Metacast v1.22: Private RSS feeds are now generally available
Follow Patreon, Substack and other paid feeds by feed URL on Metacast with transcripts, chapters and summaries!
Table of Contents
TL;DR
Private RSS feeds are now generally available! Follow Patreon, Substack, and other exclusive podcasts in Metacast!
- Free users can follow up to 3 private feeds
- Premium users get 10 private feeds + transcripts/chapters/summaries for 10 hrs of content per month
Why private podcast feeds matter
Many podcast creators offer exclusive content through Patreon, Substack, and other platforms. Before we launched private feeds in beta, Metacast users had to use an additional podcast app for private feeds, which was inconvenient to say the least!
Now, you can listen to all of your favorite podcasts in Metacast.
Transcripts, summaries and chapters for private podcasts
Anyone can listen to private feeds in Metacast, but Metacast Premium subscribers get a special treat — the full Metacast experience for the private feeds.
- Searchable transcripts — find, bookmark, and share specific moments across the exclusive content.
- Episode chapters — jump to relevant topics instantly.
- AI-generated summaries — see at a glance what a long episode is about.
How to follow a private feed
To add a private podcast, simply to go the Search tab, tap Add podcast by RSS feed, and paste the feed's URL that you received from Patreon, Substack or another source.
Metacast will check if this is a valid RSS feed and you'll be able to follow the podcast right there.
How to find your private podcasts in Metacast
Private podcasts show up in a few places. They look exactly like public podcasts, except a small private badge on the artwork.
- Home screen.
- Podcast view in the Following playlist (go there by tapping View all on Home).
- Manage private podcasts in app's Settings screen.
- New episodes will show up in the Following playlist.
Note: Private podcasts will not show up when you search for them in the Search screen. The search feature uses only the public podcast catalog.
Limits
The private podcast feeds feature has the following limits for Free and Premium users:
| Free | Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of feeds | 3 feeds | 10 feeds |
| Hours of content enhanced with transcripts, summaries and chapters | - | 10 hrs/mo |
If you want to follow more private podcasts, you can unfollow one of your existing feeds, or upgrade to a higher tier (if you're a Free user). If you're a Premium user and need to add more private feeds, please reach out to us at feedback@metacast.app.
Understanding the 10-hour limit
Because the generation of transcripts, summaries, and chapters with AI has real cost that cannot be spread across multiple users (each private feed is unique), we set per-user limits based on hours of content being enhanced.
We measure by listening time because the episode timing can vary dramatically — some are 5-minute updates, others are 3-hour deep dives.
Let's look at a couple of examples:
- 2 weekly podcasts (1 hr each) = ~8 hrs/month (✅ within limit)
- 4 weekly podcasts (1 hr each) = ~16 hrs/month (⚠️ exceeds after ~2.5 weeks)
At this point, you cannot buy more hours. We are considering a higher subscription tier and micro-purchases for users who need enhancements for more than 10 hours of content per month.
Before we build it, we want to collect some usage data and figure out the best path forward based on what our power users would prefer. Please let us know if you need enhancements of more than 10 hours of content per month at feedback@metacast.app.
Sharing of private podcasts
You can copy the link to a private podcast or episode in the app to save it to your notes. When you tap the link, it'll open in the web app where you can scan a QR-code to open it in the app.
Please note that since the feed is private, on the web, we only display the URL of the podcast from the <link> field in the RSS feed.
Also available as a podcast
Listen to Arnab and Ilya chat about this feature live on the Metacast: Behind the Scenes podcast: Weekly-ish Update (July 26, 2025): Private podcasts are now generally available!.
