migrating everything over to another podcast app. I’m not sure what yet probably Spotify.
So it’s not as though I don’t have the right hardware for the software
I have AT&T cellular service
I cannot recall the last time I clicked on a podcast to listen to, and it started up in less than 5 to 10 seconds that’s that’s lucky if I can get that because often times over half the time they don’t even start at all
I am using voice to text right now while taking a walk through my neighborhood which is when I normally listen to podcasts
so if the punctuation and spelling and choice isn’t quite up to American standard, my apologies
I find it incredible that the podcast app created by Apple Apple devices is so difficult to use
I recently downloaded and subscribed to Amazon music which has podcasts audiobooks as well as music. Imagine that all the services in one app that actually works 100 times better than the Apple software apps.
The only thing I enjoy better than the Amazon compared to Apple has the Apple interface the GUI
Apple is prettier
But no matter how good it looks somebody somewhere get sick of the technical difficulties involved dealing with it
And that somebody is me
I’m reading back through a little bit of the voice to text that it is sounding as though I’m a foreigner speaking English as second or third language, lol
Doesn’t even matter to me as the software Apple has doesn’t warrant me taking the time to go through and make it all proper
This is an update to a previous with you because this app sucks so much still!!!!!!
The only reason I haven’t stopped listening to it 100% is because I’ve spent years adding to my shows that’s like I have too much time investment to leave it but it’s been such a soul suck for so long that I’m going to start migrating everything over to another podcast app. I’m not sure what yet probably Spotify.
Literally the worst
Apple must have paid to get a 4.9 rating. Their podcast app has the worst feed updates and search capability of any podcast app I’ve ever used. I really want to be an all Apple user. It’s easier. But the functionality is too poor.
Synchronizing
Is soooo bad does not work
doesn’t perform basic function
i am now unable to listen to many episodes of one show. it selects randomly from my multiple, varied podcast selection. some of my podcasts are narrative stories and i only want to listen to one show at a time. switching to spotify exclusively to listen to podcasts
Deleting podcast before I get to listen to it
After I download some older podcasts to listen to eventually, the app deletes them before I can listen. Settings are correct to keep all downloads until I delete them.
Switched to Spotify
Long time user and heavy podcast listener. Switched to Spotify because this app kept glitching. I would press play multiple times on an episode and it would never start or take longer than a minute to start. Also it randomly unfollowed shows I listened to over and over.
Broke
Old shows stay in the downloaded section. They say 1 episode downloaded when their is none. No way to delete. I have to delete the whole app to clear it.
The absolute worst
App keeps playing the same episode over and over, with no way to tell the app to delete that episode, or not play it again. This app has to be one of the worst pieces of software apple has put out in the last 30 years. Someone could vibe code a better podcast app.
Bug or feature?
Suddenly crashes when you try to skip ads 🤔
Used to be my favorite podcast platform!
I’ve been listening to podcasts since they came out and have had an iPhone since iPhone 5. I’ve always used Apple Podcasts and recommended it to others who used other apps or YouTube because it used to be a great, simple app.
However, with the update, they changed the ability to binge listen to one show. There is no clear way to stop new episodes from all followed shows from adding themselves to a queue. I tried just adding a ton to a queue (I can’t pull my phone out a lot at work so it’s not like I can manually choose an episode every hour or two) and listening that way, but the app randomly clears my up next queue or adds other episodes to it. I put a year’s worth of episodes in a queue a few days ago and this morning, they’re all gone. I don’t have time to add them all again and I don’t want to listen to my “no work” podcasts so I won’t be listening again today, I’ve also tried creating a channel, just listening to SiriusXM shows, etc.
TL;DR: a great app has now evolved into an app with too many features that has lost its simplicity and functionality.
However, with the update, they changed the ability to binge listen to one show. There is no clear way to stop new episodes from all followed shows from adding themselves to a queue. I tried just adding a ton to a queue (I can’t pull my phone out a lot at work so it’s not like I can manually choose an episode every hour or two) and listening that way, but the app randomly clears my up next queue or adds other episodes to it. I put a year’s worth of episodes in a queue a few days ago and this morning, they’re all gone. I don’t have time to add them all again and I don’t want to listen to my “no work” podcasts so I won’t be listening again today, I’ve also tried creating a channel, just listening to SiriusXM shows, etc.
