Support & User Guide

Finding and adding podcasts

Tap the + button in the top-right corner of the Priority page to open Discover — a browsing page of the Apple Podcasts charts, with a Top-8 carousel, genre rows, and a country picker. Tap the search bar at the top of Discover to search the catalog by show name, author, or keyword — results appear automatically as you type.

Tap any result to open the podcast preview. You'll see the full episode list straight away. You can browse episodes, read descriptions, and even play or queue individual episodes before deciding to subscribe.

When you're ready, tap Subscribe. The podcast is added to the top of your Priority Stack and Autohop begins checking it for new episodes immediately.

How the queue fills automatically

Once you have subscriptions and at least one downloaded episode, Autohop builds your queue automatically. You don't need to add episodes manually — the queue is drawn from downloaded, unplayed episodes across all your subscriptions, ordered by each podcast's priority rank. If that idea is new to you, the Priority Stack explainer walks through it with examples.

Tap Play on any episode and Autohop advances through the queue without any further input from you.

The three main pages

The Priority Stack is the core of Autohop. It's a ranked list of your subscriptions that determines the order episodes play. Shows at the top of the list are heard first.

Reordering subscriptions

1. Tap Reorder in the top toolbar to enter edit mode.
2. Drag the handle on the right side of any row to move it up or down.
3. Tap Done when finished. The queue updates immediately.

How priority affects playback

When an episode finishes, Autohop picks the next episode from the subscription with the highest priority rank that has a downloaded, unplayed episode available. If your top-ranked show has no downloaded episodes, Autohop moves to the next show, and so on.

Refreshing feeds manually

Tap the ↺ refresh button in the toolbar to check all subscriptions for new episodes immediately. A spinner replaces the button while the refresh is in progress.

Episode status pills

Each row shows a colour-coded pill indicating the status of the latest episode. An episode you listened to completion keeps its Played pill even after it is later archived:

The Up Next sheet shows all episodes that are ready to play, in the order Autohop will play them. Open it by tapping the Up Next button in the player toolbar.

Swipe actions

Pin badges

Episodes manually positioned in the queue show a pin badge above their duration:

• Blue pin — Play Next (promoted to front)
• Orange pin — Play Last (demoted to end)

Up Next indicator

The episode immediately after the currently playing one is labelled "Up Next" in the queue so you always know what's coming.

The player has two or three swipeable panels depending on whether the current episode has chapter data. Swipe left and right to move between them.

Playback controls

• Skip back / Skip forward — Jumps by the number of seconds configured in Settings (default 15s back / 30s forward).
• Scrubber — Drag to seek to any position. Shows elapsed and remaining time.
• Audio controls button — Opens the Audio Controls sheet for speed, trim silence, and vocal boost.
• Sleep timer — Tap the moon icon to set a sleep timer.
• Up Next button — Opens the Up Next sheet.

Lock screen & Control Centre

Autohop integrates with iOS Now Playing controls. Play/pause, skip forward, skip back, and scrubbing all work from the Lock Screen, Control Centre, and CarPlay.

Return to Player button

The player is always running underneath every other page — playback never stops when you navigate away. Every page in the app has a play.circle.fill button (▶) in the top-left toolbar. Tap it to jump back to the player from anywhere.

Tap the audio controls button in the player to open the Audio Controls sheet. Speed, Trim Silence, and Vocal Boost apply to the current podcast and are saved permanently — they are not global settings. The one exception is Shared Listening, a global temporary override at the top of the sheet.

Playback Speed

Tap − or + to adjust speed in 0.1× steps. Range: 1.0× to 2.5×. The default for new subscriptions is 1.6×.

Speed changes take effect immediately and persist for that podcast.

Trim Silence

Trim Silence removes quiet gaps in audio — pauses between sentences, dead air between questions — without affecting speech. The algorithm analyses audio in real time using RMS (root mean square) energy measurement.

Vocal Boost

Vocal Boost applies EQ enhancement to make speech clearer and more present — particularly useful at high speeds, in noisy environments, or with podcasts recorded on low-quality microphones.

