The Now Playing screen is where you can view the episode or file that is currently in the app’s player. From here you can interact with the episode, quickly view its Notes, access Chapters if the episode has any available, and access your Up Next queue if you have one.
To open the Now Playing screen, tap the mini player at the bottom of any screen within the app (if the mini player isn’t showing then there is no episode in the player and no Up Next queue available).
Now Playing
As well as play/pause, the Now Playing page has skip buttons with customisable durations and a customisable toolbar providing a variety of actions you can take:
Playback Effects
Sleep Timer
Star Episode
Share
Go to Podcast
Chromecast
Mark as Played
Archive
Some podcasts have per episode, and even per chapter, artwork embedded in their MP3s. You can view this in the full screen player by turning on the following setting: Profile > settings cog > Appearance > Use embedded podcast artwork.
Notes & Chapters
To access the Now Playing episode’s notes tap the Notes heading, or swipe the screen from right to left.
If the episode has chapters, there will also be a Chapters page available to tap or swipe to. To skip through chapters, tap the arrows directly below the artwork, or tap the chapter you wish to skip to on the Chapters page.
Up Next
Check out how to add episodes to the app’s playlist, Up Next, here. To view your Up Next queue tap the 
Up Next button on the mini player or in the full screen player, or swipe up in the full screen player.
To re-arrange your queue you can:
- Long press the drag handle on an episode row to drag & drop the episode to a different spot in the queue.
- Swipe an episode row from left to right. A short swipe will bring up buttons to send the episode to the top or bottom of the queue. A long swipe will send the episode to the top of the queue by default. You can change the default long swipe action via Profile > settings cog > General > Up Next swipe.
- Tap the
Multi-select button > select the episodes you wish to move > tap the vertical ellipsis > Move to Top or Move to Bottom.
To remove episodes from your queue while in the Up Next screen you can:
- Tap an episode row > tap the
remove from Up Next button on the episode card.
- Swipe an episode in the queue from right to left.
- Tap the Multi-select button and then:
- select the episodes you wish to remove > tap Remove button in the toolbar.
- tap the vertical ellipsis > Select all or Select none > tap Remove button in the toolbar.
- long press an episode > Select all above or Select all below > tap Remove button in the toolbar.
- Tap CLEAR QUEUE to remove all queued episodes. Please note that you will be asked to confirm this action if you have more than 3 episodes queued.
By default, a long press on an episode in your Up Next queue will automatically play that episode. You can change this to playing from only a tap on the episode row via Profile > settings cog > General > Play Up Next episode on tap.
While in multi-select mode in the Up Next screen, you can also download or archive episodes, or mark them as played.
Pro Tip:
Long press the skip forward button in the player for Mark played and Next episode options.
Warning:
Archiving or marking an episode as played will automatically remove that episode from your Up Next queue.
When in multi-select mode on a podcast’s page, in a filter, or in the Downloads list, you can customize the multi-select action bar with your two most used actions, and the rest are then only a tap away!
To enter multi-select mode you can:
- Long press on any episode row.
- Tap the three dot menu > Select Episodes.
- Use the native 2 finger pan gesture.
This will bring up the multi-select action bar, giving you quick access to:
- Play Next
- Play Last
- Download
- Mark as Played
- Archive
- Star Episodes
To customize the multi-select action bar:
- Enter multi-select mode
- Select at least one episode
- Tap the
three dot menu in the action bar
- Tap Edit
- Long press an action’s
handle then drag the action to the preferred location within the SHORTCUT IN ACTION BAR or IN MENU sections.
Tapping on a podcast you’ve searched for, or one that’s caught your eye in the Discover tab, will take you to that podcast’s page. There you can view information about the podcast including its list of available episodes.
You can stream and download episodes from a podcast’s page without subscribing to it, but adding the podcast to your subscriptions will give you access to extra settings to customise your app experience. You can find a list of your subscriptions in the Podcasts tab.
Tap the 
button to add the podcast to your subscriptions. Tap the 
green subscribed tick to unsubscribe from the podcast.
