# Ten years of Overcast: A new foundation

DevFeed: [Ten years of Overcast: A new foundation](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/ten-years-of-overcast-a-new-foundation-38593.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://marco.org/2024/07/16/overcast-rewrite>)

Author: Marco Arment

Published: 2024-07-16T12:57:40Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Marco.org](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/marco-org.md>)

Topics: [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>), [iOS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ios.md>), [Playback](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/playback.md>), [Streaming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/streaming.md>)

Tags: [accessible](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/accessible.md>), [app](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app.md>), [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [faster](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/faster.md>), [launch](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/launch.md>), [navigation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/navigation.md>), [new-features](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/new-features.md>), [playback](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/playback.md>), [privacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/privacy.md>), [redesign](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/redesign.md>), [rewrite](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rewrite.md>), [shortcuts](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/shortcuts.md>), [storage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/storage.md>), [streaming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/streaming.md>), [sync](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sync.md>)

## AI overview

Overcast has launched a substantial rewrite and redesign of most of its iOS app for its tenth anniversary. The update improves responsiveness, reliability, accessibility, navigation, and controls, while retaining most features and the existing audio engine. Streaming has been replaced by downloading episodes before playback, and several missing features are planned to return.

## Source excerpt

Today, on the tenth anniversary of Overcast 1.0, I'm happy to launch a complete rewrite and redesign of most of the iOS app, built to carry Overcast into the next decade -- and hopefully beyond. Like podcasts better than blog posts? Listen to ATP #596 for more! What's new Much faster, more responsive, more reliable, and more accessible. Modern design, optimized for easily-reached controls on today's phone sizes. Improvements throughout, such as undoing large seeks, new playlist-priority options, easier navigation, and more. What's not Most features. Overcast is still Overcast! The audio engine. It's the best part of Overcast, and still leads the industry in sound quality, silence skipping, and volume normalization. (More soon!) The business. I'm still a one-person operation, with no funding or external ownership, serving only my customers. My principles. I always want to make the best podcast app, and I'll never disrespect your time, attention, or privacy. What's gone Streaming. Most big podcasts now use dynamic ad insertion, which causes bugs and problems for streaming playback.1 Downloading episodes completely before they begin playback is much more reliable. Tapping a non-downloaded episode will now open the playback screen, download it, then start playback. It works similarly to the way streaming did before, but playback begins after the download completes, not after a portion of it is buffered. On today's fast networks, this usually only takes a few extra seconds. And in the near future, I'll be adding smarter options and more control over selective downloading of episodes to further improve the experience for people who don't automatically download every episode. What's next The last few missing features from the old app, such as Shortcuts support, storage management, and OPML. These are absent now, but will return soon. More options for downloading and deleting episodes. Upgrading the Apple Watch app to the new, faster sync engine. (The Watch app is currently