IlyaHey, this is Ilya.
JennieI'm Jennie.
ArnabAnd I'm Arnab. We are the creators of Metacast. In the next few minutes, we will take you on a quick audio tour of the app. Before we get started, a few housekeeping notes. Thanks for trying the app and trusting us. We're a small team on the quest to build the perfect podcast app. And your support and feedback is vital to our success. We would love to hear what you think, your wishes, and of course the bug reports.
The best way to reach us is on Reddit, on our subreddit at r/metacastapp. You can find a link to it in the show notes of this episode. If you are not able to or don't want to use Reddit, you can also email us at [email protected]. Alright, with that said, let's get started with the app.
IlyaThe screen that you're looking at right now is the episode player. As you can see, it has a transcript that is either provided by a podcaster or is generated by AI. The transcript syncs with audio as you listen to an episode. If you want to read or skip parts of the episode, just start scrolling, find the part that you want to play, double tap the transcript, and the audio will jump straight to that segment and start playing from there.
To synchronize the transcript back with audio, tap that lock button on the bottom right. If you want to quickly find something in an episode, you can search a transcript just like you would search a text document, tap the three dots at the bottom right corner and tap "Search." you can type the text that you want to find, and once you find it, double tap the transcript segment and the app will start playing from there.
JennieTo save parts of the podcast for future reference, you can bookmark a segment. First things first, in Metacast, everything is a swipe. It is swipetastic. Anytime you see a list of things, try swiping to reveal the actions. Don't be scared, just try it. Take any transcript segment and swipe it from left to right. Your bookmark is now saved.
To see all your bookmarks in this episode, tap the three dots and go to bookmarks. From here, you can also share the bookmark directly. Yep, you guessed it. Just swipe to find the share button.
ArnabIf you want to copy a part of the transcript or share it with someone, swipe the segment right to left and tap the share icon. You'll get a snippet of the text that you can share. The app will also give you a deep link that will take you right back into the segment. It's a really cool way for sharing specific moments with your friends, family, and co-workers. A few quick notes about the transcript.
When the transcript is not provided by a podcaster, our app generates it using AI. So it may have some errors once in a while. We transcribe episodes on demand. If there is no transcript, you'll see a "Request Transcript" button. Tap it, and in a few minutes, the transcript will be available. Some podcasts also have personalized dynamic ads. Because each listener will get a different ad, the transcript may not be synchronized with the audio for such episodes.
IlyaNow, let's do an activity together. Hit that down button at the top left and check out the home screen. On the home screen, you will see episodes that you've started listening to, but have not finished. Just tap any of them and the app will take you back exactly to the moment where you left off. Underneath, there are favorites, the list of the podcasts that you follow.
Let's go ahead and add a podcast. Hit the search button at the bottom navigation and type a name of a podcast that you want to add.Let's add Metacast. Just type "Metacast," hit search, and let us know when you're done.
Now, tap on Metacast, and you will see a little heart icon at the top right corner of the podcast artwork. Tap it, and when it turns red, it means that the podcast has been added to your favorites. Now if you hit back button and go back to home, you will see Metacast in your favorites.
When you follow more podcasts, they will be sorted such that podcasts with new episodes will always be at the top. They will also have a blue dot so you can easily see which podcasts have new episodes. You can go straight there to check them out
JennieNow, let's look at playlists and downloads. From the home screen, tap on a podcast. You'll see the list of episodes that that podcast has published. Pop quiz, do you think you can swipe here? Swipe an episode from right to left. You will see three buttons. "Share" lets you share an episode with someone else. "Listen Later" adds the episode to a playlist that you can think of as your listening queue.
"Download" does what it says it does. It downloads the episode to your phone for offline listening. Please tap both "Listen Later" and "Download." Once that's done, tap on the playlists icon at the bottom of your screen. In here, you'll see downloads and listen later playlists. Tap "Downloads" to see all episodes you've downloaded.
To remove the downloads, swipe right to left and tap the red "Download" action with the minus sign. You can do the same for episodes in Listen Later, and eventually in other playlists that we will add in the app. Remember, when in doubt, swipe it out.
ArnabOn the bottom navigation bar, tap the rightmost gear icon to take you to the settings screen. You can use it to sign out from the app. Don't worry, all your highlights, favorites, playlists, everything is stored in the cloud. If you sign in again with the same account, you will see all of that same information.
However, if you're logged in as a guest, your data is not tied to your account, and if you sign out, all that data will be lost. At this time, you can create an account to have your settings stored. In this screen, you can also find a way to send us feedback that'll take you to our subreddit.
IlyaDuring the beta, the app is offered absolutely free to you. However, building and running an app is not free, especially for a small group of independent developers like us. If you enjoy the app and want to send us a token of appreciation, you can tip us at buymeacoffee.com/metacast. You can also find this link in the show notes of this episode. We hope that you've enjoyed this totally unscripted quick tour. Ciao!