Apple announced its biggest effort in decades to improve original content and deliver an improved Podcasts app experience, coinciding with Google's move for podcast listeners to YouTube Music.
The app has received a software update compatible with iOS 17 and is now casting a wide net over its target audience by allowing users to connect via third-party apps.
The service now supports a new design, including full-screen graphics, simplified queues, story graphics, interactive widgets, search filters, and support for new sleep mode on iPhone and updates. Software updates.
Additionally, Apple provides subscribers to Apple Music, Apple News+, and its partners Calm and Lingokids with access to more than 60 original podcasts, including Apple Music Radio shows now available in the Apple Podcasts app.
The company said there are more than 100 new podcasts in Apple Podcasts, with new shows launching every week this fall.
Other subscription-based apps can also integrate with Apple Podcasts via a new API, making their subscription-based products available to paying users within the Apple Podcasts app.
This includes any app that offers premium audio content such as podcasts, news feeds, articles, radio shows, educational courses, guided meditations, sleep sounds, etc.
Third-party apps that integrate this API can also import their content into Apple Podcasts, and subscribers can manually sign in to their accounts through the Apple Podcasts app.
The company explains that this will allow it to stream content across Apple devices such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, HomePod, CarPlay, and Apple Watch with AirPods, and users will need iOS 17, iPadOS 17, or macOS Sonoma to sign in.
Apple yesterday launched its storytelling service Apple News+, featuring stories told by professional comedians. Four shows are now streaming on Apple News and another 42 are streaming on Apple Music.
The company said it will add more third-party apps starting next month, including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Times, and The Washington Post.