To improve your experience with Apple Podcasts, we want to share the following information and updates.
iOS 12.2
In addition to bug fixes and feature enhancements, we'd like to call your attention to these improvements to the Podcasts app on iOS 12.2:
- Browse. Featured collections and categories, as well as the Top Episodes and Top Shows charts, are now presented on the Browse tab for easier discovery.
- Episode numbers. Now, both show types, episodic and serial, will display episode numbers for subscribed users as dictated by the itunes:episode tag.
- Mark as Played. With 3D Touch or by tapping
…, listeners can now mark episodes as played for their subscribed shows.
Apple Podcasts Preview
Apple Podcasts Preview pages on the web have been updated. For the first time, we are introducing a dedicated episode page that includes the ability to play directly on the web. The design is also mobile responsive and provides a better experience for Android users.
Podcasts Connect Help
We've updated the RSS tags section to explain the different supported tags more clearly and show how they are displayed on Apple Podcasts on iOS 12.2. Also, the relevant section now distinguishes between required, recommended, and situational tags. Previous tags and values will continue to be supported unless otherwise communicated.
Being able to play podcast episodes in a web browser (and even have an individual page per episode) is huge.
They've also updated the example of a well-formed RSS feed.