Podcast app Castro has been saved from an uncertain future by its sale to the developer behind the Android podcast app Aurelian, Bluck Apps.
The team promises that it won’t be making any major changes to the app, and that the subscription cost will not be increasing “at this time” …
Castro has long been one of our favorite podcast apps.
Castro takes a unique approach to subscription management. You subscribe to shows, but then it uses a queue system to manage the shows. As new episodes come in, you can choose to queue a show or archive it. This feature is helpful if you listen to shows that have daily episodes. If you have favorite shows, you can set them to auto queue, so you never miss them.
I love Castro’s innovative approach to library management. If you are someone who struggles with keeping up with new episodes, Castro will be a great fit. Like a lot of the other apps, it includes the ability to use different playback speeds and trim silences (Castro Plus required).
However, its future was cast into doubt when a former employee said back in November that the app would be shut down by January, and that did appear to have been the case when it stopped working and the website disappeared. Things did restart, but with no certainty as to the future.
Castro saved by sale
The team behind Castro today announced that the app has been sold, and will continue to operate.
We are excited to announce Castro has been purchased by Bluck Apps. Castro is a great app with a long history on iOS and many passionate fans, and it will continue to operate in its current form.
Bluck Apps said that it too is an indie developer, and it has no plans for major change.
This is a return to its independent roots. We won’t be making any drastic changes, like overhauling the UI to look more like TikTok. We’re not adding an AI chatbot. We’ll just keep running the podcast service you already love, with a few tweaks to modernize and keep things running smoothly.
It said that the price would not change immediately, but users should subscribe now to avoid future increases.
We’re not buying Castro to milk it for revenue. The price of Castro is not going up at this time [however] you may want to sign up for premium now because it won’t be $1 / year forever.
The company also promised to be much better at communicating with users after acknowledging that it had failed at this under its previous ownership.
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