Products · Broad category
Podcasts
Raised as a usability problem by 33 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2010–2025), in 29 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Getting from a podcast website to a subscription is clunkyUnreviewed
20102026- Ads are forced into the middle of podcasts where they're hard to skip2025-02-10
- Subscribing to podcasts with many episodes is slow to complete2025-01-28
- Good podcast search tools are hard to find, so searching by episode is a challenge2023-01-23
Can't find the feed URL, so subscribing requires hunting or an accountUnreviewed
20102026- RSS feeds for podcasts are hard to find as shows move to platforms2022-06-12
- Can't find the feed URL, so subscribing requires hunting or an account2021-02-06
- Download and RSS feed links are buried behind share and subscribe menus2020-01-08
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 34 complaints
- Ads are forced into the middle of podcasts where they're hard to skip2025-02-10
- Clicking subscribe is slow to respond2025-01-28
- Subscribing to podcasts with many episodes is slow to complete2025-01-28
- Can't find a transcript on the page2024-04-11
- Good podcast search tools are hard to find, so searching by episode is a challenge2023-01-23
- Existing podcast downloaders are broken, poor quality, or require an account2022-10-19
- RSS feeds for podcasts are hard to find as shows move to platforms2022-06-12
- Unclear how to start discussing podcasts; UI is confusing2022-05-27
- Posting a comment clears the input with no error or confirmation, and the comment never appears2022-05-27
- Audio player resizes and lags; site feels slow with animations and loading screens2022-05-27
- Must hit play and close a popup before the player appears2022-02-10
- Episodes take 10-20 seconds to start, and only refresh via a hidden shortcut2022-02-07
- Can't edit more than 5 words at a time, and can't correct transcript errors efficiently2021-12-07
- No download link for the audio file; must dig through developer tools2021-04-04
- Can't find the feed URL, so subscribing requires hunting or an account2021-02-06
- Episode audio is hidden, so single episodes are hard to access2021-02-05
- Podcasts buried in a sidebar halfway down the page under authors2020-07-16
- No bulk delete; swiping one by one is tiring and unreliable2020-01-28
- Download and RSS feed links are buried behind share and subscribe menus2020-01-08
- Hard to open a show's episode list; it's confusing and buries simple ordering2019-10-22
- Podcast discovery is clunky and getting from website to subscribed is clunky2019-03-28
- Raw MP3 download option has disappeared, forcing use of apps or websites2019-03-28
- Hard to understand where podcasts come from and which apps to use2018-03-31
- Can't find the most recent episodes; lists are confusing and show outdated or unclear content2017-11-11
- Spent minutes unable to find how to play the podcast; links loop back to same page2017-02-20
- Listeners must understand RSS feeds or install third-party apps just to subscribe2016-03-15
- Some podcast episodes download quickly while others fail entirely2015-10-27
- Subscribing requires copying RSS links, which is a real pain on mobile for normal users2014-11-04
- Users must wade through extra steps and XML to get a plain audio file2014-11-01
- Users spent 45 minutes mapping finicky switches to figure out channel interactions2013-06-11
- UI hangs and refuses to scroll while downloads run; volume control unresponsive for seconds2013-01-22
- Podcasts app fails at basic playback; skeuomorphic design and crashes disrupt use2012-10-29
- Interface, especially the nav bar, is hard to use on mobile devices2012-05-09
- Took several attempts to figure out how to subscribe to the feed2010-08-23