It’s been a year since ShiftyJelly last updated its popular podcast app for Android, cleverly called Pocket Casts. Most Android users probably assumed the app had been abandoned, especially since the iPhone version has been getting regular updates as recent as November. Despite the lack of updates, Pocket Casts has held its ground as arguably the best podcast manager and player available for Android. Well, podcast listeners are in for a treat because ShiftyJelly has emerged with fantastic news: Pocket Casts 4.0 for Android is coming very, very soon – February 2013 to be more precise. That’s right, it’s about to get even better.
The truth is, ShiftyJelly didn’t stop development on Pocket Casts. The team of three has actually been hard at work over the past six months to create and perfect a refreshed version of the app, which includes a new UI, tablet optimization, cross-device syncing, remote backup, dynamic playlists and more. Current users will be able to update to Pocket Casts 4 for free through Google Play, though it’s unclear if there will be an increase in price for newcomers at this point. We’ll be sure to post a video review when the app goes live later this month.
New in Pocket Casts 4:
- Completely redesigned, completely awesome, modern Android user interface.
- Tablet support. We’ve targeted Nexus 7 and 10, and it looks great on others too.
- Cross-device syncing of your subscriptions, playlists and play states on every Android device you own. We *love* this feature.
- Remote backup. You can now drop your phone in a toilet and not lose your podcasts. Buying a new phone and setting it up has never been easier.
- Actual smart dynamic playlists. Want a list of every unplayed, downloaded podcast? Right here. How about a list of video episodes that you haven’t downloaded yet? Easy. Manual playlists are here as well for the super picky among you.
- A lot more. But we’re not telling the rest until we release it.
Note: version 4 for iOS will be out later this year with ability to sync between iOS and Android