Tap the ∨ or the podcast’s artwork to see the podcast’s description and details. Tap the ∧ or the podcast’s artwork again to hide this info.
You can connect to a Chromecast device and 
Share a link to the podcast from this page.
The search bar lets you search the episode titles and show notes within this podcast.
When subscribed, tap the bell icon to turn new episode notifications ON 
/OFF 
When subscribed, tap the settings cog to access per podcast settings:
The three dot menu gives options for arranging episodes and other actions you can take, whether subscribed to the podcast or not: Sort Episodes, Group Episodes, Download All, Archive All
Show Archived / Hide Archived lets you quickly see and hide archived episodes for this podcast. This option is also available as a global setting: Profile > General > Archived Episodes.
Episode Lists
An episode row has episode’s title, the podcast’s artwork, and a quick way to stream or download the episode. You can long press on the row action (a play or download icon) and choose from Download/Stream, Play next and Play last.
Tap on the episode row to open its episode card for further actions you can take, and to view its show notes.
☆ Star
Share
Download / 
Delete download / 
Stop downloading
Add to Up Next / 
Remove from Up Next
Play
Mark Played / 
Mark Unplayed
Archive / 
Unarchive
On a podcast’s page or in a filter, you can long press on a play or download icon and choose from Download/Stream or Play next and Play last.
Multi-select mode
On a podcast’s page or in a filter, you can long press on any episode row and then:
- Select episodes and then choose from the actions in the toolbar
- Or, long press the episode row again and choose from Select all above or Select all below, and then choose from the actions in the toolbar
- Or, tap Select all at the top-left of the screen, and then choose from the actions in the toolbar.
The Now Playing screen is where you can view the episode or file that is currently in the app’s player. From here you can interact with the episode, quickly view its notes, access Chapters if the episode has any available, and access your Up Next queue if you have one.
To open the Now Playing screen, tap the mini player at the bottom of any screen within the app (if the mini player isn’t showing then there is no episode in the player and no Up Next queue available).
Now Playing
As well as play/pause, the Now Playing page has skip buttons with customisable durations and a customisable toolbar providing a variety of actions you can take:
Sleep Timer
Playback Effects
Output Device
Star Episode
Share
Go to Podcast
Chromecast
Mark as Played
Archive Episode
Some podcasts have per episode, and even per chapter, artwork embedded in their mp3s. You can view this in the full screen player by turning on the following setting: Profile > settings cog > Appearance > Use Embedded Artwork.
Notes & Chapters
To access the Now Playing episode’s notes tap the Notes heading, or swipe the screen from right to left.
If the episode has chapters, there will also be a Chapters page available to tap or swipe to. To skip through chapters, tap the arrows directly below the artwork, or tap the chapter you wish to skip to on the Chapters page.
Up Next
Check out how to add episodes to the app’s playlist, Up Next, here. To view your Up Next queue tap the Up Next button on the mini player or in the full screen player, or swipe up in the full screen player.
To re-arrange your queue you can:
- Long press the drag handle on an episode row to drag & drop the episode to a different spot in the queue.
- Swipe an episode row from left to right. A short swipe will bring up buttons to send the episode to the top or bottom of the queue. A long swipe will send the episode to the top of the queue by default. You can change the default long swipe action via Profile > settings cog > General > Up Next Swipe.
- Tap Select to enter multi-select mode > select the episodes you wish to move > three dot menu > Move to Top or Move to Bottom.
To remove episodes from your queue while in the Up Next screen you can:
- Tap an episode row > tap the remove from Up Next button on the episode card.
- Swipe an episode from right to left in the Up Next queue.
- Tap Select in the Up Next queue to enter multi-select mode > select episodes you wish to remove > tap Remove in the multi-select action toolbar.
- Tap CLEAR QUEUE to remove all queued episodes. Please note that you will be asked to confirm this action if you have more than 3 episodes queued.
By default, a long press on an episode in your Up Next queue will automatically play that episode. You can change this to playing from only a tap on the episode row via Profile > settings cog > General > Play Up Next On Tap.
