The 11 Best Podcast Apps for Android in 2024
Podcasts have completely revolutionized the way we listen to the radio. Nowadays, you can listen to your favorite audio shows, interviews, or anything else with the Podcasts apps easily. Whatever interests you have, there are hundreds of episodes for you: finances, history, environment, comedy, monologues and much more.
In this post, we will present you with a list of the best podcast apps for Android in which you can listen to your favorite podcasts, along with the most outstanding features of each of them.
Here goes the list of top 11 podcast apps for Android.
The Best Podcast App for Android
1. Spotify
Spotify is one of the best and most popular music streaming services in the world. It also started making podcasts in early 2016.
Spotify’s popularity is due to the fact that, unlike other podcast apps, it has access to the latest updates regarding music of all genres in its interface, making it one of the most comprehensive audio services.
Due to its popularity, most podcast hosting services have a connection to Spotify, so you have the possibility to listen to the programs of most content creators, as well as original productions from the platform.
You can download and use the service for free as long as you don’t mind some audio ads or you can shell out $9.99/month for a full, ad-free experience. If you already use Spotify, there will likely come a time when a second podcast app is redundant.
2. CastBox
With over 5 million downloads and a sweet 4.7 rating, CastBox is probably the most popular app for listening to podcasts on Android.
CastBox works as a portal to more than 95 million podcast channels, giving users access to more than 1 million podcast episodes.
In addition to listening online, CastBox supports downloading podcasts for offline access at no cost. Plus, you can listen to your favorite podcasts in about 70 different languages. With CastBox, you’ll get personalized recommendations based on channel subscription and listening history.
3. Pocket Casts
Pocket Casts is an awesome podcast app for people who listen to a lot of different podcasts. It lets you discover the content you love and help you manage it efficiently. It is a great tool for searching, listening and discovering podcast content.
Pocket Casts comes with features like audio effects, download scheduler, on-the-fly episode streaming and more. Also, Pocket Casts makes finding podcasts in particular easy by letting you search with filters like episode type, playback status, and release date, among many others. When you find a good channel, you can download a podcast and even set them to download automatically whenever a new podcast is released.
4. Google Podcast
Google Podcast is a completely free platform that allows users to play and download the episodes of their favorite podcasts.
It has contents on all kinds of topics such as comedy, news, history, music and songs, business, movies and television, studies, health and fitness, technology, art, science, sports, politics and more. Although you have the option to search for your favorite channels, you also have personalized recommendations available.
In addition to having a very wide catalog and having content on all kinds of topics, playback has the option to skip silences, to be able to listen to podcasts faster without having to put up with boring waits.
Google Podcast syncs all your listening and you can pick up where you left off from any device. This means you can pause the podcast and resume it on any device from where you left off.
5. Podcast Addict
Want to manage podcasts, radio, audiobooks, YouTube, Twitch, SoundCloud, and RSS News feeds from one app? With Podcast Addict, this is not a dream. It’s a reality.
Podcast Addict has over 750,000 podcasts, 120,000 radios and 20,000 audiobooks. You can search for podcasts using name or keywords or browse podcast categories or networks like NPR, Ted Talks, etc. It also has advanced playback features like sleep timer, shuffle mode and loop mode. You can also get access to built-in audio effects like volume boost, mono playback, skip silence, etc.
The app is free but it has advertising. There is an optional $2.99 pro version on the Google Play Store if you want to remove the ads.
6. Stitcher
If you’re a podcast addict who just can’t get enough of your favorite shows, Stitcher might be the app for you.
With Stitcher on Android, you can keep up with your favorite podcasts. There are over 260,000 podcasts from a wide range of genres like politics, sports, comedy and more. What sets Stitcher apart from other podcast apps is how it “merges” your favorite podcasts together to create a live radio experience. Additionally, users can add breaks between episodes to get the latest news, sports updates, and more.
Stitcher is completely free to use. However, it also has a premium version that gives users access to exclusive content produced by Stitcher.
7. Podbean
Podbean is one of the best rated apps in the Play Store with 4.7 stars. As a podcast player, it is very efficient. It allows us to do advanced searches, navigate between new trends, topics, or categories, and obtain recommendations based on our history. Then, you can subscribe, stream, download and listen to any podcast you like.
It also comes with screen lock controls, various audio effects, Chromecast support, Android Auto support, and Amazon Alexa integration. That means you can use it pretty much everywhere.
8. Player FM
If you are looking for a cross-platform podcast app, Player FM is all you need.
It offers a distraction-free podcast listening experience without ads. Player FM is free forever and guarantees your privacy. Its best virtue, however, is its focus on discovering new podcasts, offering an interactive exploration section through selected interests within the app. From tons of music, daily news, entertainment and many other things, Player FM always has quality content for you and your Android device.
In addition, Player FM allows you to automatically download shows for offline listening, supports SD cards to save internal storage space, and also offers cloud sync so that you can stop playback and pick up where you left off on another device.
9. Podcast Go
Podcast Go is a fairly basic Podcast app, offering basic features like the ability to subscribe to shows, download episodes for offline listening, and variable playback speeds. If you’re looking for an easy to use podcast app that just works, then Podcast Go might be the app for you.
The app has over 300,000 podcasts available. You can search or browse to your heart’s content and subscribe.
The app is free. However, it is ad supported. As of this writing, you are making a one-time payment of $2.99 to remove the ads.
10. TuneIn Radio
TuneIn Radio is one of the best radio apps out there. It mainly focuses on live radio. However, the app also includes podcasts, audiobooks, radio stations (both AM and FM), and even live sporting events.
The premium subscription gives you access to live NFL, MLB and other sports games along with other features. I may not recommend it as a standalone podcast app. However, those who also like to listen to radio shows may find this app is better than a simple podcast app.
11. Anchor
Most of the apps on this list are podcast apps that allow you to download or stream your favorite podcasts. We thought we’d include at least one app that helps you make podcasts yourself.
Anchor is the app that allows you to record audio, publish it to various places like iTunes and Google Podcasts, and import audio from other devices. With this app, you can create a podcast from your phone. Also, this app offers unlimited hosting for free. Using it, you can add various transitions, sound effects, import audio, add any song from Spotify, share with a permalink, and turn a short segment into an animated video. Not only this, you can also know how many people are listening to the podcast. This app is worth trying.
Use The Best Podcast Apps for Android
In this way, we conclude with our list of the 11 best podcast apps that you can have on your Android device. As always, we recommend that you try each one of them and stick with the one that you consider best suits what you want. In addition, do not forget that you can share your experiences in our comments section.