Overcast 3: iOS Podcast App Adds A Queue And Perks Up Its Interface

The latest revision of this popular podcast app shaves off remaining rough edges and adds missing features.

- Glenn Fleishman

The new Overcast 3 podcast app for iOS (overcast.fm; free on the iTunes Store go.macworld.com/ovrcst) provides a crisp overhaul to many of the weakest interface elements and interactions of version 2.5, while preserving its core strength of user-customized playlists.

Because so much remains the same, you should read our complete Overcast 2.5 review (go.macworld.com/ovrcst25) for the fundamentals. The app’s improvements and significant changes are called out in this review. Fortunately, nothing has gotten worse.

Here’s what Overcast 3 does better or differently than version 2.5.

Queuing. One of the biggest gaps between Overcast and its non-Apple competitors was the lack of an on-the-fly way to add podcasts to a queue. Version 3 creates a special kind of static playlist, the Main Queue, to which episodes can be added in any view in which you can see individual episodes. This isn’t as flexible or robust as Castro’s approach, but it fits in neatly with Overcast’s focus on playlist-based subscription and episode management.