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I'm sure they're aware regardless of app ratings in the App Store.

But I also don't think reviews for built-in apps are necessarily representative of anything. Obviously the people writing reviews are more likely to be dissatisfied with the stock offerings, so they're going to trend more negative by default.
I’m sure they will ignore customer opinions regardless so reviews don’t really do anything, whether those are mostly positive or negative comments.

And satisfy customer is indeed less likely
 
My first review of an Apple app was... Podcasts. I gave it two stars. My first impulse was to give it one. I guess Tim Cook doesn't use Apple's Podcast app, otherwise, the various issues would have been fixed by now.
 
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Sadly, user reviews in 2021 is more or less useless. People that have nothing to complain about will seldomly leave a review in the first place so the metric will by default trend towards being negative by nature.

And those leaving negative reviews tend to not be even close to fair in their review. Regardless of the situation most will default to giving 1-star. There is no nuance to be had here.

I'm no huge fan of the Podcast.app myself. I find it lacking in terms of UX-design, and the fact that there is no easy way for me to access my default playlist directly is annoying. I have to open the app, then head into my playlist named "Priority Queue" and then I can start listening. Why can't I have it go directly into "Priority Queue" from the get-go like most third-party apps? I can't customise my queue even close to as detailed as some of the third-party apps.

The bottom bar in the Podcast.app has it's own place for "Listen Now". Sadly "Listen Now" doesn't take any of my habits or my customised "Priority Queue" into consideration so utilising "Listen Now" doesn't make much sense to me when my "Priority Queue" does everything better. If I could just swap the "Listen Now" button with my "Priority Queue" it would make life so much better for me.

Perhaps my biggest issue with the Podcast.app is the lack of Smart Playback like Overcast, PocketCast, Castro etc features. They've had it available for years now. Why is it that the Podcast.app can't trim silenced part of a podcast in a smart way like other apps can?


All of this makes me rate the Podcast.app 3 out 5 stars. Even with all these shortcomings it's not even close to being 1-star. To be fair, 1-star should mean that app isn't working at all. 2-star should mean it's working but it's truly terrible to use. 3-stars is more in line with something that is working, is working decent but have so much potential for improvement.
The app doesn't work. I can’t remove a podcast from my listen now queue without marking it as played. Something so simple and it’s nowhere to be found. The app is garbage.
 
Those 1-star reviews on the Podcasts app seem a little unfair to me.

Yes, the UI could use some improvement. I particularly don't like how deeply it buries some commonly used (by me) features, like "recently played".

But, compared to the BBC's awful "BBC Sounds" app, which seems to go out of its way to make it hard for you to find content you're looking for (or even any good new relevant content), the Apple Podcasts app is a discovery dream!
Some reviewers are never fair or balanced. It's either Great or total garbage. Happens on IMDB all the time. My favorites tho are on Amazon. "Great product, works just as described and would definately buy aagin.. but the box was slightly dented during shipping. 1 star"
 
Gosh the last thing I would want if I were Apple is allowing people to type up reviews for Apple made apps. Especially for iOS 15.
 
Where can I rate & review iOS 15? Wait, I didn’t install it because of the predicable clocked and crashing this software is emulating I am seeing just scrolling down MR news this morning while drinking my coffee = 👎
 
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Those 1-star reviews on the Podcasts app seem a little unfair to me.

Yes, the UI could use some improvement. I particularly don't like how deeply it buries some commonly used (by me) features, like "recently played".

But, compared to the BBC's awful "BBC Sounds" app, which seems to go out of its way to make it hard for you to find content you're looking for (or even any good new relevant content), the Apple Podcasts app is a discovery dream!
So you are saying because you are comparing it to another badly designed app that people should increase their rating. nope, let them both suffer from bad reviews it’s the only way they could fix things.
 
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What's wrong with the Music app? I use it all the time and never have problems with it.
Apple ruined it when it became an advertising platform for their music service. At one time it was just a simple music player for music stored on your phone. I stopped using it shortly after they made that change.

