How show notes are rendered in different podcast apps

Know how your listeners will view your show notes across different listening apps.

Dan Rowden

Nov 28, 2023 — 5 min read

When publishing new podcast episodes you may quickly realise that different podcast apps render show notes and descriptions in quite different ways.

Unlike the world of web browsers, which now almost all show websites the same way, podcast apps can feel a bit like the Wild West in comparison.

This post serves as a resource for easily being able to see which kind of content can be readily used in episode descriptions.

With this information you are able to know how your listeners will view your show notes and therefore determine which kind of elements you should be adding to your descriptions.

This post covers 10 different content elements across 8 different listening apps.

Results are grouped first by app and then by content element, giving you a helpful dual overview.

Go to the Apps list
Go to the Content elements list

Summary

The best apps in this test were Castro and Overcast, which both support all content elements testes. Surprisingly, major apps like Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts don't have great support.

The most-supported elements across all the tested apps are emojis (supported by all apps) then lists and links (both supported by all apps apart from Google Podcasts).

Apps

First, let's go through the tested apps (in alphabetical order) and show which kind of content elements they support.

Apple Podcasts

iOS. More info

Apple podcasts does support showing these content elements:

Links
Emojis
Lists

Apple Podcasts kind of supports showing these content elements:

Headings (no styling; shows plain text)
Quotes (no styling; shows plain text)
Code blocks (no styling; shows plain text)

Apple Podcasts does not support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Images
Horizontal rule
Inline code (shows plain text)

Breaker

iOS app with social features. More info

Breaker does support showing these content elements:

Links
Emojis
Lists

Breaker kind of supports showing these content elements:

Headings (no styling; shows plain text)
Images (shows image at full size)
Quotes (no styling; shows plain text)
Code blocks (no styling; shows plain text)

Breaker does not support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Horizontal rule
Inline code (renders the code as HTML)

Castamatic

Indie iOS app. More info

Castamatic does support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Links
Emojis
Lists
Horizontal rule
Inline code
Code blocks

Castamatic kind of supports showing these content elements:

Headings (same size as normal text but bold)
Quotes (no styling; shows plain text with some left padding)

Castamatic does not support showing these content elements:

Images

Castbox

Android and iOS. More info

Castbox does support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Links
Emojis
Lists
Images
Quotes
Horizontal rule

Castbox kind of supports showing these content elements:

Headings (no styling; shows plain text)

Castbox does not support showing these content elements:

Inline code (renders the code as HTML)
Code blocks (renders the code as HTML)

Castro

iOS. More info

Castro does support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Links
Headings
Emojis
Lists
Images
Quotes
Horizontal rule
Inline code
Code blocks

Google Podcasts

Android and iOS. More info (Closing soon, to be replaced by Youtube Music)

Google Podcasts does support showing these content elements:

Emojis

Google Podcasts kind of supports showing these content elements:

Headings (no styling; shows plain text)
Lists (shows a * marker for both types of list)
Quotes (no styling; shows plain text)
Code blocks (no styling; shows plain text)

Google Podcasts does not support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Links
Images
Horizontal rule
Inline code (shows plain text)

Overcast

iOS. More info

Overcast does support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Links
Headings
Emojis
Lists
Images (though you have to click a button to show them)
Quotes
Horizontal rule
Inline code
Code blocks

Pocket Casts

Android and iOS. More info

Pocket Casts does support showing these content elements:

Bold and italic text
Links
Emojis
Lists
Images
Inline code
Code blocks

Pocket Casts kind of supports showing these content elements:

Headings (no styling; shows plain text)
Quotes (no styling; shows plain text with some left padding)

Pocket Casts does not support showing these content elements:

Horizontal rule

Content elements

This is a breakdown of each of the 10 tested content elements, with a list of apps which do and don't support them.

Bold and italic text

These podcast apps do support showing bold and italic content in post descriptions:

Castamatic
Castbox
Castro
Overcast
Pocket Casts

These podcast apps do not support showing bold and italic content in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts
Breaker
Google Podcasts

Headings

These podcast apps do support showing headings (<h1> and <h2>) in post descriptions:

Castro
Overcast

These podcast apps kind of support showing headings (<h1> and <h2>) in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts (no styling; shows plain text)
Breaker (no styling; shows plain text)
Castamatic (same size as normal text but bold)
Castbox (no styling; shows plain text)
Google Podcasts (no styling; shows plain text)
Pocket Casts (no styling; shows plain text)

Emojis

These podcast apps do support showing emojis in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts
Breaker
Castamatic
Castbox
Castro
Google Podcasts
Overcast
Pocket Casts

Lists

These podcast apps do support showing lists (<ul> and <ol>) in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts
Breaker
Castamatic
Castbox
Castro
Overcast
Pocket Casts

These podcast apps kind of support showing lists (<ul> and <ol>) in post descriptions:

Google Podcasts (shows a ”*” marker for both types of list)

Images

These podcast apps do support showing images in post descriptions:

Castbox
Castro
Overcast (you have to click a button to show them)
Pocket Casts

These podcast apps kind of support showing images in post descriptions:

Breaker (shows image at full size)

These podcast apps do not support showing images in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts
Castamatic
Google Podcasts

Quotes

These podcast apps do support showing quotes (<blockquote>) in post descriptions:

Castro
Castbox
Overcast

These podcast apps kind of support showing quotes (<blockquote>) in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts (no styling; shows plain text)
Breaker (no styling; shows plain text)
Castamatic (no styling; shows plain text with some left padding)
Google Podcasts (no styling; shows plain text)
Pocket Casts (no styling; shows plain text with some left padding)

Horizontal rule

These podcast apps do support showing horizontal rules (<hr>) in post descriptions:

Castamatic
Castbox
Castro
Overcast

These podcast apps do not support showing horizontal rules (<hr>) in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts
Breaker
Google Podcasts
Pocket Casts

Inline code

These podcast apps do support showing inline code (<code>) in post descriptions:

Castamatic
Castro
Overcast
Pocket Casts

These podcast apps do not support showing inline code (<code>) in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts (shows plain text)
Castbox (renders the code as HTML)
Google Podcasts (shows plain text)
Breaker (renders the code as HTML)

Code blocks

These podcast apps do support showing code blocks (<pre>) in post descriptions:

Castamatic
Castro
Overcast
Pocket Casts

These podcast apps kind of support showing code blocks (<pre>) in post descriptions:

Apple Podcasts (no styling; shows plain text)
Breaker (no styling; shows plain text)
Google Podcasts (no styling; shows plain text)

These podcast apps do not support showing code blocks (<pre>) in post descriptions:

Castbox (renders the code as HTML)