Stitcher for Podcasts 12+

Thank God they fixed the radom play bug. I would be listening to stitcher in my car, get out, and half way across the parking lot to the store stitcher would start playing on its own. I thought I was going crazy! At least it was consistently doing this. Now let’s hope their latest fix fixes it.

On a general note I’ve been listening to podcasts for well over 10 years now and really, there isn’t a great podcast player out there. Apple podcasts is weird, and all the rest are just confusing. Stitcher (again) while not perfect, has been the most consistent in quality and features. I still get confused navigating around at times but overall it’s the best I have found for a podcast player.

I really wish they would allow you to add podcasts that are custom or outside of what they already have loaded. That’s seems like a very ‘Apple’ thing to do which doesn’t work/fit.

The only reason I keep this app is to access premium content from earwolf. I otherwise find it extremely frustrating to use and not intuitive. The playlists are not very customizable in my experience. I can’t erase episodes from the list only mark them as played so the lists end up being very long and unwieldy. If I listen to one second of a podcast, it then shows up below any unplayed episodes so I have to scroll down the list to see it. You cannot manually reorder episodes to your preferred play order or set priorities so your favorite shows always show up first in the list. I also downloaded old episodes of a show since the archives are only on stitcher but then had to manually scroll back through years of podcast episodes to find the ones I downloaded since they only show up by order of release and don’t prioritize downloaded episodes. Either that or manually search for them or take the time to mark hundreds of episodes as played in order for the episodes to show up on the top of the list. I don’t want to have to go to a separate downloaded episodes list when I’ve taken the time to make a playlist for a specific podcast. The downloaded episodes of that podcast should show up first. These are just a few reasons why I strongly prefer Overcast as my go to podcast app. If stitcher made some of these changes I at least wouldn’t be actively angry anytime I tried to listen to threedom.

The app has some benefits and some premium content I enjoy. That being said, an app I’m paying a subscription price for should work better than the free apple podcast app. This app constantly freezes if it does not remain open. I’ll move from another app back to it to fast forward or start a new podcast and a grayed out version of the screen appears and none of the functions work. What I am listening to continues to play but I have to hard shut down the app and restart it if I want to use it. Not fun.

Additionally, I got the app specifically because it advertises its ability to sync with Sonos. Specific content is hard to find on Sonos and the app no longer keeps track of where it is. I have to try and remember exactly where I’m at in a podcast if I am listening through Sonos, find the podcast on my phone through the sticher app, and then fast forward to where I was to continue listening. This is necessary in reverse as well going from the phone to Sonos. The apps controls in Sonos also do not include any fast forward or rewind buttons other than the buggy option of trying to hold the forward or backwards buttons down. Feels like I’m using a tape player.

Not very premium for the price.