If you’re looking for a place to explore inspiring, entertaining, and informative audio stories and shows, Apple’s Podcasts is a pretty neat place to start. But first, you need to learn how to use it.
Playback controls are great tools that can give you a seamless listening experience. Read on to learn about each playback control in the Podcasts app and how to use it.
The Skip Buttons
Podcasts allow you to quickly skip through the episode you’re listening to by giving you skip buttons located on either side of the play button. Tapping either of these moves you a few seconds backwards or forwards through your podcast episode.
By default, the back skip button is set at 15 seconds, while the forward skip button is set at 30 seconds. However, you can edit the number of seconds for both Forward and Back buttons on the Settings. To do this:
- Head to Settings > Podcasts.
- Scroll down to Skip Buttons. Set the number of seconds for the Forward and Back buttons by tapping on them and choosing from 10, 15, 30, 45, and 60 seconds.
Control the Podcast Playback Speed
If you’re like me, there will be times that you find the podcast speaker’s speech rate to be so slow. You can modify the Playback Speed to your preference by tapping the 1x button to change your Playback Speed from normal (1x) speed, to one and a half (1 1/2x), double (2x), or half (1/2x) speed.
Use Airplay to Play Podcasts on a Speaker
Podcasts allow you to listen through your device, through earphones, or external speakers. To listen through your speaker, tap the Airplay button and choose where you want to have it played. If you’re using external Bluetooth speakers or AirPods, make sure that your device’s Bluetooth is turned on.
Set the Sleep Timer and Drift Away
If you’re the type who likes to listen to a podcast while going to sleep, you can set a Sleep Timer to automatically stop the podcast from playing after a specific amount of time.
To do this, swipe up from the playback screen, tap the Sleep Timer, and choose a duration set the timer for before your podcast automatically stops. Alternatively, you can choose to simply stop playback when the episode ends, to avoid going straight onto the next episode.
There’s So Much to Discover With Podcasts
Apple’s Podcasts app gives you instant access to thousands of free podcasts. Use these playback controls to perfect the listening experience as you discover to entertaining, thought-provoking, and enriching stories and discussions.