Player FM — Podcast App

This app used to be great when it was getting regular updates. But over the years it’s gotten buggier and its available features simply haven’t kept up with the competition. It seems the app owners know this, and so have decided to quietly remove the ability to export your podcast subscriptions out of the app via OPML. You can still “Import” via OPML, but the option to export was at some point entirely removed. This appears to be the case in another podcast app they own as well - Breaker. Basically they’ve trapped users into staying because they know how much of a hassle it is to manually re-add each podcast subscription in a new app. Which would be fine if they were regularly updating either of these apps, fixing bugs, and adding new features. But they’re not, because “Maple Media” isn’t a group of app developers - they’re just scam artists who buy popular apps for less than their worth so that they can continue to profit off of the original developer’s hard work while doing nothing except collecting premium subscription fees for themselves. They provide nothing for the users. The apps they own are essentially “dead apps” that stopped receiving updates and new features ages ago - but they keep them listed on the App Store so they can continue to profit off of them. So be forewarned if you download this app, because your’re actually falling into a trap that you later won’t be able to get out of.

I have an iPhone and one of my biggest complaints was their podcast app had two options for sort, newest or oldest and sometimes playing even those was cumbersome PlayerFM can sort by those and also shortest, longest and random and they stick! Playlists are also really easy to create and edit as well. Plus there seems to be more cryptid and horror podcasts which I love And did I mention you can set it so it’ll skip awkward silences and pauses and reduce background noises like pages turning and throat clearing? And the speed has more options for the monotone ones with awesome stories so they don’t put you to sleep I recommend it to everyone who is looking for podcast recommendations in my horror and paranormal communities The one thing I wish was for CarPlay integration, it doesn’t show up on my car screen and I’m limited to using my phone to skip a podcast or find one which is cool unless I’m driving and our state is hands free or a ticket

I absolutely love so many things about this app and would recommend everyone trying it out for a few weeks. The app does a great job in helping you discover new podcast and ones that are very much related to the ones you already love. The app does an amazing job in helping you find new podcast however, there is one problem that is very annoying. It seems very slow in bringing in new episodes. I use a lot of different podcast apps. Player FM is almost always behind in bringing in new episodes. For many people this may not be a big deal but I like getting the new episodes as soon as they drop, this is especially true all of all the news podcasts I subscribe to. I wasn’t able to find anything that indicates how frequently the app refreshes to find the latest episodes. Also It seems on Apple devices that I am not receiving notifications that new episodes are available. I think Player FM has some very good features and everyone should give it a try. However, getting the new episodes as soon as possible and a good notification system seems to be lacking from the app currently. Hopefully, some of these issues will be improved soon and then I could enthusiastically offer a 5 star rating.