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What's New in Podtastic — April 3, 2026

This was a polish week. We focused on fixing the small annoyances that add up over time — a sleep timer that didn't behave right, notifications you couldn't dismiss, and visual glitches when rearranging your queue. Nothing flashy, but you'll feel the difference.

Sleep timer now resets properly after it expires

If you use the sleep timer, you might've noticed a frustrating quirk. You'd set a timer, fall asleep, and then when you hit play the next morning, the timer was supposed to restart automatically. That's the whole point of the "reset timer on play" setting — so you don't have to dig into the timer menu every single time.

The problem was that it only worked if you manually stopped playback before the timer ran out. If the timer expired on its own (which is, you know, the entire use case), pressing play afterward wouldn't restart it. You'd end up playing episodes indefinitely with no timer protection, which kind of defeats the purpose.

That's fixed now on both iOS and Android. The sleep timer resets correctly no matter how playback stopped — whether you paused manually, the timer expired naturally, or you just came back to the app hours later. Set it once, and it'll keep working the way you'd expect.

Dismiss skip notifications with one tap

When Podtastic skips an interruption for you, a small overlay appears to let you know what happened. It's useful information, but the overlay stuck around for up to five seconds with no way to close it early. If you wanted to scrub the timeline, adjust the volume, or tap any other player control, you had to wait it out.

Now there's an X button in the corner. Tap it, and the notification disappears immediately. If you don't mind waiting, it'll still dismiss itself automatically after a few seconds — the behavior is the same as before, just with an escape hatch.

This applies to both iOS and Android. It's a small addition, but it makes the skip experience feel less intrusive — especially during podcast sections where skips happen close together.

Smoother queue rearranging on iOS

Dragging episodes around in your queue should feel clean and predictable. Two visual bugs were getting in the way of that on iOS.

First, when you grabbed an episode to drag it, the entire cell would sometimes flash with a blue tint — like a selection highlight that wasn't supposed to be there. Second, after dropping an episode into its new position, the cell could stay highlighted even after you lifted your finger.

Both are gone. Drag-and-drop in the queue now looks the way it should — pick up an episode, move it, drop it, done. No lingering highlights, no color flashes.

Smaller fixes

Smoother skipping on Android: When multiple interruptions appeared back-to-back, Android would skip each one individually, resulting in several skip sounds and choppy seeking in quick succession. Now consecutive ranges are grouped into a single smooth jump, matching the experience on iOS.
Consistent download buttons on the web: The buttons on our /go landing page now match the style used across the rest of the site. A small visual consistency fix, but it makes the page feel more polished.

What's coming next

We've got a few quality-of-life improvements in the works around playback behavior and episode management. We're also exploring some new features we think you'll really like — more details on those when they're closer to ready. In the meantime, keep the feedback coming. A lot of this week's fixes came directly from things you told us about.

Skip ads automatically with Podtastic

Want to try these improvements yourself? Podtastic is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android with built-in ad skipping. You'll get:

Automatic ad skipping powered by AI — no manual fast-forwarding
All the features: background listening, sleep timer, speed controls, offline downloads
Support for creators: toggle ad skipping per show, and easily find membership options for podcasts you love

Join the waitlist at podtastic.app to get early access.

