What’s New

What’s New is a feed of messages from the Pocket Casts team inside the app. It covers new features, tips and tricks, announcements, known issues, and invitations to take part in user research. What’s New is available to Free, Plus, and Patron listeners in the Web player, the Desktop apps, iOS version 8.22 and later, and Android version 8.23 and later.

1. Tap the Profile tab.
2. Tap the What’s New button in the toolbar at the top of the screen. It shows an inbox icon. On iOS 8.22 and 8.23, it shows a bell icon instead.
3. Tap a message in the feed to read it.

You don’t need a Pocket Casts account to use What’s New in the mobile apps. If you aren’t signed in, the app keeps track of which messages you’ve read on that device only.

1. Sign in to your Pocket Casts account.
2. Click the inbox icon at the top of the player. A list of messages opens.
3. Click a message to open it.

• Messages are listed with the newest first.
• Opening a message marks it as read.
• A message can have several pages. In the mobile apps, swipe sideways to move between pages. In the Web player and Desktop apps, all pages appear in one view that you scroll.
• Some messages include a button that opens a feature, visits a link, or starts another action in the app.
• You can go back to a message you’ve already read for as long as it stays in your feed.

Select Read all in the feed to mark every message you can see as read without opening each one. Read all doesn’t delete any messages or remove them from the feed, and messages published afterward still arrive unread.

• A dot beside a message means you haven’t read that message yet.
• Web player and Desktop apps: a dot on the inbox icon means your feed has unread messages.
• Android and iOS: a dot on the Profile tab means there are new messages you haven’t been shown yet. It clears when you visit Profile. A dot on the What’s New button clears when you open the feed.

In the mobile apps, clearing the dot on the Profile tab or the What’s New button doesn’t mark your messages as read. Each message stays unread until you open it or use Read all. These two dots are tracked separately on each device, so they can look different on your phone and your tablet.

The Show unread dot setting is on by default. If you turn it off, Pocket Casts stops showing the dot on the Profile tab, the What’s New button, and the inbox icon. It doesn’t hide What’s New, mark any messages as read, or remove the dots beside individual messages in the feed.

1. Tap the Profile tab.
2. Tap the Settings cog.
3. Select General.
4. Under What’s New, toggle Show unread dot on or off.

1. Go to Profile.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Notifications.
4. Toggle Show unread dot on or off.

When you’re signed in, this setting syncs to your other devices that use the same Pocket Casts account.

When you’re signed in to the same Pocket Casts account on several devices, messages you open or mark as read are marked as read on your other devices too. Give the other device a moment to refresh before expecting the change to appear. The page you were on inside a message doesn’t sync.

Your feed itself can still differ between devices, because messages can be aimed at a particular platform, app version, or subscription.

Older messages can start out as read so that you don’t arrive to a backlog of unread announcements.

• Web player and Desktop apps: messages published before you created your Pocket Casts account stay in your feed, but they appear as already read.
• Android and iOS: when you install the app fresh, messages published before the installation are treated as read on that device.

Because of this, an app you updated from an older version can show different unread dots than a fresh installation of the same version.

Each message can be aimed at particular listeners, based on:

• Platform (Web player, iOS, or Android)
• Subscription (Free, Plus, or Patron)
• App version
• The dates the message is published and expires

So a message can appear on one device and not on another, or show different content. Messages that have expired disappear from the feed, even if you’ve already read them.

An empty feed can be normal: there may be no messages for your platform, app version, and subscription right now. Check that you’re connected to the internet and that your app is up to date (see How to Update the Pocket Casts App). On Android and iOS, What’s New needs version 8.23 and 8.22 or later, respectively.

Messages appear in your app’s language when a translation is available. Any text that hasn’t been translated is shown in English, so a message can contain some English.

No. You can’t delete messages from the feed or mark them as unread again, and you can’t reply to a message. What’s New is a one-way feed of updates from the Pocket Casts team, although a message may link to a survey or another page. If you need help, contact our support team.

You need an internet connection to get new messages and to sync which messages you’ve read. The mobile apps keep messages you’ve already loaded, so you may still be able to read them offline, but images, links, and buttons in a message may need a connection.

Reading a message about a paid feature doesn’t unlock that feature. To use it, you need the subscription it requires. Some messages shown to Free listeners include a button to upgrade.

No. What’s New is a feed inside the app, and its unread dot is separate from new episode notifications and from the badge on the Pocket Casts app icon. Turning off Show unread dot doesn’t change your new episode notification settings. To manage those, see Notifications.

What’s New is also separate from the screen that can pop up in the mobile apps after an update to highlight a new feature.