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Pocket Casts is getting ads (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/android@lemdro.id
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Updated Pocket Casts to the latest beta (7.97-rc-1) and got these stupid fucking banner ads on top

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[–] 45 points 1 year ago (12 children)

I switched to Antenna Pod as soon as I realized that Pocket Cast is owned by Automattic, never looked back.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    What's wrong with Automattic? I don't know them at all.

    Got a suggestion for an app that works on Android in my car? (Not Android Auto, but it's Android based so can run Android apps. It's a Volvo.)

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Maybe try podcast addict, been using it for years and it's just got constant development. I donated to them because I hate subscriptions and I've gotten a lot of value from it.

    Free version only has ads on the search page as far as I can tell, and it's just a couple recommended casts.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    You know, it is not really a free version if they give you ads. Why not donate to foss? AntennaPod is really great.

    Edit: so after that I hyped myself up a bit to donate to AntennaPod myself and their donation page told me, they have enough money to develop the app and they would like people to help in other ways or maybe to donate to their favourite podcast. 🀷

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    • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Stopped using it years ago when they redesigned it completely. I remember people HATED it, but they really did make it worse.

    I use Podcast Addict instead which isn't perfect but looks like it has more features that I use than Antenna Pod

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I paid for Pocket Casts years ago. Then shortly after, they announced it was going to be free. I think I got a refund. Don't remember.

    I can't say I'm surprised at this decision to stuff it with ads. Gotta pay for development somehow, and unfortunately they took the easy route, i.e. data collection and ads.

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    • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    i still have a lifetime plus account from when i originally paid for the web version in beta otherwise i'd have moved on to audiobookshelf

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    I really like Audiobookshelf for audiobooks.

    But it breaks my brain that it still hasn't implemented some sort of automatic queueing of new podcast episodes. Every time you finish a podcast episode, you need to manually go into the app and find the next episode to play. Not ideal for when you're driving...

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    • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    This day was always going to come, I've got them as well. Maybe it's time to look at something like PinePods, since it was only the cross device syncing keeping me using pocket casts.

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    • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Is this happening even for their premium subscribers?

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    • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I would like to switch to another app, preferably FOSS, but I haven't found another decent one that has the filters feature from PocketCasts. This is the feature that lets you apply a preset filter to the total list of episodes. I use it to auto-build a queue of just certain podcasts, instead of all of my subscriptions.

    Any chance someone has seen that feature elsewhere?

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    Pocket Casts client is actually open source, server is not AFAIK.

    I am very curious if they are going to implement something like Google Ads in the future because I don't recall any open source app ever having third party ads. Right now there is only a banner ad to subscribe to Premium but on clicking the X button there is an option to "report ad" so surely they are getting third party ads? I have seen locked down features with premium version having full features, but never ads really. Maybe the MPL license they have chosen is very lenient in that way.

    If someone forks the app and creates a fully FOSS version I will be fine using that.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Podcast addict has a ton of filters I remember using.

    I set it up so a news podcast would be like tier one so each morning it played first then after it was over it would move down to what was in progress in tier two in the queue then when those finished it'd go down the list by tier

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    • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Enshittification. I have become certain that any app owned by a for-profit company has to follow this path. There is no way to sustain forever growth without harming the product. I have used Pocket Casts for a decade and have premium. I stick with it because I love the web features and feel fine paying for those but I suspect the deal will keep getting worse all the time, Vader style.

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