Cosmicast
A universal podcast app for all your devices
Free (IAPs) From Shihab Mehboob, pnguin.app/cosmicast Needs macOS 10.15 or later
There are many superb podcasting apps for iOS, but many of them have an annoying problem: they’re only available on iOS and iPadOS because they don’t expect you to listen on other devices too. That can be a real pain if you also like to listen on your Mac or on your Apple TV: if your favored podcast app isn’t available for those platforms you’ll need to duplicate your subscriptions. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get one app that worked everywhere?
That’s the idea behind Cosmicast. In addition to iOS and iPadOS it’s available for tvOS and macOS too, and iCloud sync keeps everything organized across all your different devices. The app also supports Handoff for moving from one device to another.
The interface is consistent across everything except the Apple Watch: it’s too small to support anything beyond very basic design elements. The app supports Dark Mode on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
The interface is based around a vinyl record player, which is cute if a bit tangential — most podcasts are closer to radio broadcasts than record playback. But it’s nice to look at and the interface is clean and uncluttered. Around the central play/pause button there are skip controls and a speed control; you can also set the app to skip silences or to operate Sleep Timers for late– night listening. It covers the essentials perfectly well, although you won’t find the noise reduction or voice boost features that some rival podcast apps offer.
For discovery you can browse the most popular podcasts or drill down into specific topics, and the app is localized so the popular category is based on your country rather than globally. You can also import or export lists from or to other apps via OPML, and the app attempts to recommend related podcasts based on what you’re listening to.
The app was previously available for a one–off payment, but it’s now free to download. For the full experience you’ll need a subscription at $2.99 a month, $16.49 for a year, or $23.99 for a lifetime.
Cosmicast may not be right for power podcast users, but it’s a very pretty, easy, and effective way to play podcasts on all your devices, not just your mobile ones.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Being able to sync podcasts across everything compensates for Cosmicast’s lack of power features.