Apple Podcasts now available as a web app

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

For a long time now, one of the few missing pieces of Apple Podcasts has been a web app. It gets a fully loaded interface where one can search for any show on the Apple Podcasts service, get to the charts, play anything from the library, buy subscriptions, and much more.

Apple seems to have no direct podcatcher for those who operate Windows, though there are Music and TV apps which are built into the recent OS versions; still, iTunes for Windows is deprecating and will not play podcasts. An Android client for Apple Podcasts is also still lacking, though, for example. But with the real web app now available people on Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, Android or any other OS can finally listen to Up Next queue, and Apple Podcasts catalogues in a browser.

The Apple Podcasts is available on all the popular web browsers; Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari for more than 170 countries at podcasts.apple.com. It is just a slightly more utilitarian version of Apple’s web preview which lets users on other devices indulge on App Store pages.

Apple Podcasts has had those web previews (and an embeddable web player) for years. However, you must click a URL on the search results page to listen to an episode in the browser, and that’s pretty much all you can do. The new site at podcasts.apple.com is a proper web app with features that used to be available only in the native podcast software preinstalled on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

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For example, you can freely browse the millions of shows on the Apple Podcasts platform and even buy subscriptions to access paywalled shows. It updates play progress, so you can always continue where you left off no matter the device. You can also follow any channel or creator from the web app, search for news shows, and more. Anything you previously added awaits you in the Library section on the web, provided you sign in with your Apple Account to unlock advanced features.

Otherwise, you mainly remain an observer who can browse through the catalogue on Apple Podcasts and listen to episodes with no intervention and options beyond basic ones. It is good news for creators as well they can now share links to their episodes, shows and channels with confidence as anyone who sees these links will get a proper web-based interface. It is also important to note that some of the features that can be found in Podcasts on my Computer are not available, e. g. 2x faster playback, although Apple is bound to put them in due course. Just as with App Store web links, clicking an Apple Podcasts URL on an Apple device will instead open the native Podcasts app (my workaround for this is to right-click the link and select ‘open in new tab’ from the options).

Other services are also given web interfaces by Apple. Apple Music also has a web player where people can play music on any device through a browser, same as for Apple TV has a web interface to access Apple TV+. And more recently, the firm released an Apple Maps web app almost twelve years after the service began. Apple Maps is not as rich as the Google Maps web application but it will only get better as Apple sets out to weaken Google in the mapping segment.

Source: TechCrunch