Feature Request: Transcripts
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Apple did a very nice job in iOS 17.4 with their new podcast transcripts feature. Not only does it let you find episodes that have a specific topic mentioned in them, but it also lets you read along if you’re not able to listen. Really like how they implemented it and I would love for Pocket Casts to include this feature.
It’s pretty exciting how much transcripts can power up search when done right. For example, my friend told me that I should listen to a specific podcast because they talk about a brand in it that I care about, but he couldn’t figure out what episode they talked about it because it’s not in the title. The transcripts feature allowed me to easily figure out the episode number and the relevant spot to jump to in the episode to hear the discussion I care about.
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Hi! I have added your suggestion to our feature requests.
Thanks for contacting us with a well-written and thoughtful suggestion. If you have any further questions or recommendations, let us know!
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I couldn’t agree more. Since many podcasts can’t afford it, or just choose not to do show notes, This would be a wonderful tool
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I want to add my voice to this request! In 8 years of using Pocket Casts, it’s the first time I see another app offering a feature I’m really jealous of! I’ll still use Pocket Casts but I might use Apple Podcasts for podcasts in languages I’m learning.
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I’d love to see this as well. I’m hearing disabled and wear hearing aids, but i also have some bad audio quality in one of my ears that the aids can’t help with. Sometimes having transcripts available helps me follow along with the conversation in the podcast.
I tried Apple Podcasts once their transcripts came out, and while the transcripts were great, losing the audio features – and in particular volume boost – made it harder for me to actually listen to podcasts via Apple Podcasts.
Ideally I’d have both – Volume Boost and transcripts in the same application. It’d be a great accessibility benefit – but as well, transcripts in Apple Podcasts are also great for other purposes, like navigating through the podcast to specific conversations you care about, or copying/pasting the text into something else.
Hopefully the Pocket Casts team can work on this. I know it’s not a small ask, but the value is so large.
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Hi @szpowell, @aliceaml & @dwharrisonca
We appreciate your feedback and interest in such a feature. I can confirm that it has been added to our ideas board, along with your feedback :)
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I realize podcast transcripts is a large feature that’ll take time to implement, so in the meantime, how about a way to quickly jump from the currently playing Pocket Casts episode to that same episode in Apple Podcasts?
Ever since Apple introduced transcripts, now when I hear something I don’t understand, I’ll hop over to Apple Podcasts, find that episode, then scrub to that spot and check the transcript.
Until transcripts are available, this would be a nice stop-gap. Perhaps it could be implemented as a new action in the share sheet? 🤔
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Thank you for sharing your suggestion! We appreciate that innovative idea. I have shared it with my team for consideration too :)
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I would love this feature as well!
This is the second thing I find Pocketcasts lagging vs Apple Podcasts (the other being the mini video payer in the bottom bar of the Podcasts app. PIP is good, but I like that mini video player better).
While the dev team plans to implement the transcripts feature within Pocketcasts (maybe there are some APIs in iOS 18 that xould help with this), I was able to find a way to go to an Apple podcasts episode from a Pocketcasts episode using Apple Shortcuts. It only works if the episode is among the 10 most recent episodes of the show, but that should be enough for most common use-cases.
It extracts the episode title and Podcast Name from the episode’s link and first searches for the Podcast Name in Apple Podcasts, then looks for a matching episode title from the most recent 10 episodes of the show. I tried removing some of the common suffixes for Patreon specific feeds to help find more matches.
If anyone would find it useful, here’s a link to the shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/ec114bca876943fc9a89573c609ee312
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Thanks for the helpful comment, @sharerfreebie0j! I’ve also made sure to add a vote on your behalf for transcripts.
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I would also love to have a feature, it would make it easier to understand if your are having trouble hearing what they are saying and also easier to search for a specific part of an episode. It could be a live transcript where you could follow what they are saying but also scroll thru the text when you are listening, like Spotify and the lyrics.
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Hi @qwertyz666,
Thanks for your vote! I’ve added it to our list of feature requests, so you may see it in a future release. -
I would also love this feature. It would really help me saving highlights into my notes system.
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Hi, I wanted to add another vote for this feature. Then I can finally stop shuffling between PC and Apple Podcasts.
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This would be amazing for information retention. Also encourages active listening, something I like to really do on long flights for example!
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