Shared Listening

Shared Listening is built for the moments you're not listening alone — a car stereo with passengers, a kitchen speaker, a road trip. If your shows are set to 1.6× or 1.7× with Trim Silence on, that's perfect through headphones but uncomfortable for a group.

Flip the Shared Listening toggle at the top of the Audio Controls sheet and every podcast temporarily plays at a relaxed group speed with Trim Silence switched off. Your per-podcast settings are never altered — turn the toggle off and everything returns exactly as it was.

Autohop supports CarPlay as a focused audio playback surface. It uses the same playback, Up Next, subscriptions, downloads, speed, archive, and Shared Listening state as the iPhone app.

What appears in CarPlay

Downloads in CarPlay

Up Next remains downloaded-only. Subscription episode pages can also show episodes that are not yet on the iPhone. Choosing Play Now, Play Next, or Play Last for one of those episodes asks for driver confirmation, downloads the file, and shows a native downloading state before completing the action.

Up Next actions

• Play Now — starts a downloaded episode immediately, or asks to download first from a subscription episode page.
• Play Next — moves the episode directly after the currently playing episode. If nothing is playing, it starts the episode. Undownloaded subscription episodes ask to download first.
• Play Last — moves the episode to the end of Up Next. Undownloaded subscription episodes ask to download first.
• Archive — removes the episode from the queue. Archiving the current episode advances to the next downloaded queue item when one is available.

Speed and Shared Listening

The speed button opens a simple slower/faster page using Autohop's existing preset speeds. It stays open while you adjust speed. Shared Listening controls the same global temporary override as the iPhone app, so turning it on or off in CarPlay updates the iPhone state too.

If a podcast episode includes chapter data, a Chapters panel appears as the third tab in the player. It lists all chapters with their titles and timestamps.

Jumping to a chapter

Tap any chapter row to jump to that position in the episode immediately.

Disabling chapters

Tap any chapter row to toggle it between enabled and disabled. Disabled chapters are shown with a strikethrough and skipped automatically during playback — Autohop jumps past them without any input. This is useful for sponsor reads, recurring segments, or intros you've already heard many times.

Tap a disabled chapter row again to re-enable it. If you disable the chapter currently playing from the Player, Autohop immediately moves to the next enabled chapter. Podcast Settings protects the current chapter from accidental deselection while that podcast is playing.

Autohop is a download-first player. Episodes must be downloaded before they can be played. The app never streams directly from the internet during playback.

Downloading an episode

On a subscribed podcast's episode list, swipe an undownloaded episode and tap Download. Listening History offers the same state-aware action for episodes still available in your library. A progress bar appears in the episode row while downloading.

Background downloads

Downloads continue in the background even when Autohop is not the active app. If a download is in progress and you lock your phone or switch apps, it will complete automatically using iOS background URL sessions.

Pausing and cancelling

Open the Downloads page to see all active downloads. Tap a download row to pause it. Tap again to resume. Swipe left to cancel.

Cellular downloads

By default, Autohop downloads over both Wi-Fi and mobile data so the queue stays stocked. To restrict automatic downloads, go to Settings → Downloading and turn off Download over cellular, Download over WiFi, or both.

Storage

Downloaded episode files are stored in the app's private storage. Go to Settings → Storage to see how many episodes are currently downloaded. Episodes are automatically removed when archived (manually or by auto-archive policy).

Every podcast has its own independent settings. To access them, tap any podcast row in the Priority page to open its episode list, then tap the gear icon (⚙) in the top-right toolbar.

Playback settings

Chapter Filter

When the podcast supplies chapters, enable or disable recurring positions for this show. The filter uses the currently playing episode from this podcast when available, otherwise the newest episode with chapters. Changes apply to playback immediately; the current chapter is protected from accidental deselection on this settings page.

Download Feed Filters

Create include or exclude rules using episode duration, title keywords, and description keywords. Rejected episodes stay visible with a Skipped indicator but are not downloaded automatically. Manual Download, Play Now, Play Next, and Play Last actions bypass the filters.

