opencast: podcast player

your phone transcribes the episode, opencast skips the ad breaks, free. no account, no tracking, open source. transcripts, search, and chapters when you want them.

opencast finds the ad breaks in your podcasts and skips them.

It is also yours. There is no opencast account, no tracking SDK, and no ads of our own. Subscriptions and listening progress sync through your private iCloud, any RSS feed works, and the source code is MIT-licensed on GitHub. The whole app stays around 10 MB.

Transcripts are made on your device with Apple Speech or Whisper. Follow along as the episode plays and tap any line to jump there. Search everything ever said across your library. Generate chapters and a summary for long episodes. Voice Boost is a broadcast-style leveler for quiet hosts and loud rooms.

how ad skipping works Download an episode and your phone transcribes it. opencast checks the transcript for promo and sponsor reads and marks every break on the timeline and in the transcript. High-confidence breaks skip automatically. Borderline sponsor reads are marked but never skipped, so you decide. Queue a batch, keep listening, and get one notification when detection finishes. Detection works from the transcript text, not the audio.

what the app can do for you • Skips ad breaks automatically, with one-tap undo • Transcripts on device, with tap-to-seek and follow-along highlighting • Full-text search across titles, notes, and transcripts in your library • Generated chapters and summaries for episodes with a transcript • Voice Boost, speed, sleep timer, AirPlay, and Up Next • Per-show intro and outro skip • CarPlay and Siri integration • New-episode notifications with no promotions inside • Search the podcast directory or subscribe by RSS URL • OPML import and export • Downloads for offline listening • Private iCloud sync for subscriptions and progress • Native SwiftUI for iOS 26, on iPhone and iPad

optional and paid On-device transcription and ad skipping are free. Remote Transcription and Chapters & Summary are optional and use transcription hours: the first hour is free, then 20 hours for $0.99 or 100 hours for $4.99, in the US. Remote Transcription processes episode audio only for the jobs you request. Chapters & Summary sends transcript text, never audio. You see the estimate and your balance before anything starts. Remote transcription and summaries are offered at-cost.

opencast is open source under the MIT license: https://github.com/connlark/opencast

Your listening is not a growth funnel.