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Old post, but if you connect your phone to your PC using bluetooth, you can play audio to your PC from your phone, at least this works for me on KDE plasma. I use this to continue listening to music/podcasts from my phone without having to set up any sort of sync solution.
Previously, I was usin scrcpy, an adb based solution to route audio from my phone to my computer.
I've been using Pocket Casts on Android and it works well. I think that I started using it 2 years ago and I haven't encountered any issues. I use the free version and it hasn't asked me to pay and hasn't shown me ads. I'm a light user when it comes to podcasts though.
They have a web player for PC, but I haven't tried it.
I also use PocketCasts. Paid 4 bucks for it back in 2013. Highly recommend it.
I think you pay if you want to use the desktop app. I paid. Works pretty everywhere. 😊👍
I've been using Pocket Casts for like 10 years at this point, great app
Another vote for Pocket casts, been a user since 2011. Best release notes of any app as well.
I've used Pocket Cast for a long time now. I bought it probably about 10 years ago. It recently went open source.
This is the one for me. I just checked and I've been using the premium version since May 2016 and it cost me £2.50. Only issue I've had in that time is the web player was failing to buffer episodes for streaming, but that has since resolved for me.
Get Fdroid on Android and use Antenna Pod. Idk about podcasts on PC.
@VoxAdActa AntennaPod. I've been using it for years now. Instantly works and has exactly the features you need. No ads, no bullshit.
And you can sync with nextcloud. Thats great.
And it's Free and Open Source!
(Meaning their primary motivation is making a good app, not monetising through enshitification)
Using antennapod on Android, can fully recommend. For other apps and platforms check https://podcastindex.org/apps
Ideally, you would donate to the project you choose :)
After seeing your note, I thought, "damn, I've used AntennaPod a LOT, I'll donate!"
If you go to donate they basically say that all their costs are covered right now, but ask if you can help in non-financial ways (translations, help on the forum, beta test, code if you can, spread the word, UX work). I'll be honest, that level of transparency makes me love the app more than I already did!
I use AntennaPod, love it but I haven't got it to work on Android Auto yet. That's the only gripe I have with it.
I had been using Podcast Addict for a couple of years after switching from BeyondPod which I used for many years.
But now I'm using the open source, community-built AntennaPod. There are a few quirks I had to get used to, but that is true of every app and especially something I use so frequently throughout the day. Performance has been great, especially with audio casting which has always been buggy and inconsistent for me with other apps.
came here to give the same suggestion
I am very happy with podcast addict on android. Powerful, not the cleanest ui though.
I stand behind AntennaPod, it does what I need.
I'm throwing in another vote for Pocket Casts. Bought it back in 2015 and the web player as a separate purchase. It's had ups and downs over the years, but I've always returned on the rare occasions I tried something different in hopes of finding something better--granted I'm grandfathered into premium at this point. It ticks all the boxes for me and I'd probably buy it again if I didn't already have it.
Spotube, as it is open source, respects privacy, and is multi-platform. If you run owncloud, you can also install an app to have your listening history synced across devices:
I just use Google podcasts. It's simple, it works, hail corporate.
I'm using PocketCasts and I paid a one-time fee before it became subscription based (but there's still a free tier), in order to be able to listen to podcast using the web app on PC. Thus I now have lifetime premium access.
I'm very satisfied with their service, I did not find any problems with both the Android app and the web app, moreover it has almost every feature I need, except voice to text conversion in order to be able to share slices of audio in text format (but there are dedicated apps for that).
I've been very happy with Pocket Casts. Their subscription is pretty cheap (not one-time though, unfortunately), and it has automatic sync between the android and desktop apps.
I use AntennaPod, Mainly because it's open-source and supports RSS podcasts.
They are also on fediverse! https://fosstodon.org/@AntennaPod
Another vote for AntennaPod for Android You can use MusicBee on PC
Just I don't think you can sync podcasts or progress between the two
I've been using Pocketcasts for years, and I've been very happy with it. Works on Android, PC, and through web browsers. I've never had to pay for it.
