Release notes
What changed, build by build.
The latest PodMelody updates, from headline features to the smaller fixes that make everyday listening smoother.
A bold new look
—A bold new System look — Now Playing has a glass-domed cover that catches the light as you tilt your phone, glossy controls and a backdrop drawn from the artwork; Start Mix is a lit glass plate over a wall of your covers, and System has 18 accent colours of its own with PodMelody Plus
—Timeline, and more beside the player — in System, turn iPhone sideways and tap Timeline to see the whole episode, its chapters and the time your speed saves; on iPad and an open iPhone Duo, the queue and episode details sit beside the player
—Bold or calm, your choice — new installs start by choosing System or Editorial, and both are free; already listening? Your look stays as it is: switch any time in Settings → Appearance
—A new icon — Vinyl is PodMelody's new icon; prefer the previous one? It's called Periodic now, and it's in Settings → Appearance
—Your queue downloads, free — every episode in your queue now downloads automatically, and the free queue holds 10 items, up from 6; downloading a single episode and the Wi-Fi-only switch are free too, and PodMelody Plus keeps your whole library ready, every show and station. How downloads work
—Smoother fast speech — PodMelody's speed processing follows a speaker's pitch more reliably, including higher voices and vocal fry, so speech at speed sounds smoother; it applies as you listen and to newly pre-processed episodes, and with PodMelody Plus, pre-processed episodes now carry Voice Enhancement and Volume Levelling too
—Episodes, rearranged — Chapters, Notes and Transcript are now tabs in both looks, and a Now button takes you back to what's playing
—Try a show before you follow it — a show found in search lists its newest episodes: play one, or add it to Up Next, first
—Next knows when you're done — press Next with two minutes or less to go and the episode is marked played; earlier, it's marked skipped. Hold Next for more choices
—Easier to see and hear — PodMelody follows Increase Contrast in both looks, and large text and VoiceOver work better in the players and transcripts
—Fixes — faster System lists in large libraries, and a round of smaller fixes and optimisations
Made for iPhone Duo
—Made for iPhone Duo — closed, your mix and its player are right there on the cover screen; open it out and the player carries on full size, and turned sideways Music and Podcasts open side by side as one spread
—Fold-aware in Editorial — half-fold the Duo and Now Playing splits at the fold, and every page keeps its controls clear of the hinge; System's player is laid out for the Duo too
—Two pages on iPad — turn iPad sideways in Editorial and Music and Podcasts sit side by side, so you can pick sources from both at once
—Play it now, keep your mix — tap an episode or a song and it plays straight away, slipped in ahead of Up Next; your mix carries on afterwards, and an interrupted episode picks up where it stopped. How it works
—Play Next, Play Last, Play On Its Own — long-press an episode or song to queue it next or last, or long-press a source on Home and choose Play On Its Own (formerly Play Now) to hear just that; Start Mix brings your mix back
—Find and order your sources — Music and Podcasts share one search and filter row in both looks: show only what's queued, and set the playback order from the same menu
—When Apple Music can't play — if Apple Music won't start a song, PodMelody now says why and what usually fixes it, and your podcasts keep playing
—Fixes — a song no longer pauses a few seconds after it starts with the phone locked, and moving from a song back to a podcast no longer gets stuck; Favourite and Add to Library act on the song that's playing, including songs only in your library, and say so when they fail; tapping an item in CarPlay's Up Next plays the one you tapped; System's Now Playing takes its colours from the cover, and station stamps use the initials of both words
Made for iOS 27
—Ask Siri — on iOS 27, play a show, station or playlist by name, follow a new podcast, add an episode to Up Next, skip back, change the speed or set a sleep timer; your followed shows, stations and episodes appear in Spotlight search too. What to say, and what not to
—Two looks, one mix — choose PodMelody's signature Editorial design or familiar iOS controls with System, in light, dark or automatic appearance, from Settings → Appearance; both interfaces are included free, Editorial remains the default and nothing changes for anyone who already chose
—PodMelody Plus: your accent colour — 28 accents that recolour the marks and plates of either interface and follow you to every device through iCloud; the default is still free, and a saved colour waits through a lapse
—Using PodMelody on more than one device? Update each of them to 1.1.5, so an older version can't reset your accent colour
—Home and layout — a more compact Editorial Home keeps the first podcast row and the first music row above the mini-player on more phones, the Podcasts page keeps its search in view, and Home's controls and Settings rows adapt to larger text sizes
