Switching to Pocket Casts from Overcast

I tried my best, but I just can’t handle the bugs anymore. After seven years as a loyal Overcast user, I switched to Pocket Casts today.

Some initial first impressions:

• It was pretty easy to import my OPML file into Pocket Casts to migrate all of my podcast subscriptions. Overcast lost the OPML export button in the redesign, but I was able to download it from the website.

• Using Pocket Casts feels a little bit more like programming a control panel. There are a ton more settings and concepts. For example, there are both folders and filters. I’m not sure why I would use one vs. the other. I tried to create a “Pinned” folder to recreate Overcast’s pinning feature, but it just put the podcasts in a folder that got lost on my screen.

• I’m not sure how Pocket Cast’s audio engine stacks up against Overcast. Time to take a walk and test that out.

You might ask, “but Daniel, don’t you work for Automattic? Why haven’t you been using Pocket Casts all along?”

I actually did try to make the switch before. I ran into some buggy behavior with the CarPlay integration, and couldn’t adjust to the overall UX complexity.

Between then and now, Overcast became more difficult to use, and regularly fills up my device storage because auto-delete seems to be broken. Time to make a switch!