Podcast App Graveyard

Wondering what happened to Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or other discontinued podcast apps? Over the years, I've seen many podcast listening apps come and go. I'm trying to write a list of all the apps that have shut down and when they disappeared.

So far I've found 23 – did I miss any?

Google Podcasts (2024)

Google Podcasts shut down on April 2, 2024 when Google switched their podcast focus to YouTube Music. Many users looking for alternatives went to Pocket Casts or Podcast Addict.

RadioPublic (2024)

Originally launched as a crowdfunding campaign, RadioPublic was supposed to be a way for podcasts to be more discoverable and a way for podcasters to earn revenue. It was bought by Acast in 2021, and shut down in 2024 (Podnews).

Repod (2024)

Repod was another attempt at a "social" podcast player, and featured comments and discussions on episodes. It appears to have gone offline sometime in 2024.

Poddy (2024)

Another "social podcasting app!" (You'll noticed this trend throughout this list). Poddy was launched in 2023, and seems to have been gone by 2024.

Stitcher (2023)

One of the longest-running and most well-known podcast listening apps, Stitcher was officially shut down by SiriusXM on August 29, 2023. The app originally launched in 2008, and was famous for its ability to "stream" audio (without the need to manually sync audio files to your device). Podnews has written a detailed history of the app.

Reason (2022)

Reason was a Techstars-funded startup, which launched as a "social podcasting app." Features included the abilit to "tag your friends and hosts, comment on episodes, see what your friends are listening to."

Shuffle (2022)

During Shuffle's beta release in 2020, CEO Ada Yeo described it like this: "We're on a mission to surface the best moments in podcasts with community-curated short clips. For the podcast-curious, simply swipe through a Tiktok-like feed of personalized short clips on topics you care about." It appears to have gone offline in 2022.

Listen App (2022)

Originally launched in 2019, Listen App went through a few variations. During the pandemic quarantine, they launched a version that promised to be a "social network for podcast listeners." Listeners could "voice chat with others who just listened to the same episode...and even interact with podcast hosts." The app appears to have disappeared from the App Store and Google Play store around 2022.

Acast App (2022)

Acast shut down its listening app in 2022.

Breaker (2021)

Breaker was a popular independent listening app, with thousands of users. It was originally heralded as "the Instagram of podcast apps." Then, it 2021 was inexplicably acquired by Twitter. Many were confused by the move. The Breaker team joined the Twitter Spaces team to build a Clubhouse competitor. She was later laid off during Elon Musk's takeover of the social app.

Bitcast (2021)

Bitcast was an app that I personally used and loved! It made it possible to add comments to a podcast, and see them represented in the "waveform" view (similar to how comments are displayed on SoundCloud). You could also make clips and share them. In 2021 the team appears to have pivoted to Verb.fm.

Synth (2021)

Synth's headline at launch was "a podcast app for people that listen with purpose – like Pinterest, but for podcasts." The idea was that you would listen to podcasts is shorter sound-bites (256 seconds at at time).

Swoot (2021)

Created by the founders of HipChat (and backed by Kevin Rose), Swoot and billed itself as the "podcast app where you see what your friends are listening to." Swoot went offline sometime in 2021.

Broadcast (2021)

Yet another "the future of social podcast discovery" app! Broadcast seems to have turned their website off sometime in 2021.

Tung.fm (2020)

Dubbed a "social podcast player" when it launched in 2016, Tung allowed you to "recommend, clip, and talk about specific episodes with other people." It seems to have disappeared from the app store around 2020. It's listed as a past project on Jamie Perkins' website (he went on to create Podfan which was later acquired).

Google Play Music Podcasts (2020)

Google added podcast support to Google Play Music in April 2016 allowing users to discover and listen to podcasts within the app - although this was only available in the US and Canada. It cached all audio. Podcast support was shut down in October 2020 as Google transitioned users to Google Podcasts and YouTube Music. (Source: James Cridland, Podnews)

Podcast 9 (2019)

Podcast 9 was an app launched in 2019. The creators said they would re-launch in 2020, but never did. The app featured the ability to "preview episodes with transcripts, bookmark & share snippets." While the app is still available on the App Store, it's still listed as "in beta."

iTunes (2019)

Apple added podcasts to iTunes in June 2005, allowing users to subscribe to and manage podcasts and sync them with their iPods. Steve Jobs explained the feature on stage in 2005. Podcasts were integral to iTunes until October 2019, when Apple replaced iTunes with separate apps: Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts. On Windows, iTunes continued to support podcasts until February 2024.

Bumpers (2018)

A social listening app, similar to the original Anchor, which allowed people to create, publish, and listen to short "podcast-style" audio clips. Their goal was to "make podcasts easier to make."

Otto Radio (2018)

A podcast player on iOS and Android that was focused on news and podcasts. On July 26, 2018 they transitioned to audiobooks under the brand Hibooks.

Pod Wrangler (2018)

Pod Wrangler was a podcast client for iOS 7, launched on September 24, 2013, by developer David Smith. The last reference I can find to it online is 2018.

Instacast (2015)

Martin Hering shut down the iOS and Mac apps on June 16, 2015 saying "I ran out of funds to keep the project going." In a Twitter post, he recommended Pocket Casts as an alternative. In 2018, Martin open-sourced the project.

Google Listen (2012)

Google Listen was launched in August 2009 as a Google Labs experiment. The Android-only app let users search, subscribe to, and stream podcasts.