Maintenance notice: Podtastic 5.0 in progress

A quick note from me.

Over the past week I've been shipping some of the biggest changes I've made to the Podtastic app and the backend in a while. This is the plumbing for Podtastic 5.0, the next major release. There are some big efficiency wins baked in that I'm excited to share, but more on those once the release is live.

What you might notice over the next couple of weeks

While the changes roll through, the API layer is getting a serious rework so it can hold up better long-term. A few things may show up in the app while that's in flight:

• The occasional small bug while pieces of the app catch up to the backend.
• Syncing and updates may briefly not go through for short periods.
• You may get asked to log back in a little more often than usual.

The log-in one is the most likely thing you'll actually notice, and I'm really sorry about it. Once 5.0 is out, you should basically not hit that issue again, and performance overall will be a lot better.

What's next

The efficiency work is the headline of Podtastic 5.0, and there'll be a proper post walking through it once the release is live. Bear with me through this bit. It's worth the couple of weeks of small blips.

If something breaks properly, tap the feedback link in the app. It comes straight to me.

Thanks.

Listen smarter with Podtastic

Want to try these improvements yourself? Podtastic is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android, built around Smart Features (the AI features) and Audio Enhancements (deterministic DSP tuned for spoken-word audio):

• Smart Summaries — AI summaries of every podcast and episode so you know what's coming before you hit play
• Smart Topics — key topics surfaced across your favourite shows so you can jump straight to what matters
• Smart Skip — auto-skips commonly-skipped sections of an episode (intros, recaps, asides), powered by AI topic detection plus aggregated listening data; a single tap on any control surface jumps you to the next Smart Topic on demand
• Skip Silence — auto-removes silences from speech so episodes flow without dragging
• Enhance Voices — a gentle EQ and compression preset that keeps voices clear in any room

Try Podtastic at podtastic.app — now $2.99/month on the annual plan.