I am trying to be a more efficient user of Apple Podcasts.
I'm having trouble with the tips in this support article: "Download, save, and share podcast episodes on iPhone"; the link is:
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/download-save-or-share-podcasts-iph8615288a4/ios
First, it suggests I swipe left on an episode and then tap the download button. Because VO changes the gestures, I never know what to do when a support article suggests "swipe left". Under Actions on the rotor, all I find is "explore image" and "activate". There's nothing about downloading. I want to download when I'm on wi-fi and listen when I'm on my commute without wasting cellular data.
The article also suggest you can tap library then tap a show to see its information page. When I double-tap on a show it starts playing. How do I get to its "information page?".
There's also the suggestion that I can tap a "more button, which I don't find.
I've been using my phone since 2011 and see myself as fairly experienced, but I mostly use it for productivity. Some apps still make me feel like a beginner. I've mostly listened to podcasts with my Vr Stream or Windows but now that I have a phone with a lot of memory I want to start using it more for entertainment.
I am running the latest iOS 16.6.
Perhaps a general guide on how to interpret the gestures often given in support articles to work with VO would be of use as well.
Comments
downloading an episode
If you want to download an episode of a podcast you're already following:
Double tap the library tab
Find and double tap the shows button
scroll down until you find an episode you want to listen to. From here, all the options you want will be in the actions rotor.
HTH
I was in the wrong place.
Ah, my problem was that I was on the "listen now" and not the library screen. That's why I wasn't getting the actions from the rotor that I expected.
When following Apple support articles, it's important -- and I forgot this-- that you are on the screen the support article wants you to be on. I am so new to this app I didn't realize that the listen now screen wasn't the library screen. Thanks Brian for helping with this!
I also called Apple support and they remoted in with me and explained the names of each of the screens so I could better follow the support articles. We are at a disadvantage not being able to see the pictures of screens or watch YouTube videos where a demonstration includes the actual screen that you are supposed to be viewing.
I think Apple could modify its support articles to give some information about a screen so you know you are on the correct one.
You might want to try other podcast apps too.
Apple podcasts does not allow you to save your podcasts as a file, I forget what it's called now, where as apps like overcast and downcast does.
I prefer overcast because of the volume boost and speed up voices feature, that's not what it's called but it speeds up the audio if you need it.
I think these apps would be a bit more fiddly than the apple podcasts app but I thought I'd put my post out there just in case you'd like to try them.
There should be applevis entrries for both these apps if you want to take a look.
Apple Podcasts does allow…
Apple Podcasts does allow you to save as a file.
I prefer to download my podcasts before listening because my internet can sometimes be finicky.
The easiest way is by going through your recent episodes and downloading them by flicking down, I think it's twice to get to downloads.
Another way is by double-tapping on the show in your list of shows in the library.
You then need to either use the rotor by heading or swipe until you find the episodes and then download them with the actions rotor.
And as I'm writing this, I'm finding it very tedious, not the instructions I'm attempting to write, the whole process.
Maybe I'm used to it by now, but there are things that for some reason, Apple hasn't put into the actions rotor to make things easier, like marking an entire show as played, like you can in iTunes on Windows.
You can also mark them all as unplayed, but guess what, you can't do that in one fell swoop using the podcast app.
Very annoying.
The reason I don't use those other podcasting apps is because you need to sign up.
I really don't like signing up for every single app out there.
That just means more login details to remember.
Unfortunately, that's the way things work.
I'm glad some apps let you sign in with either Google or Apple; personally, I prefer signing in with Apple.