Podcast Player App - Castbox
★ 5.0What it actually doesCastbox is a podcast player with search across a catalog of 95+ million episodes, offline downloads, cross-device synchronization, and recommendations, but suffers from persistent ads, download errors, and crashes on some platforms.
Actually does
- ✓Podcasts95% of reviews
- ✓Video player
- ✓Поиск и рекомендации подкастов35% of reviews
- ✓Offline-first20% of reviews
- ✓Sync across devices5% of reviews
- ✓Subscription15% of reviews
- ✓Реклама в бесплатной версии(bonus)35% of reviews
- ✓Background playback(bonus)10% of reviews
Claimed, but not confirmed by reviews
- ⚠Поддержка Apple CarPlay
- ⚠Интеграция с Amazon Alexa
- ⚠Sleep timer
- ⚠Playback Speed Control
Common complaints
- ✗Intrusive in-app advertising35% of mentions
«The ads are absolutely overwhelming. A block of ads starts and then you have to tap the close button for 5 minutes straight to stop the ads.»
- ✗Loading errors and podcasts not playing32% of mentions
«Many podcasts don't load, can't download episodes. The podcasts I need won't play and won't load.»
- ✗App crashes and freezes22% of mentions
«Over the past year, the app has been crashing much more frequently, constantly encountering errors. Macbook M1 pro crashes instantly after start»
- ✗Unknown subscriptions appearing automatically8% of mentions
«Strange political podcasts suddenly started appearing in my profile—podcasts I clearly didn't listen to and didn't subscribe to.»
- ✗Large app size (takes up storage space)8% of mentions
«The app unexpectedly bloated to almost 8 gigabytes! Fixed it by reinstalling.»
What people praise
- ★Huge selection of podcasts
«Huge selection of interesting podcasts. Lots of podcasts, you can find practically everything.»
- ★Ability to listen offline
«Can listen offline, convenient sorting. You can listen even with the phone switched off.»
- ★Background playback without subscription
«You can listen in background mode and you don't need to buy a subscription for that.»
- ★Convenient and intuitive interface
«Relatively simple and convenient interface. Everything is very convenient and well thought out.»
- ★Stability over 5+ years of use
«I've been using it for over 5 years. The best podcast app! Been using it for 6 years.»