Filtered episodes do not train Release Radar and do not count as evidence in Shows You're Drifting From. The rules sync with the other per-podcast settings when iCloud Sync is enabled.

Auto-archive policy

Auto-archive has three independent rules that work together to keep your storage tidy.

After Played — how soon a finished episode is archived and its file deleted:

After Inactive — how long an unplayed, untouched episode is kept before being archived. Options range from Never to 90 Days. Default: 1 Week. Useful for news or daily shows where old episodes become irrelevant quickly.

Episode Limit — keep only the N most recently published episodes; older ones are archived automatically. Options: No Limit, 1 (default), 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 episodes.

Automatic downloads continue to honour this podcast's Download Feed Filters.

Exclude from auto-refresh

Toggle this on to stop Autohop polling this podcast's RSS feed for new episodes. The podcast and all its downloaded episodes stay in your library — you just won't receive new ones automatically. The intended use case is finished or completed shows you want to keep but no longer need updates from.

Notifications

Toggle on to receive a notification when a new episode from this podcast is available. Off by default — notifications are opt-in per show, so you only hear about the podcasts you choose. The global notification toggle in Settings must also be on.

The sleep timer automatically pauses playback after a set duration. Tap the moon icon in the player toolbar to open the Sleep Timer sheet.

Setting a timer

Choose a duration — 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, or 1 hour — and tap to start immediately.

Or use End of Episode mode: set a count (1–10 episodes) using the stepper, then tap Set. Autohop pauses after that many episodes finish.

While a timer is active, the moon icon shows a countdown badge. Tap the moon again to see the active timer, extend it by +5 minutes, or cancel it.

Sleep Schedule is a recurring, nightly sleep timer — set it up once and it works every night, no taps required at bedtime.

Setting it up

1. Open the Menu (☰) → Sleep Schedule.
2. Turn on the toggle and choose your Active Hours — for example 9:00pm to 6:00am. The window can cross midnight.
3. Choose how often Autohop should check in: 10, 15, 20, 40 or 60 minutes, or End of Episode to ask at each episode boundary.

How a night works

Start playing anything during your active hours and the schedule arms itself. After the chosen duration, a soft, meditative chime plays over your podcast — playback doesn't stop — asking, in effect, "are you still listening?"

• Still awake? Tap any control — play/pause on the lock screen, an earbud tap, skip forward or back, the on-screen button, or the "Still Listening" button on the lock-screen notification (no need to unlock your phone). Playback simply continues and the cycle restarts.
• Asleep? If you don't respond within a minute, playback fades out gently, pauses, and rewinds to the moment the chime began — so in the morning you resume from the last thing you actually heard.

Autohop supports both audio and video podcast feeds. Video episodes are detected automatically from the RSS feed.

Playback

Video episodes open in the native iOS video player embedded in the player view. Tap the full screen button to expand to landscape full-screen mode.

Landscape orientation

Autohop unlocks landscape rotation when a video episode is playing full-screen. Rotate your device to landscape and the video fills the screen. Rotating back to portrait returns to the standard player view.

Audio processing on video

Trim Silence and Vocal Boost are not applied to video episodes — video always uses the standard AVPlayer playback path. Playback speed and skip settings still apply to video.

Autohop can notify you when new episodes from your subscriptions are downloaded and ready to play.

Enabling notifications

1. Go to Settings → Release Radar → Notification Settings and turn on the New episode notifications master toggle.
2. iOS will prompt for notification permission the first time — tap Allow. If you previously denied permission, the page shows a banner with an Open iOS Settings shortcut.
3. Then turn on the toggle for each podcast you want to hear about — right there on the Notification Settings page, in each podcast's own settings, or by tapping the bell next to the Subscribe button on the podcast's page.

Per-podcast control

Notifications are off by default for every podcast — you opt in only for the shows you want to hear about. The Notification Settings page lists every subscription with its own toggle, plus Enable All / Disable All buttons. Both the master toggle and the per-podcast toggle must be on for a notification to fire.

OPML is a standard format for transferring podcast subscription lists between apps. Use it to migrate from another podcast player or to back up your subscriptions.

