Popular iOS/watchOS podcast player Castro has received a nice update today that brings Siri Shortcuts and rich command support for a more seamless experience.
Castro Podcast Player for iPhone and Apple Watch now offers support for a variety of Siri commands to play shows, play a certain genre, or even the news. You can also use Siri to control playback controls including Chapter skipping and Trim Silence.
Going further, this update brings Siri Shortcuts functionality so you can cook up your own or use some of the premade options.
Castro highlights that the new Siri support runs so deep that there’s been a Siri guide added to Settings of the app.
Castro Podcast Player is a free download from the App Store and uses in-app purchases to unlock all the app’s features with Castro Plus.
Full release notes for version 2020.9:
SIRI + SHORTCUTS INTEGRATION
SIRI
– Ask Siri to play any show in Castro, whether or not you’re subscribed to it- and Castro will find the episode of that show that makes the most sense to play.
– Ask Siri to play the news in Castro, and Castro will check your Queue, Top Picks, and then Inbox for recent news shows to play.
– Ask Siri to play you something from any category.
– Add episodes to the queue through Siri
– Control all aspects of playback via Siri (playback speed, skipping ahead, jumping back, continuous play, etc)
– Control Castro Plus features like Chapter skipping, Trim Silence, and enhanced Voices via Siri
– There’s too many to add to this list, so we made a Siri Guide in Settings so you can see what’s possible without having to remember it all. SOME COMMANDS REQUIRE A SHORTCUT TO WORK, you can conveniently add them through the guide with the push of a button.SHORTCUTS
Many of the Siri interactions are supported to the advanced use of Shortcuts, but we’ve also added a ton of support for Shortcuts so you can connect Castro to any app, and create your own automations. We can’t wait to see what you come up with, but if you’d like some inspiration check out the new Shortcuts gallery in settings.SIDELOADING
We’ve updated the Sideloading extension with a nifty redesign as well as support for dark mode. Go sideload something to check it out.OTHER
– Updated Apple Podcasts library import instructions to use a new shortcut which is much easier to work with.
– Episode summary is now accessible on the Apple Watch (thanks Bryan Clark)
– This release requires iOS 13
– Terms of Use added to Settings
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments