Podhero Podcast Player 12+

Podcast listening made easy

I had heard of podcasts and thought about trying to find some but had no idea where to find them. SWOOT makes it easy. As a beginning listener I really appreciate the suggestions. If I was doing it on my own I most likely would have given up by now. Thanks for the easy platform to find and listen to some interesting subjects. I also like the idea of being able to see what friends and family are listening to. Thanks for making it easy to be a podcast listener!

Good idea, lousy implementation

Thoughts on Swoot:
+ Good privacy policy/ToS. Smells like PIPEDA and GDPR.
+ Supports OPML import/export!
+ Fairly intuitive interface
+ Supports downloading and streaming playback
- No ability to add arbitrary RSS URLs, which defeats the point of an open podcast ecosystem and removes Swoot from consideration as a real podcast player.
- VERY slow (on my iPhone 6)
- Playing a podcast makes my phone hot
- Used 12% of my battery for 45 minutes of listening
- No MP3 Chapter support
- No support for password-protected feeds
- Tab bar disappears when resuming the app from background
- No silence removal feature
- Very long sign-up flow that requires an email
- OPML import missed several of my shows
- No sleep timer
- Skip forward and backward takes a very long time when playing above 1.25x
- Player view has a down arrow to indicate how to dismiss it, but swiping down does nothing. You have to tap the button all the way at the top of the screen.

EDIT: Thank you for your reply! I’m glad to hear that you’re planning to add most of these features to Swoot. However, the fact that “play an arbitrary RSS feed” wasn’t in your Minimum Viable Product strongly indicates to me that you don’t care about podcasting as an open ecosystem. When you’re adding new features, you should figure out how to add that one first.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the thoughtful and thorough feedback! Happy to report that most of the missing features you mention are ones we plan to add. We just released the app to the public a week before your review so it's not full featured just yet. :) We take performance issues seriously as well and it is an area we're always focused on and are constantly improving.

Pods With Friends!

I’ve been using Swoot for at least 6 months now and continue to be impressed with the way the app works and evolves. I’m discovering new podcasts from following friends and colleagues and having conversations with some of those friends after I’ve listened. Swoot is consistently broadening my perspective too with the curated lists and recommendations shared via social media. Thanks Swoot! And major kudos to your social media manager!! Well done.