Lysten: Podcast Player

The good thing about the app is the mini player. I really like that feature & it's something different than a static bottom bar that most apps use. I also like the app's name and icon. I find both of them to be pretty memorable and simple. The rest of the app leaves much to be desired. Let’s start with the whole “minimalist” navigation approach. It seems like the goal was simplicity, but there are no navigation buttons/icons + you have to use the search to navigate everything. There's not even a global settings button or menu, which is also confusing. When you're a new user like me and testing the app and only have one podcast, your feed is full of just one show. You can literally only get away from that screen by using the search. It's just not intuitive and goes against normal Apple design patterns. On the flip side, the episode listening page has the opposite problem. It has around 7 icons across 2 rows and is overwhelming and cluttered. Progressive disclosure would be the best thing to use here. In combination, these two things make me suspect that the app was at least partially vibe coded bc idk how a human would insert such drastically different patterns into a single app. The actual deal-breaker for me is the fact that there are no auto-generated chapters. I'm looking for something to replace Spotify Podcasts and Apple Podcasts. Both of these apps have that feature (which allows you to skip to the next section of the podcast when ads start). It's super useful. the app might have potential, but I don't recommend it in its current state.

First, love to support developers that make software like you’re doing, that make a real attempt to respect users. Love the minimalist approach. Simple, looks great, yet isn’t full of “busy” menus, links, or an overemphasis on externals/appearances over function that works smoothly for how users actually use podcast apps. However, there are still some functional elements that keep me from freely using this app. There are some unhandled exceptions, that appear to make the app crash/close. I’ve noticed this on occasion i think when interacting with download episodes, or switching between episodes and podcasts. Don’t have it zeroed in when it happens exactly. I’d like to have some visible que to let me know that new episodes are available for a particular podcast, or maybe a visible mark on new episodes in the podcast listing so you know which are new or unlisted to. I’d like to be able to at least manually refresh podcasts to check for new episodes, whether it’s simply being able to pull down on the podcasts list or an option in a quick menu. There’s no indicators or way of checking that new episodes are available. I’ve noticed after selecting episodes to download that they sometimes disappear from the download list and I have to go back through the podcasts and download those episodes again. That’s a fairly significant deterrent for me to use this app. Basically, I love the appearance and simplicity of this app, but would love just a few basic user functions that could be included in the current interface that would give it better functionality without changing how it is now. Of course, there are some bugs that appear to need to be worked out.