Podcasts is the Worst App Ever. Congratulations, Apple.
I am not an expert. My knowledge of technology and related fields is rudimentary, at best. I am not a code writer, nor am I involved in any kind of app development.
What I am is an Apple user. Among Apple users, I identify with the bunch that will get into heated debates with Android users in a battle-of-the-smart-phones. And that’s looking past all the cracked screens, dislodged home buttons, and ‘geniuses’ making me book an appointment to have them turn my phone off and back on again. Not to mention, a number of update blunders over the product life of the iPhone so far. But I’ve been able to look past all of it largely because of the simple, easy usability of the iOS and OSX operating systems. I’m sure other Apple users will agree...we’ve been a relatively satisfied, and thus patient, bunch of consumers.
iOS 11 is pretty neat. I will give it that. I’m not a fan of the notification centre or the dashboard due to their visually confusing nature, but the new features, add-ons to apps, and upgraded Siri are all on the right track to becoming better versions of themselves. So, here’s my question...
WHAT HAPPENED TO PODCASTS?
Since it’s birth, the Apple Podcasts app has been a smear in the intuitive grand scheme of Apple’s other apps. Regardless of being born in borderline-unusable form, the Podcasts app lived on for years without update. Endless complaints about this particular app fell on ears that didn’t seem to care.
And then they did it. Many, many iOS’s later, they finally did it. I love listening to podcasts, so this felt like a huge win after being patient for so many years. But as far as updates go, this was disappointment on an unprecedented scale.
They have new tabs, which sounded like they would change your whole podcast experience in the update description. They didn’t. We just had to re-learn where everything was, because it was the same content under newly-named categories. I’m a serial re-listener. So I tried to play my favourite podcast, “Congratulations with Chris D’Elia”, through from the beginning while I was stuck in rush hour traffic. This is apparently never going to happen, because it stops after every. single. episode. I am forced to go back into the app, find the podcast in my library, scroll through, and select the next episode. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Why must I create a queue every time I want to listen to Podcasts, Apple? Is it really so difficult to create options that are more intuitive than they were before? Because, to be totally frank, the bar was incredibly low already.
The list of my gripes with this app is long, but I won’t list them all. I don’t know what Apple’s approval process is, but this app seems to have gone straight from the blueprint to release. How could this possibly get approved? WHO thought this was better?! Or is it that you simply don’t care? This ‘update’, or as I prefer to call it, devolution of a long-complained-about and long-neglected app seems to demonstrate that you don’t. But if you do? Please. Fix it.
No one had ever conceived that this app could possibly be worse, and in the spirit of exceeding expectations with iOS11, I suppose they accomplished that goal. My faith in you is shook! Congratulations, Apple.
