Your podcasts, everywhere. It’s a simple but audacious goal we’ve had from the very beginning. It started with iOS, then Android, and then spread to the web. As technology found its way into cars through CarPlay and Android Auto we joined you there as well. Now the time has finally come to add another device to our growing family, her name is Alexa and we hope you’ll make her feel welcome. We know based on the sheer volume of tweets and emails you’ve sent us that a lot of you have been waiting patiently for this day. So today we’re excited to announce that after many months of design, development and hard work the Pocket Casts Skill is now available.
We know that most of you have stopped reading at this point, and raced off to the Alexa app to install it, but for those of you still with us here’s how it works:
- Head on over to the Skills section of your Alexa app on your iOS or Android device
- Search for "Pocket Casts" and install the Skill (you can also find direct links to the Skill in various regions here)
- In the Alexa app, link your Amazon account to your Pocket Casts one
- Once you’ve done that, you’re good to go!
So what kind of things can you do? Well version 7 brought with it an important new feature: Up Next syncing. This means what you’re currently listening to is saved to your account, as is everything you’ve queued to play next. So getting your first podcast playing is as simple as saying "Alexa, ask Pocket Casts to play my Up Next" and what you were last playing will begin, right where you left off.
If you’re after something specific, you can play any of your podcasts by name, "Alexa, ask Pocket Casts to play the latest episode of Radiolab" for example. If you’re not quite sure what to play, we have you covered there too! "Alexa, ask Pocket Casts to give me a recommendation" will use your playback history to find something that is tailored just for you.
There’s a lot of other useful features to explore from asking what’s next to enquiring about the featured podcast for this week. You can find a full list of phrases here.
We’re really excited to share this with you, and we can’t wait for you to try it. If you have feedback or want to tell us how you’re using our new Skill, hit us up on Twitter.
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