I use Pocket Casts, but I paid for the "plus" upgrade before it was a subscription. Nowadays if I didn't have that option I'd probably just use either Google Podcasts, or if you have a NextCloud instance available to use somewhere, then something like GPodder Sync + NextPod on the server/web side and AntennaPod should allow you to keep things in sync.
Edit: Err scratch that, I just set this up on my NextCloud instance, and while it syncs with AntennaPod and Kasts a KDE/Linux app - the actual web app on NextCloud doesn't seem to allow you to play podcasts through the browser, it'll only let you see your subscriptions and any sync actions done recently. You'd still need a PC app that is compatible with GPodder Sync in order for you to listen in on your PC.
Apologies about that! Someone had told me about this setup a bit ago, and I noted it down to give it a try later on - I definitely should've tested it before mentioning it here.
But all is not lost - GPodder looks to have a release for all of the PC platforms, and is compatible with the gpodder.net sync service (which is what the nextcloud apps are based off of) and AntennaPod can still use that sync backend as well.
Are you sure NextPod can't play the episodes? Because it lists it as a feature on their github https://github.com/pbek/nextcloud-nextpod
I use Podcast Addict on Android (both phone and tablet) and it's excellent. I'm using the paid version so it's ad-free. It has a good set of widgets too. Five stars.
I used to use Podkicker Pro, but the paid version started showing ads. So I switched to Podcast Addict Pro and it's excellent.
Podcast addict is both incredibly customizable and feature rich. Absolutely worth trying.
Podcast Republic. It's great.
PocketCasts was pretty much perfect for me for a long time and recently (past couple years maybe?) they did a big update which made it noticeably worse. I tried a few other apps and they had even bigger issues. I'm still using PocketCasts and they've fixed some of what they messed up but it isn't perfect.
They have a good library of podcasts built in but also allow you to add custom rss feeds for any smaller shows they don't have or if you have private feeds from patreon or elsewhere.
Another Podcast Addict user here. But I don't think they pay the Podcasters anything if that's your concern. If you're listening to Joe Rogan, don't pay him a penny. Pirate the shit out of his podcasts. But maybe you should consider giving to Patreon if you don't already. They take a cut but at least you know its going to the podcaster.
Also you really should know that Tidal isn't paying anyone any better, no platform is. They're all beholden to rights holders, and that is mostly record labels and their parent companies. No platform pays per stream, that's a myth. Spotify just distributes all the money left after their 30%. Blame the labels for making audio so unprofitable and for the average listener for treating music and podcasts as disposable,
Before you think I'm defending spotify, I'm not. They tried to make an unprofitable product profitable and they did it by selling out to record labels. Spotify could have made them irrelevant but chose not to.
Welcome to Tidal! I came from Spotify myself and the improvement in audio quality alone means I haven't looked back!
I use Google Podcasts to fill the gap
I would also recommend Google Podcasts. Pretty basic, but does it all very well. Queue continuity across the app and web is great. However, Google being google, they are likely to be sunsetting it soon in favour of rolling podcasts into YouTube Music (which I would also suggest in place of Spotify).
Personally, I'm using Pocket Casts, but you can't use it on desktop without their premium subscription, which I don't need. Antennapod is a good Android App and supports sync through gpodder.net, but there are no good iOS apps supporting gpodder, so I stopped using it. But I thought you don't need Spotify Premium to listen to podcasts on there. It might be easiest for you to just keep using it for that.
I switched to Podcast Republic awhile ago because I like the playlist feature and being able to have different "channels" for similar types of podcasts. Very customizable too! They have the android app and a website, though I've never used the website
I've been using podverse for a while now and it's been great except for a few quirks with the queue
newpodcastapps.com
I know it's kind of niche, but I absolutely love many of the features of Podcast Republic.
Being able to have multiple queues and have them automatically chain together by priority is an irreplaceable feature for me.
BeyondPod
I've been using it for years. I have the paid version of it.
I'm sure I barely use any of the features. At the end of the day it lets me download my podcasts and prunes them as I listen (as I've configure it).
I feel like I need to buy it again to give the dev some money.
If synchronising your episode progress and subscriptions is important, I'd use google podcasts for a commercial solution. I used it for a while and it worked great.
I've since moved on to audiobookshelf, for a self hosted option that achieves the same sync across devices.