While in multi-select mode in the Up Next screen, you can also download or archive episodes, or mark them as played. Tap the three dot menu in the multi-select action bar to access these options.
Pro Tip:
You can also enter multi-select mode using the native 2 finger pan gesture in an episode list.
Pro Tip:
Long press the Skip Forward button in the player for Mark Played and Next Episode options.
Warning:
Archiving or marking an episode as played will automatically remove that episode from your Up Next queue.
Tapping on a podcast you’ve searched for, or one that’s caught your eye in the Discover tab, will take you to that podcast’s page. There you can view information about the podcast including its list of available episodes.
You can stream and download episodes from a podcast’s page without subscribing to it, but adding the podcast to your subscriptions will give you access to extra settings to customise your app experience. You can find a list of your subscriptions in the Podcasts tab.
Tap the button to add the podcast to your subscriptions. Tap the green subscribed tick to unsubscribe from the podcast.
Tap the ∨ or the podcast’s artwork to see the podcast’s description and details. Tap the ∧ or the podcast’s artwork again to hide this info.
You can connect to a Chromecast device and 
Share a link to the podcast from this page.
The search bar lets you search the episode titles and show notes within this podcast.
When subscribed, tap the bell icon to turn new episode notifications ON /OFF
When subscribed, tap the settings cog to access per podcast settings:
The three dot menu gives options for arranging episodes and other actions you can take, whether subscribed to the podcast or not: Select Episodes (multi-select mode), Sort Episodes, Group Episodes, Download All, Archive All
Show Archived / Hide Archived lets you quickly see and hide archived episodes for this podcast. This option is also available as a global setting: Profile > General > Archived Episodes.
Episode Lists
An episode row has episode’s title, the podcast’s artwork, and a quick way to stream or download the episode. Tap on the episode row to open its episode card for further actions you can take, and to view its show notes.
☆ Star
Share
Download / Delete download / Stop downloading
Add to Up Next / Remove from Up Next
Play
Mark Played / Mark Unplayed
Archive / Unarchive
Multi-select mode
On a podcast’s page or in a filter or in downloads page , you can long press on any episode row to enter multi-select mode and then:
- Select episodes and tap an action in the multi-select action bar.
- Or, long press the episode row again and choose from Select all above or Select all below, then tap an action in the multi-select action bar.
- Or, tap Select all at the top-left of the screen, then tap an action in the multi-select action bar
You can also enter multi-select mode by tapping the three dot menu > Select Episodes.
Customize the multi-select action bar
When in multi-select mode, you can customize the action bar with your 2 most used actions, and the rest are then only a tap away. Long press on any episode in a list to enter multi-select mode > tap the three dot menu in the multi-select action bar > select Edit and hold the ≡ handle to drag and drop the actions to the preferred location > tap Done to save the changes.
The actions include:
- Play Next
- Play Last
- Download
- Mark as Played
- Archive
- Star Episodes
Pro Tip:
You can also enter multi-select mode using the native 2 finger pan gesture in an episode list.
With podcasts made to be an on-the-go medium, it helps to have them downloaded and ready to go whenever and wherever you are. You can manually download the episodes you like individually or in bulk, or the app can be set to
automatically download new episodes as they’re released.
To manually download an individual episode:
- Tap on an episode row, then tap the download button.
- In a list of episodes, the episode rows have a play button by default. You can customise this to be a download button instead so that you can download episodes with just one tap: Profile > settings cog > General > Row Action > Download.
To manually download episodes in bulk:
Multi-select mode
On a podcast’s page, or in a filter you can long press on any episode row to enter multi-select mode and then:
- Select the episodes and tap Download in the multi-select action bar.
- Or, long press the episode again and choose from Select all above or Select all below, then tap Download in the multi-select action bar.
- Or, tap Select all at the top-left of the screen, then tap Download in the multi-select action bar.
By default,
Download is in the action bar’s
three dot menu, but you can
customise the action bar so that it is one of your shortcuts.