I just opened it for the first time in God know how long. To remember what I didn't like. It didn't fail to fulfill that objective. By opening straight to browse showing a bunch of stuff which isn't music stored on my phone. Ads to try Apple Music now. A pop up advertising spatial audio. Plus most of the UI dedicated to the Apple Music service.

While it's fine if they want a music service. They should have kept a regular annoyance free music player. Perhaps as an optional download from the app store. It's not like it would need much upkeep. Just enough to keep it functioning reliably with each iOS update. Plus compatibility updates for any new audio format they start selling like Spatial Audio.
 
The app doesn't work. I can’t remove a podcast from my listen now queue without marking it as played. Something so simple and it’s nowhere to be found. The app is garbage.
Listen Now is podcasts for you to play. If you don’t want any to be there just mark those as played and they will disappear. Seems to work as expected.
 
Listen Now is podcasts for you to play. If you don’t want any to be there just mark those as played and they will disappear. Seems to work as expected.
I don't want to mark it as played if I didn't play it. Every podcast I subscribe too shows up there when there is a new episode. I don't have any interest in listening to every episode of NY Times "The Daily" for example. If an episode doesn't interest me, I want to be able to remove it. Like I could before this stupid update.
 
The app doesn't work. I can’t remove a podcast from my listen now queue without marking it as played. Something so simple and it’s nowhere to be found. The app is garbage.

This.

On top of that, it doesn't even sync properly across devices. I have three devices with the Podcasts app installed, all with the same settings, and yet they never agree on what's been played or where abouts I am on a particular podcast. The whole app is a joke.
 
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This.

On top of that, it doesn't even sync properly across devices. I have three devices with the Podcasts app installed, all with the same settings, and yet they never agree on what's been played or where abouts I am on a particular podcast. The whole app is a joke.
Yup, syncing across devices is also very broken. My Apple Watch, iPhone, and HomePod rarely sync progress correctly.
 
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The important thing to know is that Apple has Full Control of the Ratings Dialog.

If they want their apps to get Rated & Reviewed, they can make it happen.

Third-party apps have NO such control.

If Apple doesn't want a certain app to get Rated, it won't !

And, very-importantly, Apple provides NO feedback to App Developers on Ratings "Requests" !

In other words, the Ratings Dialog is just another way that Apple has of suppressing ANY app they want to, with NO transparency !

I'm pushing for Congress to change this !
 
I’m confused by the hate for the podcast app, but I guess it’s good enough for me. I can find the podcasts I like and they play in order having to set up a queue. (Well some of them do) I’d probably give it a 3.5 (round up to 4)

I’d give stocks a 5/5. Not sure what else people want from it
 
Finally something users can pour their frustration and anger towards apple to, and it would be public.

Hope this will tear Apple’s “WE ARE THE BEST” tinfoil hat a little bit and face the reality.

Yes... expecting a lot of race-to-the-bottom juvenile outrage to help let people feel better about themselves with that little blip of power.
 
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Apple ruined it when it became an advertising platform for their music service. At one time it was just a simple music player for music stored on your phone. I stopped using it shortly after they made that change.

I just opened it for the first time in God know how long. To remember what I didn't like. It didn't fail to fulfill that objective. By opening straight to browse showing a bunch of stuff which isn't music stored on my phone. Ads to try Apple Music now. A pop up advertising spatial audio. Plus most of the UI dedicated to the Apple Music service.

While it's fine if they want a music service. They should have kept a regular annoyance free music player. Perhaps as an optional download from the app store. It's not like it would need much upkeep. Just enough to keep it functioning reliably with each iOS update. Plus compatibility updates for any new audio format they start selling like Spatial Audio.
Money drives everything - technology - competition - advertising - updates - not a complaint, just reality.
 
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Money drives everything - technology - competition - advertising - updates - not a complaint, just reality.
Still fun to complain though. If I really cared. I'd have found a dedicated music player app. I just couldn't be bothered and moved exclusively to Spotify years ago. As I like their streaming interface a lot more. My huge iTunes library just languishes unused.
 
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