Overcast @OvercastFM@mirrored.social

RT vercast (@OvercastFM
It didn’t. Seeing ads suddenly? Maybe your renewal didn’t get picked up properly? Restore Previous Purchases to fix.

RT @bellocollective
Podcasts alone won't solve racism in America, but they can deepen our understanding of the oppressive systems at work and our roles in abolishing them today and every day.

Here are 16 podcasts that confront anti-Black racism head on. https://medium.com/m/global-identity?redirectUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fbellocollective.com%2F16-podcasts-that-confront-racism-in-america-f8f69baf529d

Just found and fixed a bug that caused many of you not to receive notifications. Sorry about that!

After the next time you open the app, you should start to receive notifications and background refreshes normally.

I thought Watch direct-downloads would work better for everyone, but they’ve ended up being worse for some customers. I’m sorry if you’re among them.

I’ve mostly figured out why, and I’m working on the next update that should provide reliable downloads in more conditions.

Podcast listenership is slowly increasing toward pre-quarantine levels.

Here's graphs of Overcast's daily (valleys are weekends) and weekly sessions.

The first few weeks of quarantine were down about 16% from the prior average.

Last week was down only 12%.

No. There’s no difference in Watch functionality with Premium.

People often buy Premium thinking it’ll make Watch transfers better. I don’t know where this misinformation comes from, but please don’t buy it for that!

Watch functionality is free, and the same, for everyone. https://twitter.com/michaeljnicks/status/1260416865647513600

Apple Watch offline ability is still there! Streaming is an addition, not a replacement.

Episodes that now display the streaming cloud are waiting to be downloaded when watchOS thinks power and Wi-Fi are sufficient.

They would’ve previously just not been shown at all. https://twitter.com/reubenhenriques/status/1260191958347255808

Server downtime right now due to an issue at my server host. Sorry about that!

I’ll do what I can to get it fixed quickly.

Unfortunately, watchOS doesn't allow third-party apps to use the built-in speaker on the Watch for any audio type that's capable of playing in the background or with the screen off. https://twitter.com/jesterinabox/status/1258780963611586561

I’d LOVE to be able to force a Watch download to start even if it’s not charging, but watchOS doesn’t provide a good way.

Any watchOS download I create in “start-now” mode won’t continue in the background, so the moment the screen turns off or you switch apps, it fails. https://twitter.com/fischest70/status/1258776692186849281

More significant improvements planned:

- Completely standalone sync with Overcast servers (requires lots more UI for settings, etc.; waiting to see this summer's SwiftUI changes)

- Full audio engine with Smart Speed, Voice Boost (waiting for watchOS API improvements)

Downsides:
- after the update, everything needs to be redownloaded
- Smart Speed and Voice Boost are no longer baked in, but your speed settings still apply

Upsides:
- WAY more reliable
- Streaming now available
- Saves significant battery usage on your phone

Latest update improves how episodes sync to Apple Watch for standalone playback.

Old way: phone transferred episodes slowly over Bluetooth when Watch was charging.

New way: Watch now downloads episodes directly over Wi-Fi when charging, or streams () over Wi-Fi or cellular!

Not receiving new-episode notifications for the last day or two?

Happened for a lot of people. Sorry about that. I’ve fixed it now.

Podcast listening is down, but not as much as you’d think. Here’s my daily and weekly app sessions.

Weekends are always about 30% lower than weekdays.

Quarantine reduced the weekdays by 20% (likely commuters), but weekends are unchanged.

Total usage is only down about 15%.

Scammers sometimes sell access to betas, including mine. Please don’t pay!

Overcast’s beta is public and free. Anyone can join here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ua0oicPc 

Discuss or report problems in the Overcast Slack group: https://overcast.fm/betaslack

Introducing Voice Boost 2 in Overcast, which brings mastering-quality volume leveling to your podcasts: https://marco.org/2020/01/31/voiceboost2

Also in this update (v. 2020.1):

- AirPlay 2 (with Smart Speed and Voice Boost, of course)
- Skip intros/outros by X seconds
- Restored iOS 12 support

Spotify’s ad tech will continue to expand, but it will only affect podcasts if you listen to them in Spotify.

Keep using independent podcast apps, and the surveillance abilities by large podcast publishers will remain extremely limited. https://twitter.com/NathanBLawrence/status/1214978492246265856

Updates are delayed this morning due to a server issue. It’s resolved now and the queue is catching up. Sorry about that.

Sorry, the last update required watchOS 6, inadvertently cutting off Apple Watch Series 1–2 since watchOS 6 isn’t out for them yet.

If my app disappeared from your watch, this is why.

I’m submitting an update now that’s compatible with watchOS 5.2+. Should be out in a few days.