There are dedicated podcast apps and subscription services like Pocket Casts. Podcasts are even baked into Spotify and YouTube Music. But after all these years, there’s only one app I go to for podcasts on my Android phone.
That App Is AntennaPod
AntennaPod is a modern take on a traditional podcast client. It’s an app that resides entirely on your phone and streams or downloads podcasts directly to your device.
I’ve been using this podcast client for around a decade now, at least as far back when I used to carry around a Moto G 2015. Importantly, it looks great on any device I use it on, no matter whether it’s a phone or tablet. It also works well in Android Auto.
I’ve even used AntennaPod on E Ink devices like the Boox Tab Ultra C. You can see the app in my review of the Minimal Phone. AntennaPod is, frankly, one of the first apps I install on any phone.
Bertel King / How-To Geek
It’s Entirely Free and Open Source
I discovered AntennaPod as a free and open source option back in a time when I did my best to exclusively use free and open source software. I ran LineageOS on my phone and various versions of Linux, but typically Fedora, on my laptop.
As an open source app, AntennaPod is available on from the fully free and trustworthy F-Droid app store. Unlike other clients, I could be certain my listening habits were not being tracked or monetized in some way. AntennaPod also has had long-term staying power in a way my previous favorite podcast client, BeyondPod, did not.
I Have Access to Feeds From Apple Podcasts
When checking out any free and open source app, you can’t take for granted that you will actually be able to access the media you want to hear. It’s common to be blocked by DRM or other restrictions. In this case, that’s not an issue. Podcasts remain perhaps the single most open form of mass media. Podcast feeds largely consist of MP3s shared over RSS feeds.
The tricky part is maintaining a database of all the available podcasts. Fortunately, AntennaPod uses the same database as Apple Podcasts.
Bertel King / How-To Geek
I’ve been able to listen to any podcast I want in AntennaPod, save for the brief moment in time when Spotify went hard on exclusives that were only available on its service. The company has since changed course on that strategy.
AntennaPod Works Entirely Offline
I grew up in rural Virginia, and I discovered podcasts back in a time when it was not viable to rely on streaming. I had to download podcasts in advance if I wanted to listen to them while driving.
When I was home from college, my parents had satellite internet with a 200MB daily cap. I would set podcasts to download during the unlimited early morning hours while I was asleep so that I could listen to them during the day. I used BeyondPod back then, but it became a requirement for me that any podcast client have this capability. AntennaPod delivers, along with a wide range of other extensive customization options.
Today, I have fast, unlimited internet both at home and on my phone. I still don’t like to rely on streaming. I prefer to wait for the initial download and then enjoy an interruption-free episode rather than run the risk of buffering.
This isn’t just a rural issue. Yes, signal fades as I drive through the rolling hills of central Virginia or the woods of Tidewater, but there are dead zones in the suburbs too. In fact, the worst cell signal I’ve experienced was while renting a home in a cul-de-sac in deep suburbia. I, frankly, prefer not to take infrastructure for granted. That’s also part of the reason I still purchase MP3s as well.
The App Doesn’t Require an Account
Most of the dominant podcast platforms today require you to create an account. Some are tired to the account you logged into when you first set up your phone, be that an Apple ID or a Google account. I’ve never been quite comfortable with giving someone access to all of my listening habits. I know this isn’t that different from subscribing to Netflix, but TV has never been a platform that offered free and private downloads. That’s a degree of freedom I don’t want to give up when it comes to audio.
That’s why I cherish apps like AntennaPod that don’t require, nor even give the option, to create an account. It’s simply a tool that does the job, not another attempt to monetize my attention and keep me sucked in. The podcasts do that well enough on their own without the help of an algorithm.
Bertel King / How-To Geek
AntennaPod has long felt line software that is feature complete. It does everything I want a podcast client to do and offers me little reason to use anything else. As long as those who contribute to the project keep the app interface up to date, I’m good to go.
