Pocket Casts 5 gets a new player design, interactive notifications, and more

Posted November 8, 201410 yr

Pocket Casts has been updated to version 5.0, bringing along several new features and improvements. Most noticeable is the new player design, along with new features for iOS 8.

The new player features a more refined design over the previous version. Bigger controls dominate the lower part of the screen, with a large Play/Pause button, along with new skip buttons. The buttons to skip forward and back now show you the amount of time they will skip, which can be adjusted in the apps settings. Additionally, you no longer access Up Next and episode information by pressing buttons, instead swiping back and forth on the podcast artwork.

The other major changes are to notifications. First, you can now set notifications per podcast, getting notifications only for the podcasts you care most about. Pocket Casts also now features actionable notifications, letting you download an episode or add it to Up Next right from the alert.

Other enhancements include improvements to auto download, and Now Playing screen upgrades. You can also mark an episode as played from the Up Next List. The app also plays nicely with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Pocket Casts 5 is a free update for all current users, and requires iOS 8 or above. You can purchase it for iPhone and iPad from the App Store right now.