\n","raw","\n# What's New in Podtastic — April 3, 2026\n\nThis was a polish week. We focused on fixing the small annoyances that add up over time — a sleep timer that didn't behave right, notifications you couldn't dismiss, and visual glitches when rearranging your queue. Nothing flashy, but you'll feel the difference.\n\n---\n\n## Sleep timer now resets properly after it expires\n\nIf you use the sleep timer, you might've noticed a frustrating quirk. You'd set a timer, fall asleep, and then when you hit play the next morning, the timer was supposed to restart automatically. That's the whole point of the \"reset timer on play\" setting — so you don't have to dig into the timer menu every single time.\n\nThe problem was that it only worked if you manually stopped playback before the timer ran out. If the timer expired on its own (which is, you know, the entire use case), pressing play afterward wouldn't restart it. You'd end up playing episodes indefinitely with no timer protection, which kind of defeats the purpose.\n\nThat's fixed now on both iOS and Android. The sleep timer resets correctly no matter how playback stopped — whether you paused manually, the timer expired naturally, or you just came back to the app hours later. Set it once, and it'll keep working the way you'd expect.\n\n## Dismiss skip notifications with one tap\n\nWhen Podtastic skips an interruption for you, a small overlay appears to let you know what happened. It's useful information, but the overlay stuck around for up to five seconds with no way to close it early. If you wanted to scrub the timeline, adjust the volume, or tap any other player control, you had to wait it out.\n\nNow there's an X button in the corner. Tap it, and the notification disappears immediately. If you don't mind waiting, it'll still dismiss itself automatically after a few seconds — the behavior is the same as before, just with an escape hatch.\n\nThis applies to both iOS and Android. It's a small addition, but it makes the skip experience feel less intrusive — especially during podcast sections where skips happen close together.\n\n## Smoother queue rearranging on iOS\n\nDragging episodes around in your queue should feel clean and predictable. Two visual bugs were getting in the way of that on iOS.\n\nFirst, when you grabbed an episode to drag it, the entire cell would sometimes flash with a blue tint — like a selection highlight that wasn't supposed to be there. Second, after dropping an episode into its new position, the cell could stay highlighted even after you lifted your finger.\n\nBoth are gone. Drag-and-drop in the queue now looks the way it should — pick up an episode, move it, drop it, done. No lingering highlights, no color flashes.\n\n## Smaller fixes\n\n- **Smoother skipping on Android**: When multiple interruptions appeared back-to-back, Android would skip each one individually, resulting in several skip sounds and choppy seeking in quick succession. Now consecutive ranges are grouped into a single smooth jump, matching the experience on iOS.\n- **Consistent download buttons on the web**: The buttons on our [/go landing page](https://podtastic.app/go) now match the style used across the rest of the site. A small visual consistency fix, but it makes the page feel more polished.\n\n## What's coming next\n\nWe've got a few quality-of-life improvements in the works around playback behavior and episode management. We're also exploring some new features we think you'll really like — more details on those when they're closer to ready. In the meantime, keep the feedback coming. A lot of this week's fixes came directly from things you told us about.\n\n## Skip ads automatically with Podtastic\n\nWant to try these improvements yourself? **[Podtastic](https://podtastic.app)** is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android with built-in ad skipping. You'll get:\n- **Automatic ad skipping** powered by AI — no manual fast-forwarding\n- **All the features**: background listening, sleep timer, speed controls, offline downloads\n- **Support for creators**: toggle ad skipping per show, and easily find membership options for podcasts you love\n\nJoin the waitlist at [podtastic.app](https://podtastic.app) to get early access.\n",{"_10":38,"_12":39,"_14":40,"_16":17,"_18":41,"_20":42,"_22":43,"_24":25,"_26":44,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":45,"_35":46},"whats-new-podtastic-march-27-2026","What's New in Podtastic — March 27, 2026","2026-03-27T00:00:00.000Z","Faster library browsing, smarter topic navigation, and proper phone call handling. Here's what improved in Podtastic this week.","/blog/whats-new-podtastic-march-27-2026.webp","Podtastic app updates and improvements for March 2026",[6,28],"

What's New in Podtastic — March 27, 2026

This week brought a major performance fix for iOS users, smarter topic navigation, and several quality-of-life improvements. If your library felt sluggish before, you'll notice the difference immediately.

Your library just got a lot faster

iOS users with large podcast libraries were experiencing occasional freezes and hangs when scrolling through their shows. We traced this to background work happening on the main thread, blocking the interface while it ran.

That's fixed now. Library stats update in the background, download progress refreshes at a sensible pace instead of flooding the screen, and podcast rows render without triggering unnecessary recalculations. If you subscribe to a lot of shows, browsing should feel noticeably snappier.

Smart Topics now handle mid-conversation ad breaks

Previously, if an ad break interrupted a topic mid-sentence, the topic timeline could jump to the next section after the break ended. Now Podtastic recognizes when a topic was still in progress before the ad and continues it on the other side.