Importing from another app

1. Export your subscriptions as an OPML file from your current podcast app.
2. In Autohop, go to Settings → Subscriptions → Import OPML.
3. Select the OPML file from Files or your Downloads folder.
4. Autohop imports all feeds. Duplicates are skipped automatically.

Exporting your subscriptions

1. Go to Settings → Subscriptions → Export OPML.
2. The standard iOS share sheet opens — save to Files, AirDrop, or email it to yourself.

iCloud Sync keeps your podcasts and your place in them matched across all the iPhones signed into the same iCloud account. Start an episode on one device and pick it up on another, right where you left off.

It's off by default. Autohop is private to your device until you choose to turn it on.

Turning it on

1. Go to Settings → Sync.
2. Turn on iCloud Sync.
3. Do the same on your other devices, signed into the same iCloud account.

What syncs

• Your subscriptions, and the order you ranked them in
• Each podcast's own settings (speed, Trim Silence, Vocal Boost, skips, auto-archive rules, Download Filters)
• Played, paused and archived state, and your exact position in each episode
• Your listening history and your stats
• Your exact Up Next episodes and manual order

What stays on each device

Downloaded episode files are not synced — each device downloads its own copies, so sync never uses your mobile data to move audio around. A few device-specific app settings (like which screen Autohop opens to, and Radar sensitivity) also stay on each device.

Autohop keeps a searchable record of every episode you've listened to. Access it from Menu (☰) → Listening History.

Only episodes with at least 1 minute of actual playback are shown — episodes that were archived or skipped before the 1-minute mark are excluded.

Stats header

The top of the page shows two summary stats: Listening Time (total audio time consumed across qualifying episodes) and Episodes (total count of played or archived episodes with at least 1 minute of playback).

History list

Episodes are grouped by date — Today, Yesterday, then older dates. Each row shows the podcast artwork, episode title, podcast name, and a status badge with how much you listened:

• Listened — you played part of the episode but didn't finish it. Shows time remaining.
• Played — episode marked as played.
• Archived — episode was archived.

Search

Tap the search bar at the top to filter history by episode title or podcast name. Results update as you type.

Episode actions

Resolved library rows use the same swipe actions as podcast episode lists: Play Now and Play Next on the leading edge, plus Download, Archive or Unarchive and Play Last on the trailing edge. Actions download first when required, with an animated progress bar beneath the row.

Access your listening stats from the Menu (☰) → Stats.

Pick a time period at the top of the page — 7 Days, the displayed month, the displayed year, or Lifetime — and every chart below responds to it. A separate This/Last bar switches Week, Month, and Year between the current period and the previous completed one. Weeks run Monday to Sunday. Stats are computed locally and sync only through your private iCloud when you enable iCloud Sync.

What the page shows

Time Saved breakdown

The Total row sums all four categories. Time saved totals you accumulated in earlier versions of Autohop are preserved and included in the Lifetime view.

Access global settings via the hamburger menu (☰) on the Priority page → Settings.

Startup

Release Radar

Autohop learns each podcast's release schedule and prioritises its feed when a new episode is expected. Refresh timing remains subject to when Autohop is active and when iOS grants background execution.

Auto-Archive

Downloading

Controls

Subscriptions

Default Playback

Sets the speed, Vocal Boost, Trim Silence, and start/end skip given to every new subscription, and used to play feeds you're only previewing. Changing these never affects podcasts you've already subscribed to — adjust those from each podcast's own settings.

Sync

Turn on iCloud Sync to sync subscriptions, per-podcast settings, played and archived state, playback positions, Up Next order, history, and stats through your private iCloud database across your iPhones. Downloaded media and global app settings remain local. Off by default. See iCloud Sync for the full picture.

Storage

Shows the count of currently downloaded episodes and their total size on disk. To free storage, archive episodes from Up Next or adjust the Episode Limit in your per-podcast auto-archive settings.

About

Shows the app version number and a link to Open Source Acknowledgements.

Have a question, found a bug, or want to share some feedback? I'd love to hear from you.

Please include your iOS version and a description of what happened if you're reporting a bug — it makes it much easier to track down.