Apple Watch: Watch Play Source

The Pocket Casts Apple Watch app has two play sources: Phone and Watch . You can tell which Play Source you’re using by looking at the top of the watch app screen. It will either say “P” for the Phone play source or “W” for the Watch.

This support article focuses on the standalone Watch play source, a Pocket Casts Plus feature that allows you to listen to podcasts without your phone, as it allows the app to directly sync with our servers.

The Watch play source allows you to listen to episodes on your Apple Watch Series 3 or later independently of your phone. Since the Watch play source allows your watch to sync directly to our servers, you won’t need to take your phone with you to enjoy Pocket Casts on the go.

The only time the Watch play source needs the phone app is when the watch app is first set up. 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.

You can choose what to play on your watch, whether streamed or downloaded, from the main menu:

• Now Playing
• Up Next
• Podcasts
• Playlists 
• Downloads
• Files

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.

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.

This section will display the podcasts you have followed 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.

This section will display the playlists you have on your phone: New Release, In Progress, Starred, plus any custom Smart Playlists and Playlists you’ve created. Tap on a playlist to see the list of episodes in that playlist up to a maximum of 50 episodes. Playlist episodes are sorted as per the settings on your phone.

This section will display the list of episodes and user files that are downloaded on your watch up to a maximum of 50 episodes.

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.

With the Watch Play Source, you can stream episodes directly from your watch to the Bluetooth-connected device of your choice—either a Bluetooth speaker or a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

You can follow Apple’s guide on pairing Bluetooth devices with your watch here: Use AirPods and other Bluetooth accessories with Apple Watch.

If you have a watch with a cellular connection, you can also download episodes to your watch for offline listening in the Watch Play Source.

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 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.

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.

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

• 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.
• Apple Watch app logs, which you can collect by following these steps:
  1. Open the iPhone app, and go to Profile > Help & Feedback.
  2. Before tapping “Get in touch”, open the Pocket Casts app on your Apple Watch.
  3. 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.