Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 and launched its first standalone mobile app in 2012. The app was later pre-installed with iOS beginning October 2014. The Apple Podcasts directory features more than two million shows. Apple Podcasts is available on iOS,

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the only ...

tvOS tvOS (formerly known as Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second-generatio ...

CarPlay CarPlay is an Apple standard which enables a car radio or head unit to be a display and a controller for an iOS device. It is available on all iPhone models beginning with iPhone 5 running iOS 7.1 or later. According to Apple's website, all ...

, Microsoft Windows operating systems, and on

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio ...

devices.

History

Apple was an early promoter of podcasts (the term is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsiPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

music player and "

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

"), and added playback functionality to iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 and built a directory of shows in its

iTunes Music Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, starting with 3,000 entries. In April 2020, Apple Podcasts surpassed one million shows. In June 2021, Apple launched the option for podcast creators to implement paid subscriptions through podcast channels.

Market share

Apple Podcasts had an estimated 28 million U.S. monthly listeners and 23.8% market share in March 2021, the first month it fell behind

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Podcasts as the top podcasting platform in the U.S. This was a decrease from Apple's 34% market share in 2018.

Application platforms

iOS, tvOS, and watchOS versions

A standalone Apple Podcasts app was announced at the 2012

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in t ...

as a feature of

iOS 6 iOS 6 is the iOS version history, sixth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc, being the successor to iOS 5. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers Confere ...

. Apple released the app early on the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

on June 26, 2012. It adds a new "stations" feature for discovering new podcasts. It is a standard app on

. A standalone Apple Podcasts app was brought to 2nd and 3rd generation

Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ...

s on September 24, 2012, with the Software 6.0 update. The

-based 4th generation Apple TV launched in October 2015 without the ability to play podcasts. This was despite a Podcasts icon appearing on the home screen in commercials, in-store demo loops, and developer documentation. Apple Podcasts was added with tvOS 9.1.1 released on January 26, 2016. Apple Podcasts was added to the

Apple Watch Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches produced by Apple Inc. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with iOS and other Apple products and services. The Apple Watch was ...

with watchOS 5 on September 17, 2018.

macOS and Windows versions

Apple Podcasts for

and Microsoft Windows was initially available as part of the iTunes app, which added support for podcasts in version 4.9 in June 2005. Apple announced at WWDC 2019 that iTunes for macOS would be split and replaced by the

Music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

, TV and Podcasts apps with the release of

macOS Catalina macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and released to the p ...

. Apple Podcasts remains available through iTunes on Microsoft Windows.

Smart speakers

Apple's

HomePod The HomePod is a smart speaker developed by Apple Inc. The HomePod was designed to work with the Apple Music subscription service. The HomePod was announced on June 5, 2017, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Its launch was later de ...

family supports Podcasts using a

voice user interface A voice-user interface (VUI) makes spoken human interaction with computers possible, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer questions, and typically text to speech to play a reply. A voice command device is a device co ...

. Support for Apple Podcasts was added to the

Amazon Echo Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is an American brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service '' Alexa'', which will respond when a user says "Alexa". Use ...

line in December 2019.

Apple Podcasts Award

Reception

Critical reviews of the Apple Podcasts app have generally been mixed. In 2012,

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editor ...

stated it "offers an opportunity to break through the clutter of iTunes". In 2017, ''Slate'' criticized it for glitches and low-quality audio. In 2019, ''Vulture'' called the app "a bummer" and "bare-bones and fairly clunky, even when it comes to basic functions like subscribing."

References

{{Apple Podcasting software IOS software WatchOS software MacOS software Apple Inc. software IOS-based software made by Apple Inc.