BBC Sounds: Radio & Podcasts

I think this app is great. I like how few clicks i need to make to get to a program or channel i listen to regularly. Can you add bookmarking? When listening to a stream, like Radio 4 Today I would like to bookmark a moment in the broadcast so i can return easily to It later, to relisten again. And do it multiple times on a single show.

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Lots of interesting content and zero ads. I'm currently listening to In Our Time, an academic discussion programme with over 1000 episodes of history, science and the arts. I'm going to know everything! 😂 It could do with an episode index, but otherwise, it's great. I've also been listening to Michael Moseley and Bethany Hughes. There's a lot of music on the app too, but I'm more interested in the documentaries, so can't say how it rates as a music app.

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Brilliant! Feature suggestion: the ability to listen to a programme off air (a podcast) simultaneously with someone with whom you share the link for it. It feels like it would be a nice way to enjoy a programme with a friend or family member, very appropriate to the BBC being a broadcaster. A shared experience that listening to the radio and watching telly used to be for everyone, and perhaps a way to introduce the younger generation to what used to be a major contributor to social cohesion.

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Up until now, I've only been able to listen to BBC Radio programs via TuneIn Radio or my Amazon Echo. Now that Sounds is available stateside (I am an American listener), I now have a better interface to access BBC Radio feeds, and unlike TuneIn Radio, I can use DVR-style controls, and rewind to the start of a live program to hear what I missed right then and there, and that's not to mention I get to actually see what's playing at that time, something TuneIn doesn't do playing the same feeds.

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I’ve given this app some time to bed in and still find it infuriating. The design is based upon podcast use rather than a radio station which is its foundation. Therefore to listen as you would to a radio and use it to catch up on programmes you’ve missed or see new content coming up is designed as a secondary poor relative in the structure of the app. You have to hit about 6 buttons to get to where you were last time you listened on catchup to get back to the schedule to see other possible programmes. Moving from radio 4 to 5 is about 20 moves as you have to find small buttons for schedules and then wade through numerous screens to get where you could once get to in 2 clicks. The developer needs to try an navigate using one hand with a child on his hip and attempt to go from radio 4 morning news (preferably when the god bothering bit is on, to add a bit of urgency and irritation to the nix) to radio 5 ((preferably during nick Campbell inane dog rambles) to 4 extra look for comedy ie hancock and then back to radio 4 again . Once they get that in an intuitive easy system with minimum moves and large easy to find buttons which ensures the app doesn’t hang downloading erroneous content it will be an improvement. Ps I get my podcasts on the podcast app not through sounds as it’s a cleaner less complicated system and I don’t want my radio app cluttered up with more annoying cul-de-sacs of nonsense. Thanks for your review. Navigating between different live stations is done quickly via the “dial” at the top of the Listen page. Moving between schedules can be achieved via the All Stations page, and you can access the schedule for the station you are listening to by tapping the logo on the full player page. Your catchup listening can be seen in the Continue Listening section, and more episodes from a programme can be found via episode detail pages. Hope this is helpful!

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I love this app and use it often. It’s great for listening to the radio live using my Bluetooth speaker or especially good for catching up on programmes. I often search / browse and will use it in the same way I use a TV catch up or streaming service, discovering new programmes. Most importantly I catch up on woman’s hour but I also love the sleep / meditation podcasts and books. I use these to help me get to sleep. One small criticism, I was recently listening to a subscribed book reading of the perigrine by David Attenborough (his voice perfect to aid drifting off to sleep!) but with no apparent warning it just stopped being available. I may have missed the warning that the book reading would no longer available but I honestly did not see it so this could be improved with an obvious end date being highlighted in bold as the last few days approach (say the last week?) or even an email to the user? It’s minor really I was just a bit sad as I had it on my subscribed list for so long and then while actively listening to it lost the opportunity to hear the end!!

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I’m only awarding this 2* as it’s such a poor replacement for the old Ap. Why does it not go directly into the site when I press the Ap? Instead I have to go into Open Ap mode every time and start from scratch. Then finding what I’m looking for is long winded. The only thing I like better than the old Ap is that you’ve split the comedy section up by type of show. However, even then you have to scroll down a load of other stuff to find the menu. If you fall asleep listening to a show, you wake up to find it’s automatically moved onto another show. Not even another episode in the same show, but a completely different show altogether. You then have to start again to find your original show so you can listen again. It’s just messy, overly complicated and long winded. Why mess with something that worked fine before? If you need to change things, please improve them and not make them worse. I’m clearly not alone feeling this way looking at the other reviews and I’m staggered this Ap was passed by your team as fit for purpose. Sorry to sound miserable, but it’s really really poor. Thank you for your review. When selecting the app from your phone’s home screen it should will launch the app rather than directing you to the BBC Sounds website. We'd recommend reinstalling the app and removing any web bookmarks you’ve added to your home screen, or contacting our Support teams for help with this. We do have a sleep timer feature on our app which you can find in the full player screen. At the bottom of the playback screen, tap the clock icon. Then, select how long you'd like the stream to keep playing before it switches itself off. More on this here: https://bbc.in/2KilWoa You can also switch autoplay off by visiting My Sounds, then Settings, or by selecting the queue icon when on a playback page.

