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Pocket Casts makes its web player and desktop apps usable without a subscription

It's now free to use on every platform but smartwatches.

In a rare recent example of a product becoming more affordable (rather than movingfull-speedintheoppositedirection), the popular podcast service Pocket Casts no longer requires a subscription to access its web player and desktop apps. Although you could already do that on free alternatives like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube Music, Pocket Casts enthusiasts (including some Engadget staffers) swear by its clean UI, silence trimming and voice boosting features and queue management. When combined with Apple's recent addition of a web player for its free podcast service, perhaps Pocket Casts realized it was limiting itself to a diminishing piece of the pie by paywalling everything but its mobile apps.

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