Feature-rich (Podcast Index-based) Discover screen

Feature request
#1

My partner indicated what they like about other podcast apps is to explore podcasts that they can listen to. Of course AP has the ‘Discover’ screen, but it is a list of podcasts: not most attractive presentation and one-dimensional (single list of suggestions by Apple Podcasts).

It could work well together with a new ‘Home’ screen, which would be more about what the user is already subscribed to.

A completely revamped Discover screen could cover:

  • What’s trending (which podcasts are popular ths last 14 days?) There’s a PI trending endpoint which isn’t documented as of yet
    • in different repos, e.g. Podcast Index, Feeddirectory if the user is synching with that
    • in different geographical areas, e.g. country-based
  • What’s new (which podcasts were added to the Podcast Index the past week)
  • Relevant networks, i.e. relevant publishers (not sure this would be possible as PI doesn’t contain such kind of metadata nor relevant images - should bring this up with them)
    • from one’s geographical area, e.g. my country’s public broadcaster
    • worldwide
  • What others are listening
    If logged in to some sync service (e.g. feeddirectory.org), or maybe PI can provide this as well, show which podcasts are popular among users that ~listen to~ are subscribed to/update feeds from a particular podcast. I.e. I am subscribed to podcast A, the (other) most subscribed podcast by those that are subscribed to A is podcast B. Then display a recommendation for each of the 10 podcasts a user listens most to (using local stats to determine which to poll against the server).
  • Per category:
    Popular podcasts (worldwide, in own geographical area) per category. Sorting of categories can be tricky. Maybe just display random set of categories on discover screen, full alphabetical list in Categories detail view.

Any other ideas for what a revamped Discover screen could show?

2 Likes
Home screen proposal
Brainstorming bottom navigation (for bigger screens)
Roadmap for impactful UI/UX changes
#2

I would really love to have a podcastindex.com based discovery screen. It is how I discover podcasts. I used to use Google as it had a great podcast search. Unfortunately when they decided to kill that.

#3

What did you like about Google exactly? Having good podcast search available, or did they ‘propose’ podcasts in a way that you liked?

#4

It used to provide a large number of results for most searches. It allowed subscriptions to podcasts within a couple clicks. It had a home screen like area. It may not have been Google, damn my memory. I am not sure anymore.

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#5

I think that’s a great idea, though for me personally it isn’t a huge priority, I think the Spotify discover page is quite good, but I’d suggest using a solution that already exists (like iTunes right now), maybe have a look at some curated podcast lists like podcastindex.org as suggested above.

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#6

Hello!
I don´t know if it is possible to index de podcasts by language , but people uses podcasts to practice/learn a new language. So language based filtering would be a very nice feature to many of us.
Geographical filter does not allways work well in this case. There is podcast produced on languages not correlated with the country of origin
Many thanks for the best podcast app ever made!!

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#7

The Podcast Index (one of the databases we connect to) registers which language a podcast is in, so it would definitively possible to filter suggestions on language. However, @co00co, what is/are the ‘base list(s)’ on which we should apply a language filter? Any of the options I mentioned in the first post that you would be interested in to see as a podcast suggestion? (e.g. ‘trending’ in your language, ‘what’s new’ in your language, ‘relevant networks’ in your language, …)

1 Like
#8

Well, I would love to see random stuff on selected interests and language. I enjoy discovering new things…
By now I learn from new podcasts by recommendations from other shows I follow. Or searching on gpodder, podcastindex , iTunes , within the antennapod add podcast menu.
Not using the discover suggestions by iTunes as they are on a language based on my device locale or ip ,not sure.
But ‘what’s new’ in ‘selected language’ and ‘what’s new’ on selected ‘topics’ sorted by language will be nice too. :smile:
Thanks!

2 Likes
#9

Note to self: follow up on these comments.

#10

I should really work on an updated proposal. Users now also complain about the Discover screen not working (due to iTunes’ unreliable API).

#11

Was wonder when we would could have this done. I volunteer. Or maybe ueen as he starting a PR releated to it (The home screen)