There’s a new podcast app option for CarPlay fans out today: Downcast. The popular iOS and Mac podcast player updated today to add CarPlay integration, enhanced VoiceOver features, scrubber improvements, and lots of battery life and bug fix improvements.
Downcast wrote a bit on the app blog to talk about what to expect from the CarPlay integration:
Customization
CarPlay is meant to be safe and easy to use. To ensure that, Apple has limited customization of the UI. This is why you’ll find that most audio apps on CarPlay are quite similar. I can’t change the font, move labels around, add additional labels, or customize the now playing screen. These things just aren’t possible at this time, and that’s probably a good thing.
Limited List Items
Downcast limits lists in CarPlay to a maximum of 100 items. This is an arbitrary decision meant to control performance and improve safety. If this creates a problem for you, I suggest creating a playlist on your iPhone with appropriate episode inclusion settings to make a manageable list.
Downcast also limits lists in CarPlay to include only ready-to-play episodes. That includes those that are marked for streaming, are downloaded, or queued for downloading.
For the uninitiated, CarPlay is an infotainment feature in cars that lets supported iPhone apps project and control information on built-in screens.
Pro tip: you can remove Apple’s Podcasts app from the CarPlay Home screen and move Downcast to the front page by disabling Podcasts in the Restrictions section in the Settings app on iOS (as long as it’s the next alphabetical CarPlay app installed).
Downcast is available for iPhone plus Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. The podcast player is currently $2.99 for iOS/watch OS, and $7.99 on OS X. CarPlay integration is a free update to existing Downcast for iPhone customers. Find more apps with CarPlay integration here.
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Outstanding product.