Is Overcast the only remaining indie podcast player on iOS?

@vincent probably. Or at least among the popular ones

@vincent isn’t Castro still independent? Or were they acquired and I missed it?

@mdrockwell @vincent I also think it is, isn’t it ?

@mdrockwell @vincent I think Castro is still independent

@vincent I don't use it and it's not updated as frequently, but 'sodes is from Jared Sinclair who I believe developed Unread before John Brayton took it over.

@jmreekes @maique @mdrockwell @vincent They sold a majority stake to Tiny.

@simonwoods Thank you, I wasn’t aware.

@simonwoods Thanks. I didn’t know this

@simonwoods @jmreekes @maique @mdrockwell @vincent PcketCasts isn't indie either. Correct?

@Gaby Not as of right now. It’s currently owned by NPR and other radio stations, but it’s up for sale.

@Gaby I believe PocketCasts is NPR owned, with a few others thrown in.

@Gaby But it’s up for sale. So who knows where it’ll end up...

@maique @jmreekes , See, this is my internal conflict. If I am going with my heart and support indie development, I would have to go with Overcast, but Overcast seems stale at this point and outdated. Yes, it works, it does the job, but if I am going to subscribe to a yearly subscription, I don't know, perhaps I am asking too much from one developer. Now I am moaning 😅

@Gaby Overcast needs a design refresh, I wish it had a separate up next queue (like Castro and Pocket Casts). Overcast has the best audio engine to my ears

@Gaby Same feeling here. Overcast is not an option at the moment. It works, yes, but it’s so behind what I’m expecting from a podcast player. Maybe you’re not asking too much from one developer, just that developer. I know he’s a somewhat important person in the ecosystem, but he always rubbed me the wrong way. Can’t even tell why, just does.

@maique lol, same here, this is one of those apps or situations where I need to separate the art from the artist

@Gaby Look at Carrot, that’s one developer right? I don’t think you’re asking too much. I think I’m in the same boat as you right now. Going to stick with Pocketcasts and hope it lands in a good place.

@mcg What I am affraid of Pocket is that I get into it, and then (god forbid) it goes away and then I will be heart broken. Does that makes sense?

@Gaby Totally makes sense. It’s so good tho. I’ve used it for years and I am so sad it may go away.

@maique Yeah a lot of good solo dev apps. Carrot stands out to me right now due to v5 being surprisingly good. Overcasts does feel stale and the way it handles queues never clicked for me.

@maique I left Overcast a couple of years ago. It didn’t cope well with large numbers of subscriptions.

@mcg Carrot literally pulled me back in with 5.0. Amazing work on his end.

@mcg Yes and yes. The new Carrot is superb, and what’s the point in having a podcast app that handles queues oddly ? That’s a huge chunk of the required features in a podcast app, as far as I’m concerned. Queuing is everything

@Gaby I started messing with Overcast again today, mainly for the audio. I’m gonna try using one smart list as the inbox and another smart list as my Up Next queue. We’ll see how it goes.

@jmreekes I have two smart playlists, one containing only episodes from shows I always listen to and another for shows I dip in and out of based on the context of the episode.

I spend most of my time in the first smart playlist. Then when I run out of things to listen to, I jump into the other, delete each episode I’m not interested in, and then start listening.

I also only have Overcast setup to download episodes from shows in the first smart playlist, the rest are streamed.

@Gaby That’s one reason I started using Castro again. Pocket Casts is probably my favorite overall.