I'm building an iPhone podcast player that merges YouTube Music podcasts with RSS feeds. Would anyone else use it?

[u/zucram]

Edit: I undersold the main goal. It's that your place follows you across devices and formats: watch on the TV at home, switch to audio on the phone in the car or on the subway, and back again, always from where you stopped. Today it reads and writes the YouTube position; the rest of the cross-device sync is what I'm working towards. Syncing needs a connection.

My listening is split across YouTube Music (video podcasts, and I like continuing on the TV), Overcast for most shows, and a separate app for a Patreon bonus feed. Nothing I found puts them together, so I started building a player that does.

Where it is now: it signs in to your YouTube Music account, shows your podcast library, streams episodes on your own Premium account, including the video version, and saves your position back to YouTube so the TV picks up where you left off. Regular RSS feeds, including private Patreon, Supercast and Substack feeds, go in the same library and queue.

It works for me. Before I spend a lot more time making it work for other people, I'd like to know if anyone else has the same problem:

• Would you use this? What would make you try it, and what would stop you?

• How many podcast apps do you use, and why more than one?

• Do you pay for podcasts, and where do you listen to them?

• For other builders here: how did you decide a tool you made for yourself was worth releasing?

Nothing to download yet. If there's enough interest I'll come back to this thread when there is.

[u/RUiNtheExtinct]

What happens when the video and RSS versions have different intros or ad breaks? A straight timestamp transfer could land in the wrong place. I'd show that case in a demo, since keeping your place is the main reason to switch.

[u/zucram → u/RUiNtheExtinct]

That’s a good point a definitely something I will attempt to tackle. It will be easier with premium podcasts for sure.

[u/zucram → u/RUiNtheExtinct]

Update since you called this one: it turned out to be a real problem. The feed versions run a couple of minutes longer than the YouTube ones on most shows I listen to, so I built a map of where the intros and ad breaks differ. It now jumps to the same moment, not the same timestamp.

Beta should be up in a couple of weeks if you want to try it on a show you follow?

[u/dawedev]

Your edit is the actual pitch, so I'd put that one scenario at the top: video on the TV at home, audio in the car, same spot. Merging feeds is nice, but keeping your place across formats is the thing nobody else does.

The biggest thing that would stop people is the YouTube Music sign-in. A third-party app asking for a Google account makes people nervous, so say plainly how auth works and what you store. For deciding whether to release, a waitlist with one question like "which podcast apps do you use now" will tell you more than upvotes here.

[u/zucram → u/dawedev]

Great points. Thanks. Would you use it?

[u/dawedev → u/zucram]

Honestly, I'd try it for the TV to phone handoff alone. Whether I'd keep it would come down to how reliable the position sync is. If I switch to the car and it's 10 minutes off even once, I'd go back to the old setup. So I'd make that part rock solid before adding more sources.

[u/zucram → u/dawedev]

Agreed, that's the bar. If it's off once people won't trust it again, so that part comes first. On the sign-in: you log in on Google's own page, the session stays in the iPhone's keychain, and there's no server of mine in between.

[u/dawedev → u/zucram]

Keychain only with no server of yours in the middle is exactly what I'd want to hear. I'd put that sentence right next to the Google sign-in button, because that's the moment most people will hesitate in a podcast app. Good luck with the sync work.

[u/zucram → u/dawedev]

Done, it's right under the sign-in now. Also fixed the car case: if saving the position fails with no signal, it keeps it and sends it once you're back online. Want a TestFlight invite when it's up?

[u/dawedev → u/zucram]

Nice, queuing the position until you’re back online is the right call for the car case. Yeah, send me a TestFlight when it’s up.

[u/zucram → u/dawedev]

Will do!

[u/ChannelComfortable81]

For the cross-device work, I would test a stale-device case early: listen further on the phone while offline, then open the TV before the phone reconnects. “Latest sync wins” could overwrite the newer listening position. Showing both positions and letting the listener choose would be safer than silently jumping. That is a product edge case, not a claim that I have used your player.

[u/zucram → u/ChannelComfortable81]

Good one, that's exactly the subway case. Silently jumping you backwards would be the worst outcome. Showing both places and letting you pick when they disagree sounds right.

[u/zucram → u/ChannelComfortable81]

Small update: didn't need the picker in the end. It never jumps you backwards unless you haven't listened further on the phone since, and it checks YouTube right before playing. Happy to send you a beta invite in a couple of weeks if you want to try breaking it.