2024.9.1
This week's release (2024.9.1) fixed some small UI bugs and crash issues from the previous build. I promised more alternate icon choices on social media but those were pushed to the next build as we really need to get the crash fixes out. Don’t worry, the icons are still coming in the next couple of weeks.
Explore Release / iOS 18
I’m very excited about the new Explore tab in Castro. While it may not have felt like the most pressing need for daily users of Castro, it makes the app feel much more alive and dynamic. It’s important for widening our reach and for people coming to the app for the first time. It's also a marked improvement for non-US users as the old homepage was rarely updated in other locales. Surfacing not just podcasts but relevant episodes was really important to me, and I find the feature genuinely useful. It's night and day compared to the old discovery tab.
I’m also really happy we were able to support some of the new iOS 18 features the week they came out. This should be table stakes for an app like Castro. Users have noticed, and these changes are resonating:
With the recent releases, Castro is showing its best user numbers since our acquisition. The last few months have been Castro's first period of real sustained user growth since 2020, and that's without any marketing.
On Shipping
Of course, change can be hard. Some people didn't love the new icon even though it is objectively glorious. There are also some discrepancies between the older and newer parts of the app as we modernize it. This is not ideal, and I've received a few complaints, so I want to say as firmly as I possibly can that I believe we're doing the right thing here.
Castro isn't a museum. We have to ship new features. The product has been stagnant for too long, and we can hardly say it's the best app for listening to podcasts on iOS when it still lacks basic features like device sync. We also can't sit in a room and rewrite the app from scratch for 6-12 months while the product remains stagnant. Even if we could, that's not a good way to ship software. Full rewrites rarely turn out to be a good idea.
So we're going to keep shipping, improving the UX and codebase as we go. The app will feel more cohesive as we progress, and in the meantime you'll get new features like episode artwork and explore. You'll also get the opportunity to give feedback on every incremental change, rather than everything new being dumped on you at once.
Future Plans
As I've shared in previous posts, a loose roadmap in no particular order with no timelines:
- More alternate icons
- Skip outros
- Podcast summary rewrite to align with episode details
- Performance improvements
- Device sync for your subscribed feeds, then full queue sync / playback position, then iPad app
- Episode search
- New watch app
- Support for podcast:transcript in RSS feeds
The last month or so has added a lot of new stuff, and these are easily the most substantial changes since acquisition. But we’re just getting started and have a ton more to ship. I believe the best is yet to come for Castro. Hope you'll stick around for the ride.