Download All
On a podcast’s page or in a filter, you can tap the three dot menu
and select
Download All to download all the visible episodes. If archived episodes are visible then they will be downloaded by this action, if they are hidden they won’t be downloaded.
For full list of your downloaded episodes, regardless of podcast subscription, tap Profile > Downloads.
To manage your downloads:
- automatically delete the downloaded files once you are done via archiving,
- or manually clear and manage the storage
Note:
Bulk downloading actions are limited to the first 100 episodes.
With podcasts made to be an on-the-go medium, it helps to have them downloaded and ready to go whenever and wherever you are. You can manually download the episodes you like individually or in bulk, or the app can be set to automatically download new episodes as they’re released.
To manually download an individual episode:
- Tap on an episode row, then tap the download button.
- In a list of episodes, the episode rows have a play button by default. You can customise this to be a download button instead so that you can download episodes with just one tap: Profile > settings cog > General > Row Action > Download.
- Long press on the play icon in the episode row to download the episodes without changing the row setting.
To manually download episodes in bulk:
Multi-select mode
- On a podcast’s page, or in a filter you can long press on any episode in a list and tap the download button– you can also tap other episodes in the list to select those
- Or long press on an episode in a list, then long press again, choose Select all above or Select all below, then tap the download button
- Or long press on an episode in a list, then tap the vertical ellipsis, tap Select all, tap any episodes you don’t wish to download to deselect them, then tap the download button. If you wish to deselect all to start again, tap the vertical ellipsis and tap Select none to clear your selections
Download All
On a podcast’s page or in a filter, you can tap the vertical ellipsis and select Download All to download all the visible episodes. If archived episodes are visible then they will be downloaded by this action, if they are hidden they won’t be downloaded.
For full list of your downloaded episodes, regardless of podcast subscription, tap Profile > Downloads.
To manage your downloads:
- automatically delete the downloaded files once you are done via archiving,
- or manually clear and manage the storage
Note:
Bulk downloading actions are limited to the first 100 episodes.
The Pocket Casts Apple Watch app has two play sources, Phone and Watch 
. The Watch Play Source is a Pocket Casts Plus feature that gives you the ability to listen to episodes on your Apple Watch Series 3 or later, without needing to have your iPhone with you! All you need is a pair of Bluetooth headphones or a Bluetooth speaker (learn how to pair Bluetooth devices with your watch here).
In the Watch Play Source, episodes can be downloaded to your watch for offline listening, or if you have a watch with a cellular connection, you can stream episodes directly from your watch to the Bluetooth connected device of your choice.
How to download episodes to your watch:
Manual Downloads
To manually download an episode, tap it to open the Episode Details screen > tap Download.
Please note that to access the Episode Details of the Now Playing episode from the player, you will need to firmly press the Now Playing screen.
Auto Downloads
Auto Download is available for episodes in your Up Next queue; this can be switched on/off in the phone app only via Profile > settings > Apple Watch > Auto Download Up Next.
When this setting is first enabled, it may take a couple of hours for the first downloads to appear on your watch.
Improving Watch Downloads
Watch episode downloads can occur via:
- Wi-Fi directly to the watch
- Bluetooth from the phone
- Cellular (for cellular enabled watches)
Downloads generally occur fastest when using Wi-Fi. The following suggestions should force the watch to use Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth:
- Put your iPhone in Airplane mode
- Put the watch on the charger
Please note: if the screen turns off during a download, the download will continue in the background. WatchOS handles scheduling of the background download and downloads may be throttled if conditions are poor (low battery, limited CPU resources). During background downloads the download progress may not be updated. Pocket Casts will be informed when the download completes or fails.
You can choose what to play on your watch, whether streamed or downloaded, from the main menu:
Now Playing
You can control the currently playing episode from the Now Playing screen which includes:
- Play / Pause button
- Skip Forward / Skip Back buttons
- These will match the Skip Forward / Skip Back settings you have set on your phone
- Playback Effects button
- Tap this icon to access Playback Speed
- Volume icon
- Use the watch’s crown to change the volume when this screen is active
- Up Next button
- This will display the number of episodes in your Up Next queue up to 9; it will display “9+” if there are more than 9 episodes
Swipe left from the Now Playing screen for options to view Episode Details for the current episode, or for the episode to be Mark Played.If there are chapters, Previous Chapter and Next Chapter buttons will also be listed.
