Podcast Guru — Release Notes

🐛 Critical Playback Fixes

Fixed an issue where, after a playback error and automatic retry (like when your connection drops), episodes could jump back to the beginning. The player now captures your exact listening position before it resets and resumes from that point—especially helpful on long episodes. We also removed an old position‑tracking workaround and added logging to help diagnose rare cases; no UI changes.
Fixed broken seeking and duration display for very long episodes. Anything longer than 10 hours was previously treated as invalid (often showing 0:00), which broke scrubbing and time remaining. We now support durations up to 100 hours, so long podcasts and audiobooks show the correct length and you can scrub and resume accurately. Episodes beyond 100 hours are still considered invalid.

Reworked buffering detection for smoother, more accurate status. The player now uses its own status events (instead of constant progress checks) and waits a tiny 100 ms before showing “Buffering…” when you’re already playing or paused. Brief hiccups under a tenth of a second won’t flash a buffering message or flip play/pause, and we cleaned up pending updates so the app won’t suddenly switch to “Buffering…” after you change tracks, pause/stop, or an error occurs. Buffering still shows right away during the initial load of an episode, and removing the old background checks provides a small performance boost.

Fixed a timing issue in the download engine that sometimes miscounted active downloads and shut down too early, leading to stalled or failed downloads—especially if you started, paused, or canceled several quickly or switched between apps. The service now only stops after it’s sure no downloads remain. We also upgraded behind‑the‑scenes logging with clearer tags to help our support team trace tricky cases faster.
Protected recent partial downloads from cleanup. After a restart or crash/reboot, we no longer delete recent partial audio files that haven’t fully registered yet. Temporary files are only removed if there’s no matching download and they’re older than 15 days. Interrupted downloads keep their progress and can resume, while truly old leftovers still get cleaned up (with only a small short‑term storage impact).

Smoother seeking in Now Playing and full‑screen video: while you drag the seek bar, the app recognizes you’re actively scrubbing, keeps controls visible, and ignores background updates until you lift your finger. This prevents the playhead from jumping or controls auto‑hiding mid‑drag. TalkBack users also get more reliable seeking—adjusting progress now moves precisely to the time you choose.

Redesigned playback speed with a simple slider. Tap the speed on Now Playing to choose 0.5x–3.0x; changes there affect only the episode you’re listening to. Set your usual speed in Settings or a podcast’s settings (including “Use global default” for that show). Sign in to adjust speed smoothly for precise control; if you’re not signed in, the slider moves in 0.25x steps (no VIP needed). Note: during the update, some older per‑podcast speeds were reset to follow your global setting to prevent unexpected playback speeds.
Watch video podcasts in Picture‑in‑Picture (PiP). On Android 12+ we’ll auto‑enter PiP when you leave the app; on older versions, use the new PiP button on the Now Playing screen for video episodes. In PiP we show just the video (chapters/transcript/controls are hidden and notes are closed) and frame it better to avoid awkward cropping. Closing PiP pauses playback to prevent accidental background audio, full‑screen view is restored when you return, and audio‑only items won’t offer PiP (the window closes if the video ends).

VIP detection is now reliable when you start the app offline or on a weak connection. If you were recently confirmed as a VIP, the app honors that immediately at launch (so you keep premium perks like ad‑free playback), then quietly refreshes your status in the background when a connection is available.

Fixed a crash when opening certain screens from a deep link, notification, or other shortcut if required info wasn’t provided. Affected pages now check for needed details and quietly close back to the previous screen if anything’s missing: Podchaser user profiles, playlists, chapters, creator pages, podcast tags editor, podcast settings, episode appearances, transcripts, and V4V payment details. Normal navigation is unchanged when all data is present.

Added an overflow menu on the Up Next screen with Shuffle and Delete All. Shuffle mixes upcoming episodes while keeping the currently playing item in place (if nothing is playing, the entire queue is shuffled). Delete All clears the whole queue after confirmation (playback may stop if you clear the active queue). The toolbar menu icon is now easier to see so these controls are simple to find.

If opening the Home tab or pulling to refresh takes unusually long (over 30 seconds), the app now automatically cleans up old cached episodes that aren’t part of your subscriptions or playlists. This runs quietly in the background in small batches and at most once every 15 days, so it won’t interrupt playback or browsing. You’ll see faster episode lists and gain some storage, while everything from shows you follow and your playlists remains intact.

When you turn on notifications for a single podcast while app‑wide notifications are off, you’ll now be prompted to choose: enable alerts only for this podcast (and keep others off), or enable alerts for all subscriptions based on their current settings. On Android 13+, we’ll ask for notification permission at that moment; if you decline, the switch stays off and we’ll offer a shortcut to your phone’s notification settings. If global notifications are already on, per‑podcast toggles work the same as before.

Sharper cover art in notifications and chapter views. On Android 15+ we now load 1200×1200 artwork (up from 600), Android 9–14 stays at 600, and devices older than Android 9 use 256 to avoid memory issues. Artwork on your lock screen and media controls will look crisper on newer phones. Playback behavior is unchanged; newer devices may download slightly larger images, which they’re built to handle.