Apple Watch

In addition to Wear OS support for the Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch, and others on Android, the Pocket Casts Apple Watch app helps you keep up to date with your favorite podcasts when you’re on the go!

The Pocket Casts Apple Watch app has the following Play Sources to choose from:

• Phone play source – This Play Source is available to all users. It complements your iPhone app, giving you the ability to choose and control what is playing on your iPhone from your watch.
• Watch play source – This 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). 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.

Podcasts will play from the speaker that the chosen device is connected to.

If the Pocket Casts watch app isn’t automatically installed on your Apple Watch, you can install it manually in one of two ways:

• Installing the Pocket Casts watch app via the App Store on your Apple Watch:
  • Press the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to open the apps view
  • Tap App Store
  • Search Pocket casts
  • Tap download
• Installing the Pocket Casts watch app via your iPhone:
  • Open the iOS Watch app on your iPhone
  • Tap My Watch, then scroll down to Available Apps
  • Tap Install next to Pocket Casts

Try rebooting both the Watch and the iPhone first to see if that resolves the issue. In most instances, rebooting resolves issues with complications.

There is a known issue when adjusting sound levels using the Apple Watch’s digital crown. Currently, this is not something we can fix because Apple entirely controls how the digital crown works, down to its UI.

If this is an issue we can affect in the future, however, we will look into it again.

There is a known issue where Play Source is not synced to Apple Watch. This is currently reported and worked on at https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios/issues/2240.

There is a known issue where the Apple Watch app will crash when tapping on Refresh Data. This is being tracked at https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-ios/issues/2242.

We have found that this is primarily affecting devices that are running watchOS 10.6.1. If you’re able to upgrade to watchOS 11, we recommend doing so as that generally resolves the issue.

There is a known issue where after being idle on the watch for a while (e.g., sleep mode), the Watch will replay most of previous user actions (e.g., play, pause, skip forward). Our developers are aware of this and you can feel free to track the progress of the issue on GitHub.

No, the Bookmarks feature is not yet supported on the Apple Watch app.

The answer to this depends on the play source you’re using in the Apple Watch app, so it’s important to check which one you have. You can tell which Play Source you’re using by looking at the upper-left corner of the watch app screen. It will either say “P” for the Phone play source or “W” for the standalone Watch play source.

If you’re using the Phone play source, you will definitely need your phone.

However, if you’re using the Watch play source that comes with Pocket Casts Plus, you will only need your phone while setting up the watch app. Specifically, the phone app will need to be open when you press “Refresh Account” so the watch can ask your phone for your login credentials, which will then allow it to sync to our servers all on its own after setup. This is a one-off event. After setup, your watch will sync to our servers without needing your phone as an intermediary.

As of Pocket Casts version 7.90, the Apple Watch app requires watchOS 9 or later.

If you are using the Pocket Casts app on an Apple Watch with watchOS 11 and higher you can use gesture controls to play and pause episode playback. These Apple Watch models include Apple Watch Series 9, SE 3, and Ultra 2 and newer.

To play or pause an episode, open the playing screen on the watch, then double tap using the thumb and index finger.

If you experience issues with the Apple Watch app, please feel free to reach out to us with a few key bits of information:

Tap “Get in touch,” then “Get Support.” The email that comes up should have two attachments. One will be the phone log and the other will be the watch log.

• A clear description of your issue, which includes steps to replicate it and, if possible, a video that shows it.
• The play source you’re using – Phone or Watch. It’s important to check which play source you’re using, as they work a bit differently. You can tell which Play Source you’re using by looking at the upper-left corner of the watch app screen. It will either say “P” for the Phone play source or “W” for the standalone Watch play source.
  1. Apple Watch app logs, which you can collect by following these steps:
  2. Open the iPhone app, and go to Profile > Help & Feedback.
  3. Before tapping “Get in touch”, open the Pocket Casts app on your Apple Watch.