Pocket Casts is available as a native app for Google TV and Android TV, letting you play your podcasts and playlists on the big screen and discover new shows. The app is built for a remote control, and your library, Up Next queue, and listening progress all sync with your other devices.
A Google TV or Android TV device running Android 9 or later — for example a Google TV Streamer, Chromecast with Google TV, Nvidia Shield, or an Android TV box. The TV app arrived in Pocket Casts 8.21.
Signing in with a Pocket Casts account is recommended so your podcasts and playback sync across devices, but you can also browse without one.
- On your TV, open the Google Play Store
- Search for Pocket Casts
- Select Install
- Open Pocket Casts from your apps row once it has installed
There is no separate TV app to buy — it’s the same Pocket Casts app as on your phone, in a version designed for the big screen. New releases reach the Play Store gradually, so if you don’t see it on your TV yet, check again in a few days.
On the welcome screen, choose Log in, then pick one of two methods.
This is the fastest way to sign in. A QR code and a short confirmation code appear on your TV.
- On your phone, scan the QR code — or open pocketcasts.com/pair in a browser
- Log in or create your account
- Check that the code shown matches the one on your TV, then confirm it to approve the TV
Your TV moves on by itself once you have approved it.
Keep the Pocket Casts mobile app up to date for the smoothest QR sign-in. On recent versions, scanning the code with the app opens the approval screen inside Pocket Casts. On older versions — or if you scan with your phone’s plain camera app — your browser opens pocketcasts.com/pair instead, where you can finish signing in.
Switch to the manual option and type your Pocket Casts email and password using the on-screen keyboard.
Don’t have an account yet? Choose Create free account on the welcome screen and follow the same QR flow to create one from your phone.
You can also choose Browse without an account to explore Discover, search, and play individual episodes without signing in. Anything that needs an account — following a podcast, building your Up Next queue, or syncing — will prompt you to log in or create one.
The app’s tabs run across the top of the screen:
- Home — recommended shows, curated collections, categories to browse, new releases, and your Up Next queue
- Your Podcasts — the podcasts and folders you follow
- Playlists — your playlists
- Up Next — your play queue
- Now Playing — the episode currently playing. This tab appears only while something is playing
- Search — find podcasts and episodes
Your profile picture in the top-left corner opens a menu with your Starred episodes, your Listening History, and your account and settings options.
Open Search to look for a show by name, author, or topic, with suggestions appearing as you type. Results are grouped into top results, podcasts, and episodes. The same screen also lets you browse categories such as Arts, Business, and Comedy, and shows featured picks — sponsored recommendations are labelled as such.
Opening a podcast shows its artwork, description, and episode list side by side. From here you can Follow this podcast, open More info, change the episode sort order, and show or hide archived episodes. Selecting an episode reveals its actions — mark as played, archive, and add to Up Next — and partly played episodes show their progress and time left.
Your followed podcasts and folders appear under Your Podcasts, and your Up Next queue is available and stays in sync as you add, remove, and play episodes.
You can play your existing playlists on the TV, including playing a whole playlist in one go. Creating, editing, and deleting playlists is done in the mobile or desktop apps.
The player shows the episode artwork, title, and a scrubber with elapsed and remaining time. From the controls you can change the playback speed, open Effects to turn on Trim Silence and Volume Boost, and open the episode details to read the show notes.
Video podcasts play on the TV too, and can be watched full screen.
The Settings screen, reached from your profile menu, shows your Subscription status and links to the Privacy policy and Terms of use. There is also a Use episode artwork toggle, which switches between individual episode artwork and the podcast’s own artwork throughout the app.
Logging out clears the Pocket Casts data stored on the TV and returns you to the welcome screen. Logging back in syncs everything again from your account.
When you’re signed in, your podcasts, folders, playlists, Up Next queue, listening progress, and episode status (played, archived, and starred) sync with your phone and other devices, so you can pick up on the TV right where you left off.
The TV app streams episodes over the internet. You can’t download episodes on Android TV or Google TV, and there is no offline playback. This is by design — it isn’t a fault with your device, your account, or your internet connection.
Because nothing is ever downloaded on the TV, a playlist that filters by downloaded episodes will be empty on your TV. It shows no episodes — zero episodes — even when the same playlist is full on your phone. Downloads aren’t shared between devices, and since the TV can’t download at all, that filter never matches anything there. Nothing is wrong with the playlist, and it still works normally everywhere else.
To listen offline, download the episodes in Pocket Casts on your phone or tablet instead.
The TV app is built for a streamlined, big-screen listening experience, so it covers the essentials — streaming your followed podcasts, folders, playlists, and Up Next queue; playing both audio and video podcasts; playback speed, Trim Silence and Volume Boost; Discover and Search; and syncing with your other devices. A few features from the phone and tablet apps aren’t available on TV:
- Downloads and offline playback — episodes stream over the internet and can’t be downloaded on a TV, as described above
- Creating or editing playlists — you can play your existing playlists, but you’ll need the mobile or desktop app to create or change them
- Uploaded Files — your own uploaded audio and video files aren’t available on TV
- Bookmarks
- Chapters
- Transcripts
- Sleep timer
- Sharing and clips
- Stats screen — you can’t view your Listening Stats on the TV app, but the time you listen there still counts toward your stats (total listening time and time saved). Open Profile > Stats on your phone or the web player to see them
For any of these, use Pocket Casts on your phone, tablet, or the web player. Your account and listening progress stay in sync.
If your TV or streaming device doesn’t run Google TV or Android TV, you can use Chromecast to play podcast episodes from your phone or tablet instead.
Using an Apple TV? See Pocket Casts for Apple TV.
