iOS 26: What's New With the Podcasts App

[julesme]

The Podcast logo at the top of this article is hideous (where’s the purple?). If this is one of the standard transparency settings, I have to ask why anyone would have it turned on.

 

[JippaLippa]

I'm a little concerned with this liquid glass UI revamp, but it's not because of the way it looks.
I have a hunch that all these new effects and animations will make the whole OS slower and harder to run on older devices.

I'm not concerned about my mac, as I have an M1 Ultra, but I'm afraid my iPhone 13 wouldn't cope well, since it already started to chug here and there.

Eventually I'll get a new iPhone (hopefully in the holidays), but I guess we shall see...

 

[nburwell]

It still would be nice if Apple adopted a true queue system in the podcasts app, like Pocket Casts. I have tried to embrace Apple’s Podcast app, but PC is just too good and I have the app setup the way I like.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Still isn’t Podcasting 2.0. You get shows out late, can’t listen to live streams of the shows. I’ve recently switched to Castamatic to listen to my favorite podcasts live. This is NOT a paid ad.

 

[Jackbequickly]

HOLY COW!! Transparent icons!

 

[Starfia]

You didn't even bother to read the article, did you?

I regret to inform myself that I did even bother to read the article, but credit for phrasing the question so glassily podcastably.

 

[zach-coleman]

It’s still such a bummer that the automatic captions feature doesn’t work on podcasts that come from an external source, despite the fact that it seems to process it on device. At least the enhance dialogue feature works on them.

 

[Macbookey]

The speed control with the tortoise and hare is another throwback to iOS 6. I like it. Unfortunately, using it is a different story. It moves in the opposite direction you expect, much like the camera controls did in earlier betas. Sliding towards the hare slows down, while sliding towards the tortoise speeds up. So unintuitive and maddening. The UI that pops up is also ridiculously tiny on a Pro Max that it is absurd. Just this one area alone speaks volumes of how bad at overall software design Apple has become. Podcasts still struggle to sync correctly across platforms at times as well after all these years. Not a fan of Overcast anymore, and I like having a native app on the Mac, so I put up with the default solution.

 

[baconcat_8964]

Reality will be that most android UI will adapt a similar stille within the next 1-2 years.

Xiaomi and Vivo already moved their OS towards glossy finish design. I think we might see Google announces "Material Design 4 Fluid Crystal" in next couple of years.