Pocket Casts Android Updates & Release Notes

New Features

• Add a What's new feed with announcements from the Pocket Casts team, opened from the bell on the Profile tab. Unread messages show a dot, which you can turn off in Settings → General, and read messages sync across your devices when you're signed in (#6082)

Bug Fixes

• Show the same flat toolbar on every screen opened from Profile (#6093)
• Fix a crash when refreshing podcasts while the system account service is unavailable (#6105)
• Fix a crash when opening onboarding or upgrade screens on Android 8.0 (#6104)

New Features

• Log in to the Wear OS app by scanning a QR code with your phone or entering a code on the web (#5964)
• Smart Bookmarks (#6038)
• Switch accounts from the screen that appears when you pair a device by scanning its QR code (#6019)
• Swipe a bookmark to share or delete it (#6041)

Bug Fixes

• Show the podcast grid and playlists in Android Auto again, instead of only a short list of recent episodes (#6098)
• Show every matching folder in search results instead of only the last one (#5953)
• Show the correct play or pause button for User Files (#5963)
• Remove the bookmark icon from an episode as soon as its last bookmark is deleted, instead of waiting for the next sync (#6005)
• Keep a newly uploaded file in view instead of letting the Files list jump past it (#6005)
• Confirm playlist removals and mixed changes after adding episodes to playlists, not only additions (#5632)
• Fix Profile tab refresh button from being hidden behind the bottom nav after a cold start (#6033)
• Show a single launcher icon after choosing a custom app icon (#5609)
• Enable the transcript button on the full-screen player without playing the episode or opening the details page (#6034)
• Stay in Pocket Casts after changing the app icon instead of closing to the home screen (#6017)
• Resume playback immediately when a headphone or car play button is pressed (#5645)
• Prevent Cast connection failures from interrupting local playback or removing playback controls (#5656)
• Keep the Automotive account screens usable at large font sizes by not opening the keyboard over them (#6030)

New Features

• Browse podcast networks from Discover, search and the podcast page (#5865)

Bug Fixes

• Fix video freezing when rotating into landscape fullscreen and stuttering when resuming from the background (#5844)
• Keep Picture-in-Picture video playing across rotation and config changes, and restore the inline video after closing PiP (#5912)
• Keep the multi-select episode selection when rotating the device on the podcast screen (#5836)
• Prevent the app from being killed in the background on low-memory devices by pausing player UI updates while playing (#5843)
• Closing the transcript search bar now keeps the transcript open at the same scroll position instead of exiting the transcript (#5835)
• Stop "Cache entire playing episode" from silently downloading oversized or video enclosures in the background (#5868)
• Keep the Playback Effects icon visible on the Now Playing screen when a podcast's colours haven't loaded yet (#5877)
• Show the bookmark details play control as a time button in the header and open the episode when its artwork or title is tapped (#5946)

New Features

• Add Audio only playback setting (#5572)
• Add support for Flightcast transcripts (#5544)
• Stats Heatmap (#5536)
• HLS support (#5602)
• Add option to switch to the HLS video stream when playing a downloaded episode (#5620)

Updates

• Respect Audio only toggle when playing progressive mp4 episodes (#5627)
• Tap into ExoPlayer's cache instead of a standalone MediaSource for fingerprinting (#5618)
• Resolve generated chapter seeks through on-demand audio fingerprinting (#5613)

Bug Fixes

• Fix episodes being cached over mobile data when Warn before using data is enabled (#5567)
• Reduce the chance of episode playback progress reverting during listening history sync (#5552)
• Fix a crash that could occur when seeking during playback (#5550)
• Fix Automotive crash when using Google Assistant voice commands to control playback (#5551)
• Fix podcast episode row button not switching to play when connected to Chromecast (#5604)