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Breaker — The social podcast app 🎧
Listen to the best new podcast episodes with Breaker. Follow your friends to see what they’re listening to, and discover new shows that you’ll love. Like, share, and comment on your favorite episodes. Join the Breaker community and listen to the best stuff!
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Brad Patterson
Downloaded & excited to test. Signed up w/ twitter and now I'd like to also bring in my FB friends but don't see that as an option (unless I'm missing it). Would certainly help w/ traction if folks were able to connect with more friends/platforms.
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Before breaker I split my listening time between NPR One and Overcast, NPR being better at hands off listening (but the trump news takeover made their algo for learning what I like useless) and overcast was more for subscriptions. Looking forward to seeing if I can get that mix both news and podcasts so I can only use one app
This app has replaced Overcast for me as well. Lucky to have participated in the beta for a few weeks!
@palavalli We‘re just getting started! We do plan to build an Android app eventually.
@sferik Great! I'd provide contact information in exchange for letting me know if "eventually" ever turns into "currently."
@iandouglas736 We just launched a waiting list for Android, so you can be the first to be notified when our Android app is live: https://www.producthunt.com/upco...
I'm much more of an episode-listener than a show-subscriber (though I have a few subscriptions). I typically use Huffduffer by @adactio to cherry pick episodes to listen to. I'm looking forward to using this app to discover episodes rather than entire podcasts. Great work @leahculver!
I've been testing Breaker since I got access to the beta a while back. I've been really impressed with the community aspect of the product. It's been great for episode discovery so far, and I"m looking forward to seeing what else the team comes out with over the next while.
I used Overcast on iPhone, and I use PocketCasts now that I am on Android. I must say that this, design wise, looks much more cluttered and less tended to than those options. The social features don't have any sway on me, so this probably wouldn't be for me.
@jesse_wallace Just want to mention that PocketCasts is also available on iOS/iPhone, is my all time favourite podcast app, and would highly recommend it to everyone.
@_sklahr_ I don't think that should necessarily be the case. It's the overall art direction - they'd have to change it significantly for it to feel more user friendly.
@jesse_wallace totally agree here. For it to be in beta, it's far too cluttered to be an MVP. It's reminiscent of audio players and forums of the `00, IMO.
The concept is nice, but as I tried to use it for my primary podcast player bugs got in the way and I returned to overcast.
Pros:Social angle, UX is good
Cons:Podcast player was buggy at times especially at >1x speeds.
Very cool! As a podcaster myself, I've been thinking a lot about podcast discovery since PH doesn't do podcasts anymore.
I noticed some shows have "credits," wherein a user who is on the show is credited. Is this something podcasters have access to, or is that currently an internal feature?
@kadavy Yes, you can sign up as a podcaster here and let us know what show(s) you host: https://breaker.audio/waitlisted...
I've been using Breaker for the last couple months and it's my favorite new app in a long time.
Before Breaker, I would rarely listen to podcasts. Overcast and other apps were lacking discovery tools, making it difficult to find new shows/episodes. Breaker brilliantly solves this by adding a social layer, allowing you to see what friends are listening to, liking and commenting on. I'm now exposed to shows that I never heard of before, and listening to podcasts is now part of my daily routine.
Add me! Username: @jack 🎧
Wow, with the focus on individual episodes, it was not obvious how to subscribe.
I've been using breaker for a bit. One of my favorite new features is the ability to comment...As a podcaster it drives me crazy that I can't hear directly from people listening to my podcast. To the point where I used to go e out a phone number that they could text and it would feed into my slack channel to answer.
I got this because I really wanted to like it but given the goals it won't replace PocketCasts for me yet.
The interface and navigation is something of a jumble. I hope that'll be cleaned up but apps usually continue along a chosen path.
I think the social features could be revolutionary for the entire category but there isn't enough of that in here yet.
1. It doesn't grab my existing social graph.
2. I don't see it helping me discover podcasts yet given that that is the biggest use case (podcasts spread through word of mouth usually).
3. Privacy is an issue since the kind of podcasts somebody listens to is unexpectedly very revealing.
4. I would love for it to display podcasts live as they are being listened to by friends to create new (near-)live experiences for podcasts that a lot of people listen to anyway.
Switched from the default Apple Podcast app to Breaker during the beta and have been loving the social features.
I've been using Breaker for a couple weeks. Love it! Breaker replaced Overcast on my home screen. I told Marco I was missing more social and sharing features. Breaker has filled all of these buckets for me. It's only going to get better with time. Comments, liking, discovery… It's goodreads for podcasts. Once they add a web interface it'll be even better.
Breaker recommended the single best podcast episode I have listened to. EVER.
Naval Ravikant on Reading, Happiness, Systems for Decision Making, Habits, Honesty and More
(Follow me @tom)
Excited to try this app, specially excited about the discovery aspect. I had a couple of questions, What is the "breaker tab" ? And how does it put together my playlist.
Breaker (YC W17) replaced Overcast as my default podcast player a few weeks ago when I got into the beta. The app has many of the same features as other podcast apps (e.g. sleep timer, skip forward, subscriptions) but with community and focus on episode-level discovery.
I'm excited to see it grow as a product and community. Find me in the app (username: rrhoover) to see what I'm listening to. 😊
@rrhoover The focus on finding individual podcast episodes that fit my usage pattern has been awesome!
@rrhoover : I've been beta testing it, too and it's also overtaken Overcast as my default podcast player. One thing I would love to see the Breaker team tackle is the problem of hearing podcast references then having to look them up on my own. Podcasts often reference books, videos, articles, etc and when I want to see what they're talking about, I have to exit the app, do my own search for it and hope I find the right one they're referencing. I've dreamed of a podcast player that somehow allowed listeners to access these references with a single tap at the moment they're mentioned (cuz shownotes don't always include everything). I'd love to see the Breaker team solve this paint point. @sferik @leahculver - any thoughts?
But even if they don't, it's a solid app, even in Beta form.
@themarc @rrhoover : having AI handle the task is def one approach - and I agree, one that might be far off from becoming reality. Another option might be to put the onus on the uploader to insert the links with timestamps and then have Breaker just pull the links up in time when the podcast is playing. Another option would be to crowdsource it - let listeners put those links in and have them come up in time. Different ways of achieving the same thing...
@rrhoover yup. Been using Breaker for a couple of weeks and I love it. My favorite part is the social aspect and the ability to see what shows your friends are listening 2.