TL;DR: a great app has now evolved into an app with too many features that has lost its simplicity and functionality.
Glitchy unreliable
In the last month the app has become glitchy and unreliable. Switched back to Spotify.
Ruined by AI
Never really a great podcast client, the official Apple Podcasts app has been pretty much ruined for anybody who listens to fiction casts by a spoiler-prone, AI-driven summary feature that nobody wanted and nobody can deactivate. Good job, Apple.
Every update ruins the format
I don’t understand how every time Apple updates this app along with many others to try to make things more streamlined makes listening to a podcast so much more infuriating. Unless I’m misinterpreting the app, I can’t listen to an old podcast and have the next episode by that very podcast automatically play. I need to now go and make a queue? Like why can’t I listen to an album straight through? I shouldn’t have to continuously pick what I wanna listen to next when each episode is over when I have selected the artist.
Hate the new sleep timer
I need to know how much time is left on a podcast and how much time is on my sleep timer
I can’t download episodes.
I can’t download episodes. It’s so baggy. Once you listen to podcasts it’s still showing up as unplayed. Really frustrating.
Video?
It’s a podcast, not YouTube. Ever since video was added downloads, playback, etc has suffered. The app is laggy and all since video was integrated. Go back to audio only!
Ads are awful
All of a sudden, the ads are out of control. They are extremely loud and cut into the middle of a sentence during a podcast. I don’t know what happened, but it is awful
AirPod Skip button not compatible
AirPod skip button constantly switches to 15 sec fast forward. No matter how many times you set it to “skip” it will always revert to “forward/back”. So frustrating it makes me want to ditch the AirPods and upgrade to Bose.
Popup ads
Gross
Not consistent
Specific subscriptions don’t show up in the feed or are limited. Some non subscriptions keep on popping up in « play next » instead of active ones. The « play next » is working off and on with no rhyme and reason
Won’t remove downloaded shows
Even after deleting all downloaded episodes, my Downloaded section in my library still displays Shows with no downloaded episodes. It says shows have 1 downloaded episode when they have 0. This is really frustrating because it’s messy and makes it harder to find what I’m looking for. I’m often in areas without any cell phone service so I need to download episodes.
User hostile
What is useful to me: an app that plays the shows I choose to play, lets me search for other shows, and maybe offers suggestions to take or leave.
What is not: an app that plays shows I didn’t choose, and have given negative feedback on, FOREVER AND EVER.
Just keep going Apple, I dare you. When I finally decide that podcasts are not worth this hassle and uninstall this trash app, you can recommend into the void all you want.
What is not: an app that plays shows I didn’t choose, and have given negative feedback on, FOREVER AND EVER.
Just keep going Apple, I dare you. When I finally decide that podcasts are not worth this hassle and uninstall this trash app, you can recommend into the void all you want.
Ads
ads on content I paid for is ridiculous. I changed apps immediately.
Bugs all the way down
Routinely adds things to my “up next” after I have removed them. Seems to pull recommendations from a very small selection of mainstream podcasts, ignoring all others regardless of how relevant and/or popular they are. Generally just sucks.
Keeps getting worse
The Home Screen is terrible and almost every time I open the app, it goes to the home screen that I never use. I mostly only use the library tab and I’d like that to be the default. The app is also terrible when using CarPlay
Trouble in Paradise
Never had problems with listening to my downloaded podcasts while out walking before the last iPhone 16 update. But now I absolutely cannot play any downloaded podcasts without using cellular data. So disappointing!! I haven’t changed anything. What happened? Please help.
Skipping and repeating
For the last couple of weeks, every podcast skips and then repeats. It doesn’t matter if I’m using WiFi or data. I’ve looked at the count clock and it doesn’t show anything weird, but it skips at the same parts in the audio.
Very frustrating and annoying.
Very frustrating and annoying.
Can’t make playlist and deletes download
I think the app is ok. It is frustrating that I can’t make a playlist and add specific episodes from different shows on it. It also deletes my downloaded episode even though I have it on the setting to not delete after listening to it.
+ 5 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
97%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)