On the lock screen, skip controls now show clean forward/back arrows instead of "Forward 15" labels. They'll jump between topics when available, and fall back to 15-second skips when there are no chapters.

Audio stays paused during phone calls

A subtle bug caused podcasts to resume about a second into a phone call. The app was checking whether other audio was playing to detect when Siri finished, but phone calls don't register as "other audio." We added proper call detection so your podcast stays paused from the moment a call starts until it ends.

Smaller fixes

Episodes now refresh properly after logging in on iOS (previously required restarting the app)
The player scrubber responds more reliably during seeks, with no more frozen sliders
Skip icons in the Android mini and full player now show the correct direction
Playing an unprocessed episode now shows a heads-up explaining that Smart features aren't available yet
The welcome flow has been restructured to better explain how Pod-telligence works

What's coming next

We're working on improvements to how episodes are marked as played near their end, and fixing a queue behavior where playback could get stuck after returning from the background. More on those soon.

Skip ads automatically with Podtastic

Want to try these improvements yourself? Podtastic is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android with built-in ad skipping. You'll get:

Automatic ad skipping powered by AI — no manual fast-forwarding
All the features: background listening, sleep timer, speed controls, offline downloads
Support for creators: toggle ad skipping per show, and easily find membership options for podcasts you love

Join the waitlist at podtastic.app to get early access.

\n","\n# What's New in Podtastic — March 27, 2026\n\nThis week brought a major performance fix for iOS users, smarter topic navigation, and several quality-of-life improvements. If your library felt sluggish before, you'll notice the difference immediately.\n\n---\n\n## Your library just got a lot faster\n\niOS users with large podcast libraries were experiencing occasional freezes and hangs when scrolling through their shows. We traced this to background work happening on the main thread, blocking the interface while it ran.\n\nThat's fixed now. Library stats update in the background, download progress refreshes at a sensible pace instead of flooding the screen, and podcast rows render without triggering unnecessary recalculations. If you subscribe to a lot of shows, browsing should feel noticeably snappier.\n\n## Smart Topics now handle mid-conversation ad breaks\n\nPreviously, if an ad break interrupted a topic mid-sentence, the topic timeline could jump to the next section after the break ended. Now Podtastic recognizes when a topic was still in progress before the ad and continues it on the other side.\n\nOn the lock screen, skip controls now show clean forward/back arrows instead of \"Forward 15\" labels. They'll jump between topics when available, and fall back to 15-second skips when there are no chapters.\n\n## Audio stays paused during phone calls\n\nA subtle bug caused podcasts to resume about a second into a phone call. The app was checking whether other audio was playing to detect when Siri finished, but phone calls don't register as \"other audio.\" We added proper call detection so your podcast stays paused from the moment a call starts until it ends.\n\n## Smaller fixes\n\n- Episodes now refresh properly after logging in on iOS (previously required restarting the app)\n- The player scrubber responds more reliably during seeks, with no more frozen sliders\n- Skip icons in the Android mini and full player now show the correct direction\n- Playing an unprocessed episode now shows a heads-up explaining that Smart features aren't available yet\n- The welcome flow has been restructured to better explain how Pod-telligence works\n\n## What's coming next\n\nWe're working on improvements to how episodes are marked as played near their end, and fixing a queue behavior where playback could get stuck after returning from the background. More on those soon.\n\n## Skip ads automatically with Podtastic\n\nWant to try these improvements yourself? **[Podtastic](https://podtastic.app)** is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android with built-in ad skipping. You'll get:\n- **Automatic ad skipping** powered by AI — no manual fast-forwarding\n- **All the features**: background listening, sleep timer, speed controls, offline downloads\n- **Support for creators**: toggle ad skipping per show, and easily find membership options for podcasts you love\n\nJoin the waitlist at [podtastic.app](https://podtastic.app) to get early access.\n","tagExists","actionData","errors"]

Updates

What's New in Podtastic — April 3, 2026

What's New in Podtastic — March 27, 2026