iOS 18.2 improves Apple’s Podcasts app, but my biggest complaint is unchanged

2 weeks ago 4

Apple’s Podcasts app has received solid updates recently, like its killer transcripts feature—and more is coming in iOS 18.2. But all these improvements have come while a core app problem has gone unaddressed.

Two new iOS 18.2 features improve podcast discovery

Let’s start with the good.

There are two improvements to Apple Podcasts in iOS 18.2 geared toward podcast discovery.

You can now choose favorite podcast categories, which should improve podcast recommendations in the app.
The app’s Search page is now personalized, highlighting categories and curated collections that better suit your listening habits.

Both of these changes are nice additions to the app, and they complement each other too.

For example, once you select your favorite podcast categories, those categories will instantly be featured more prominently inside Search.

I’m all for making the Podcasts app better, but despite this year’s upgrades, the core part of the app experience still feels broken for me.

I’m talking about the Up Next interface inside Home.

Apple Podcasts’ core feature feels broken

For those unfamiliar with the Apple Podcasts app, Up Next works a lot like what you’ll find in Apple’s other media apps.

in Music, it’s the Top Picks for You section
in TV, it’s now called Continue Watching, and has shows and movies you’ve been watching or have saved for later
in Books, it’s called Continue and includes all books you’ve been reading

In every app, you’ll find it at the top of the Home tab: the most prominent section of the app’s default tab.

Apple Podcasts makes Up Next the primary way for users to play podcasts from shows they follow.

In other words, unless you’re constantly searching for and discovering new podcasts, the vast majority of your app use will involve interacting with Up Next.

It’s meant to be a one-stop hub for playing podcasts.

But ever since Apple adopted the Up Next system several years ago, it’s had several shortcomings that make it a pain to use.

Five reasons Up Next needs attention

Here’s a quick rundown of five issues that make Up Next feel broken for me:

Information Density: You can only see one and a half podcasts at a time, so it’s not easy to get an overview of everything you have available to listen to.
Slow Swiping: Making the above problem even worse, you can’t quickly swipe to browse your podcasts in Up Next—there’s a forced staggered swipe that slows you down.
Hidden Episodes: If you have multiple unplayed episodes of a show, there’s no way to know that in Up Next. It only shows the latest episode with no visual indicator of how many others are available.
Cluttered Feed: Most of my podcast listening involves shows I follow. However, when an episode gets recommended from a new show, I will listen then expect to be done with it. Unfortunately, that show’s next episode then gets added to my Up Next feed, cluttering it. Apple should know that if I wanted to keep listening to further episodes, I would follow the show.
Adding to Up Next: On a related note, when I listen to a one-off episode (for a show I don’t follow), it’s surprisingly hard to add that episode to Up Next. Podcasts lets you play the episode next, or save it, but neither of these actions has reliably added it to Up Next—so I usually forget the episode exists. I’ve noticed an improvement recently when saving episodes, so hopefully Apple’s implemented a fix.

Wrap-up

I’ve used Apple Podcasts for years, so I know there are ways to navigate into other parts of the app to get around lots of the above issues. But that’s not the point.

Up Next is intended to be a one-stop hub for users’ podcasts, and it does a poor job of that right now.

What do you think of the iOS 18.2 changes to Podcasts? How do you feel about Up Next? Let us know in the comments.