—Easier with VoiceOver — VoiceOver can now change page in the Editorial interface with a three-finger swipe or from the rotor, so Settings is reachable from Home again; source tiles say what their numbers count instead of reading bare digits, and Home's stats read as single items
—Cleaner below 1× — playback slower than normal speed no longer clicks at each repeated segment
—Fixes — a Plus renewal just after expiry no longer trims your mix selection, a pre-processed episode resumes at the right place after its render finishes, a podcast below 1× no longer ends early and a finished episode can no longer skip the queue on its way out, and the Device Activity sheet fits at the largest text sizes
Faster, everywhere
—Pre-processing gets through an episode up to four times faster, so episodes are ready at your speed sooner and the device spends far less time working
—The app does its heavy lifting away from the screen — launching, Home, Now Playing and downloads do a fraction of the foreground work they used to, routine upkeep waits until you stop tapping, and returning to Home no longer re-checks every feed
—Know what's running — the status button on Home now shows every pre-processing pass as it happens, including the ones PodMelody starts on its own; tap it during a pass and Device Activity offers Continue in background to ask iOS to keep the work going after you leave
—Ready for iOS 27 — in CarPlay the Now Playing clock keeps counting through Apple Music songs, handovers between songs and episodes are more reliable, there's a skip button while a song plays, and the Browse shelves fill the car's display without a gap underneath
—Clearer at speed — newly pre-processed episodes avoid a faint wobble that could make the odd word sound robotic, and keep pauses the length you set at higher speeds
—Fixes — a paused episode no longer creeps back a couple of seconds each time you reopen the app, or starts playing when you disconnect CarPlay; status badges stay readable at larger text sizes, the Queue makes better use of landscape, and long sleep timers stay on one line
More room to listen
—Landscape comes to iPhone — turn the phone and Now Playing spreads into two panes, the cover on one side and the timeline and Up Next on the other; Home, the browse grids and episode lists make proper use of the width too
—More room on iPad — the player and the queue now take the whole screen, and the app reflows more gracefully as you resize its window on a Mac
—PodMelody Plus: the System interface, finished — every screen in Apple's own design language, including music source ordering and the unplayed-only filter it used to skip
—Auf Deutsch — PodMelody's first translation, with CarPlay, Siri and accessibility labels included
—Sync and fixes — resuming on another device no longer drags you backwards, the iPad app on Mac no longer keeps the CPU busy with its window closed, and a round of smaller fixes
Stations, transformed
—Large podcast stations open dramatically faster and show their complete episode list straight away, with clearer station stamps and smarter automatic colours
—Faster everywhere — episode lists scroll smoothly through long shows, artwork appears sooner, and your Apple Music playlists and stations are ready the moment you open Home, the music shelves or CarPlay
—PodMelody Plus: transcripts you can search — jump straight to the moment you remember instead of scrubbing for it
—Editorial, refined — a warmer dark appearance, a smoother launch transition, clearer buttons, and a selection ring that stays legible against any cover
—Apple Music station slots now show the real station name, provider and artwork as soon as a mix is built, and CarPlay refreshes Now Playing when podcast artwork arrives late
—The sleep timer fades podcasts out instead of cutting them, the mini-player's skip controls match what's playing, and setting songs between podcasts to zero gives a podcast-only mix
—Reliability — large mixes rotate and save more efficiently, alerts no longer hide behind onboarding or open in the wrong iPad window, and crashes opening the player, queue or bookmarks in the iPad app on Mac are fixed
CarPlay, rebuilt
—Enhanced CarPlay artwork and Now Playing controls for every listener
—PodMelody Plus: Mix, Queue and Browse on the dash, with source changes reflected on your phone and separate car and per-show podcast speeds
—PodMelody Plus: podcast loudness levelling so episodes and music sit together more consistently
—More natural voice pitch at higher playback speeds
—Safer cross-device episode resuming and more reliable seeking while paused
—Faster, safer subscription import and export for large libraries
PodMelody launches
—On the App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS & iPadOS 26)
—One blended queue: your podcasts and Apple Music, interleaved and rearrangeable
—Full podcast player — follow shows, OPML import, chapters and variable speed
—iCloud sync across your Apple devices, plus basic CarPlay playback controls
—Editorial and System themes
—PodMelody Plus: offline downloads and advanced audio tools, with a one-month free trial on the annual plan