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I very much appreciate Sounds as I love the radio, and being able to catch up with or listen again to programmes, like Saturday Review, Start the Week, Medical and Science programmes, Analysis, The Briefing Room, The Moral Maze, Hard Talk and the Why Factor plus others on the World Service. I also like the podcast versions with extras at the end. What I don’t like as an older person with somewhat impaired eyesight is not being able to escape from a page I am on to go back to the main schedules. For example the icons at the bottom of the favourites page which I sometimes accidentally find myself on, are tiny and I don’t know what they are for. Tapping them takes me somewhere else I don’t want to be and don’t know how to get back from. i often can’t see, or can’t find, an arrow to taken me away from the page and back to what I want. This is on a full size modern iPad which normally I can see without difficulty even with my visual problems. So that is why I have given a four rather than a five star review. Great service but often frustrating for older people with less than perfect eyesight..

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I love this app and use it all day at work to listen to the radio, however it does have a few seriously irritating bugs! Firstly, I’ve lost count of the amount of times it crashes out completely, mostly when the signal drops for a few seconds (which is an o2 problem) sometimes it will wait for the signal to return and either carry on where it stopped, or from where it’s got to in the live stream, but mostly it just crashes out completely. A new thing it’s started doing when the signal drops and returns it can’t connect and I have to force close the app and restart. I think the most irritating thing it does, again down to signal dropping is it will restart playback, however it’s jumped back 30/40 minutes, this is really frustrating if you rely on the radio telling you the time as you work, as happened on one occasion it dropped out, restarted, I was merrily working away until the 1pm news when it was time to move to my next job, except it wasn’t 1pm, it was 1.40 and it had jumped back 40 minutes, and I was 40 minutes late believing the radio was telling me the truth

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A great app that's fast and reliable. But to be 5* it needs: ability to filter out played eps of podcasts, then sort oldest to newest when listening in sequence; ability to auto-download my next episode or 2, so I don't have to manage it myself before leaving the house. That's why I use a different app for podcasts.

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Works well, fairly easy to use. Sometimes difficult to find a programme - for instance, the 7.45pm nightly story - not under the name of the serialised book, not under 'Woman's Hour Drama' (it's also on in the morning.) But that gripe aside it's pretty good. Update review in July 2025: It is still difficult to find programmes on Sounds, even when using the correct title as printed in the Radio Times. So, it's still very good for the items I can find.

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UPDATE: Greatly improved. podcast function now has added standard features like changing playback speed and sleep timer. BUT, if you are going to force us to use the app in the US, don't list audio like 'Infinite Monkey Cage' that you can't hear outside UK on the player, (which you could before the BBC Sounds app mandate). You CAN listen to You're Dead To Me on ANY player on day of release. Now need this for just ONE podcast.

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If it wasn't for the programme content, I wouldn't bother. Poor interface, poor information, too much irrelevant clutter. The app is not a disaster but it is not a worthy successor to iplayer. Constant change but no improvement. Still cluttered, still light on information. Most BBC links just point here. If they can't be bothered to provide it within the app, they could at least offer links. Linking of episodes is sporadic and often wrong.

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keeps cutting out at the moment, every 5 minutes. Great content, but still hard to find all the hidden gems. And sometimes recently broadcast comedy doesn't feature in the comedy section, etc. Doesn't seem very intelligent about recommending similar programmes. Doesn't make it easy to pick up where left of, or to see the next programme in a series / podcast is available. Beeb needs to make more of showcasing its content.

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Only 3 stars, instead of 5, as it continually & regularly disconnects. Therefore can we have either a larger set cache within the app or the option to set a larger cache, manually, for lower spec phones, like my Motorola Rediscovering how interesting & quality BBC radio Scotland is, after trying to listen to it on a MW radio, 15 years ago. So the app has been useful.

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This is a half decent app, but it could be so much better. Yes, one can bookmark and queue episodes, but the opposite (blackmark) is not available to mark things that you definitely do NOT want to hear. For example, I will watch sports on TV but never want to just listen to sports. The BBC will probably soon lose its licence fee, but could make money by hiring items from its vast archive. For example, I would willingly pay for radio plays by Louis MacNeice.

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When a whole series is made available in advance, such as the infinite monkey cage, can you stop it overwhelming the 'my sounds' list. Let it be known that all programmes are available, but only put the current episode into my feed. This is very annoying, as it makes finding other novel things to listen to difficult.

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Generally it's now a decent app but there are two niggling issues that prevent me from giving it more stars: 1. Downloads break too easily. e.g. they frequently stall when I'm on the move and I have to forcibly stop and restart several times. This also happens when my phone is stationary and on a stable network. Downloads need to be more resilient. 2. The app is really slow to switch between pages. The annoying spinning circle appears with pretty much every click which is very annoying.

