I started using https://www.breaker.audio/ (iOS & Android)
I really recommend it
Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
21–30 of 41 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#22[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#23https://www.overcast.fm - search bar at the top, finds podcasts. free app available, though it's iOS only. Syncs with web version though.
overcast also supports audio file uploads landing in an "uploads" playlist; if the OP wants a super low-friction way to seed the parents' listening, that could be one way. just grab the mp3 versions of a few episodes and drop them in there, don't have to mess with getting them to subscribe to things.
an annoying misfeature I have noticed with a lot of podcasts is that the feed URL only includes the latest N (usually 100) episodes, and if you want to listen from the beginning you have to do so "by hand" by visiting each episode's web page and either downloading the episode or listening in the browser. For one podcast with a predictable URL format for episodes, I pieced together an .xml file by hand that referred to all the episodes. It was super janky but I was able to pretend that it was the actual podcast's URL just fine.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#24I'm not sure I understand your Q, but if you are looking for basically a subscribe link that will work for your parents on Android, just find the RSS feed for that podcast (should be easy enough), and then plug it into this service: http://subscribeonandroid.com It will create a link that will subscribe them on their chosen podcast app on Android. If they haven't chosen an app yet, it will provide them a list of opti…
This obviously works, you can even use iTunes as the source of the RSS feeds, there's not really anything proprietary to how Apple did podcasts, its just a database of the RSS feeds - just right click the podcast search result in iTunes and click "Copy Podcast URL".
However, copying RSS feed links is a pretty terrible way to discover content. Most normal people want a search or recommendation engine of some kind (you liked x, you will probably love y), which is why virtually every podcast app offers access to searching some kind of RSS feed database of podcasts within the app.
If you were to go with your approach, I'd personally still consider using iTunes as the search engine for the RSS urls, most podcast app makers seem to agree Apple's database is pretty much the most complete out there, probably largely by dint of being the first to really focus on building a database of these feeds.
As to format: virtually every podcast feed in existence is constant bitrate MP3 (confirmed by several different podcast directory maintainers), so this isn't really a concern. There are various technical reasons why historically podcasts have had to avoid VBR/other audio formats. CBR MP3 is guaranteed to playback without issue on almost anything, including your car stereo from 10 years ago.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#25https://gpodder.net allows you to synchronise various (partially/non-overlapping) podcast lists to multiple devices and easily add new podcasts you don't find on the service's website. So you can actually just set up compatible podcast clients on the devices of your parents and let them enjoy new episodes without even bothering them with the actual links and the whole process of subscribing to new feeds (unless when…
there are clients for meego, webos, symbian, maemo, and a native client for osx, but no ios client ?
https://gpoddernet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/clients.htm...
nonetheless it looks like there are some possibly decent curation / search features, certainly better than the apple podcasts app / itunes.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#26Can't recommend PocketCasts enough, it's really all you need.
One of the nice things about it is it will sync episode progress across devices, so if you pause on one app, you can resume playback on another.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#27Breaker.audio
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#28https://gpodder.net allows you to synchronise various (partially/non-overlapping) podcast lists to multiple devices and easily add new podcasts you don't find on the service's website. So you can actually just set up compatible podcast clients on the devices of your parents and let them enjoy new episodes without even bothering them with the actual links and the whole process of subscribing to new feeds (unless when…
Their logo/mascot is kind of obscene when you think about it.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#29I'm not sure I understand your Q, but if you are looking for basically a subscribe link that will work for your parents on Android, just find the RSS feed for that podcast (should be easy enough), and then plug it into this service: http://subscribeonandroid.com It will create a link that will subscribe them on their chosen podcast app on Android. If they haven't chosen an app yet, it will provide them a list of opti…
This obviously works, you can even use iTunes as the source of the RSS feeds, there's not really anything proprietary to how Apple did podcasts, its just a database of the RSS feeds - just right click the podcast search result in iTunes and click "Copy Podcast URL". However, copying RSS feed links is a pretty terrible way to discover content. Most normal people want a search or recommendation engine of some kind (you…
I just really hate that there doesn't appear to be any way of getting RSS links to podcasts from Apple's database using just a browser. I have no other reason to have itunes installed and won't be installing it just for this.
Re: Ask HN: Best way to search and collect platform-agnostic podcast links?
#30On Android, AntennaPod is open-source and provides integrated search of iTunes, FYYD, and gpodder.net . You can also copy/paste a URL, for example if you were to find the URL for them and send it to them.
Its interface takes a little getting used to, and search results don't always hit (which I view to be a matter of the sources searched, rather than the app).
That said, it's a quite solid app. And free of crap-ware.