I started developing an open source podcast client in 2023 with the goal of building something that doesn’t rely on a central server. By 2024 I had a working alpha that already included features like transcripts, accidental skip detection, and other improvements I felt were missing from existing podcast apps.
This isn’t my first attempt at building a podcast app — I actually released my first client, One Trick Pony, about nine years ago. Life took me in other directions for a while, but now I’m back at it—this time starting almost from scratch. I’m targeting iOS 26, adopting Swift 6, and following its strict concurrency rules to avoid race conditions. Some parts of the old codebase will be reused, but the foundation is fresh.
The goal of this project is simple: give back to the community. I’ve enjoyed countless free podcasts over the last 20 years, and I also use free tools like Podlove Publisher and Ultraschall to publish my own. This app is my way of helping preserve podcasting as an open, independent medium—resisting efforts by companies to lock it down.
Key principles of the project:
- Built on the community-driven podcast catalog fyyd
- Independent of proprietary servers (all refreshes run locally on-device)
- 100% open source and free to use
- No locked features or restrictions
- No App-side Ads (ads within episodes can't be controlledBuxte)