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Update 08/2022 Still loads slowly. Frustrating t find new episodes of podcasts that aren't available for play. Also it allows me to subscribe to podcasts that aren't available in the US. Still good for a basic news roundup. It appears to still be under development. Loads VERY slowly on Android. Also, I'm interested in podcasts, not music. I hope for improvement. Update 13/11/20: It's working now, but I can't find the podcasts I used to listen to regularly. Better than nothing.

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I love the content and use the app regularly, but it's a frustrating experience with its bugs. Every few minutes it stops streaming with a "Something went wrong" message and you have to manually unpause it. This happens both with live radio and podcasts. It means it's not an option to leave it playing in the background while you work. It's been like this for years on different phones so I know it's not me, it's the app. When will they fix it?

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Missing feature: once a cast played, can't be marked as unplayed, to facilitate listening again🤨 So many live streams, a favourites option needed, especially in Google Auto. If a station stream is paused and resumed, very often goes to live 🤬 if a podcast is paused, and "hey Google play radio 1" requested, or any live station, it resumes the podcast. So👏 many👏 foibles! might choose to play through a mobile browser, see if experience better.

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Content is good but frustrating that you can't browse by time and channel, instead you have to browse according to what is being promoted, or by category, or by search for a programme title. Often I want to listen to what was being broadcast at a particular time on a particular channel, bury the app assumes (prefers?) that I chose content according to category.

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Updated: Thank you for added in some much requested features (auto download, episode delete, playback speed). Sadly, the downloads seem broken for most of the subscribed shows. If it's a rights issue, don't offer to retry the download. I've cleared the cache as suggested, but downloads don't work. Between the broken downloads and the wait period for the RSS feeds for podcast apps, my listening to BBC content has pretty much been obliterated. Add option for streaming over wifi only.

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I would love to use this to play downloaded podcasts. Except 60% won't play and I get an error message telling me there is a problem. Phone off and back on again doesn't help. And if I even think about opening the app when I'm not online (to play downloaded podcasts, for example) it won't let me play anything. Overall, about as reliable as a Lada running on chip oil

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This has improved a lot over the years since my original review. But is still one star as there is no way of downloading a whole drama series or podcast series. not even a list where I can click on ones I want. instead I must select every single episode, select the three dots, and then select download. Dozens and dozens of times! Zzzzzzz😴 At least a download by default on the series I select, or allow simple swiping to select and download like other more modern and less irritating apps.

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This app is APPAULING. Unless you're connected to WiFi or have perfect signal, get used to seeing 'there was a problem playing this item' and having to force the app to stop or restart your phone. It's not like I have a rubbish phone either, samsung s22. "Take the BBC with you wherever you go". Yeah, as long as you can connect to WiFi or you have 5g. If you work outside then forget it, it doesn't even work in places with 5g sometimes, like right outside my house in a town. Complete joke.

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I’m very disappointed with this app trying to find plays and stories is difficult. When you are listening it is very difficult to playback as the ap just doesn’t let you do it unless my iPad goes into sleep mode, so I have to close the lid, relift it and then adjust. Sure, if you just want to listen to a station it’s there in front of you, but anything outside this is a fail. Also you have a section called Electric (something) but it’s just a mess and different stories are mixed in with Book of the Week. There is absolutely no delineation between each book/story. You are left just to scroll through a pile of different titles and work out how many episodes they each have (and this is never actually listed) so in some cases you don’t even know if the book has ended or not, you just have to keep on looking in case another episode appears. Also informing the listers when the next episode will be available, something that used to be the norm, has just simply vanished. The typographic style is woefully inadequate, you really do have to clearly list titles, episode and how many episodes there are. Take Home Front, this is a huge production that should be broken down into manageable sections and then numbered accordingly. Yes it is good to include the date of say ‘16th Oct 1917’ but this needs to be in subtitles. Apps should make things easier not a load of hard work. Regards Tighe

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It used to good, but now just emulates other things and other apps, taking the worst elements of forced choice and through this restricting the flow of listening and discovery. It is also very difficult to find things now, using bland, out of date and restrictive categories when the best programming does not reflect this. Change for change sake has one consistency; mediocrity of use. You would discover more by just choosing a station and playing live, even that doesn't work well anymore.

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There is no way to see similar podcasts to the one you've just listened too, either on subject or by authors. The search function is absolutely terrible and doesn't pull up appropriate titles. Example, I searched 'glass' and it failed to pull up the story The Glassmaker. It truly is a shame, as there is some amazing content on there but the hoops you need to jump through to find it makes it very frustrating to use.

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Continues to get worse - we need a 0 star option!. Not only is the app unable to open at a station that I listen to (or at least near to) but usually some random distant one, and when I do try to listen to something it still continues just stopping for no reason - often repeatedly stopping in less than 5 minutes!. GARBAGE.

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Awful. I loved the old version. This one is difficult to use when trying to select a different station. It doesn't play the next programme automatically in subscribed items.. There are no settings either. Plus why the questions of where I live and what my interests are: I want to broaden my horizons, not be limited by some algorithm choosing for me. Love the BBC:dislike this app.

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