Up Next
This section will display the current episode in the player (Now Playing), and the episodes in your Up Next queue up to a maximum of 50 episodes. Tap on an episode to go to its Episode Details screen.
Podcasts
This section will display the podcasts you have subscribed to on your phone.
Tap on a podcast to see the list of episodes in that podcast (up to a maximum of 50 episodes). Episodes on podcast’s page are sorted Newest to Oldest by default.
To change the Sort order, pull down from a podcast’s page > Sort Episodes. Changing the episode’s sort order on the watch, won’t change the sort order on your phone, and vice versa.
Filters
This section will display the Filters you have on your phone: New Release, In Progress, Starred, plus any custom filters you’ve created. Tap on a Filter to see the list of episodes in that Filter up to a maximum of 50 episodes. Filter episodes are sorted as per the settings on your phone.
Downloads
This section will display the list of episodes and user files that are downloaded on your watch up to a maximum of 50 episodes.
Files
This section will display the list of files that are in the Files section on your phone up to a maximum of 50 files. Tap a File to go to its File Details screen for options. Files are sorted Newest to Oldest by default.
Pro Tip:
To switch Play Sources tap the back arrow until you reach the Play Source screen.
Pro Tip:
Firmly press any Episode Details screen for options to go to Now Playing, or the Main Menu.
Note:
Archived episodes won’t be displayed in the watch app.
Depending on your requirements, you can personalise the look of the app.
Profile >
Setting >
Appearance – is where you can find all the options.
Theme
- Light
- Dark
- Indigo
- Extra Dark
For Plus users
- Electricity
- Classic
- Radioactivity
Use Android Light/Dark Mode – Toggle this on to follow the system appearance as per the device setting.
App Icon
- Default
- Dark
- Round Light
- Round Dark
- Indigo
- Pocket Cats
- Red Velvet
For Plus users
- Plus
- Classic
- Electric Blue
- Electric Pink
- Radioactivity
Podcast Artwork
Show artwork on lock screen – This will show the currently playing podcast’s artwork on the device lock screen and also on connected Bluetooth devices, watches etc. Profile > Settings > Appearance > toggle ‘Show artwork on lock screen‘ on.
Use Embedded Artwork – We support artwork that has been embedded into the audio file itself. Toggle this setting on to allow the app to use per-episode artwork from the downloaded file (if it exists). Profile > Settings > Appearance > toggle ‘Use embedded artwork‘ on.
Refresh All Podcast Artwork – When artwork is stuck or hasn’t updated, tap this to refresh all your podcast images.
Pro Tip:
Long press the toolbar to see the theme change magically from light -> dark and vice versa!
Depending on your requirements, you can personalise the look of the app.
Profile >
Setting >
Appearance – is where you can find all the options.
Theme
- Light
- Dark
- Rosé
- Extra Dark
- Indigo
- Dark Contrast
- Light Contrast
For Plus users
- Electricity
- Classic
- Radioactivity
Use iOS Light/Dark Mode – Toggle this on to follow the system appearance as per the device setting.
When it’s on, the app will change to the Light Theme and Dark Theme you’ve chosen on the appearance page when iOS changes to light or dark mode.
When it’s off, the app will always show the same theme regardless of the phone being in light or dark mode.
App Icon
- Default
- Dark
- Round Light
- Round Dark
- Indigo
- Rosé
- Pocket Cats
- Red Velvet
For Plus users
- Plus
- Classic
- Electric Blue
- Electric Pink
- Radioactivity
Podcast Artwork
Refresh All Podcast Artwork – When artwork is stuck or hasn’t updated, tap this to refresh.
Use Embedded Artwork – We support artwork that has been embedded into the audio file itself. Toggle this setting on to allow the app to use per-episode artwork. Profile > Settings > Appearance > toggle ‘Use embedded artwork‘ on.
