Summary
- Pocket Casts now offers automatically generated podcast episode transcripts for Plus and Patron subscribers.
- Transcripts are not available for all episodes, but Pocket Casts provides a clean, user-friendly interface.
- Podcast transcripts are beneficial for accessibility and ease of use, making a subscription worthwhile.
Podcasts are inherently an audio experience (sometimes with video), but text transcripts are useful for a variety of reasons. A recent update to Pocket Casts brings transcripts to podcast episodes, regardless of whether the creator provides them.
Automatically generated transcripts are available on Android and iPhone in version 7.85 of the app. You no longer have to rely solely on the podcast creators to manually include transcripts, with a few catches. First, Pocket Casts is not providing transcripts for every single podcast episode. It’s only supporting “new episodes from the most-followed podcasts.” This is different than Apple Podcasts, which does it for every episode.
Second, the feature isn’t free. Pocket Casts says these automatically generated transcripts are a perk for Plus ($3.99 monthly or $39.99 annually) and Patron ($9.99 monthly or $99.99 annually) subscribers only. To read the transcript, just start playing an episode and look for the “Transcript” button in the overflow menu. For quicker access, you can even drag it right into your main toolbar.
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Pocket Casts’ web and desktop clients no longer require a subscription or login. The company previously charged $4 a month for web and desktop access, though its mobile apps has been free of charge since 2019.
Once you open a transcript, you’ll find a clean, full-screen interface with the ability to search and select and copy any part of the text. When you use the search feature, the results are highlighted, and you can tap the arrows to jump between different mentions quickly. However, the text is not highlighted to follow along with the podcast audio in real time. While reading the transcript, you still have your familiar playback controls and timeline scrubber at the bottom of the screen.
Podcast transcripts are handy for a number of reasons. Maybe you just want it to be easier to grab quotes, look up names, or revisit a specific point someone made. It’s an even bigger win for accessibility. Everyone should be able to enjoy podcasts, regardless of hearing and vision impairments. With big names like Apple and Spotify in the podcast game, people forget about Pocket Casts. But this is another reason why being a Pocket Casts subscriber could be well worth the cost, especially if podcasts are a regular part of your day.
Source: 9to5Google
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