For people who aren’t using iTunes or Spotify to get their podcasts, Pocket Casts is one of the better independent podcast apps. Now it’s making an interesting leap from smartphones to smart speakers, courtesy of its new Alexa skill.
“You can play any of your podcasts by name, ‘Alexa, ask Pocket Casts to play the latest episode of Radiolab’ for example. If you’re not quite sure what to play, we have you covered there too! ‘Alexa, ask Pocket Casts to give me a recommendation’ will use your playback history to find something that is tailored just for you,” explained Pocket Casts in a blog post.
The skill also supports the app’s ‘Up Next’ feature so that people can continue listening to whatever show they had cued up on their phones.
It’s one of the first dedicated podcast skills for Alexa, and one that Spotify, Pandora and others will surely be looking at, as they plan their own smart-speaker-podcasts strategies.
Talking of Spotify, its podcasts push continues: its chief content officer Dawn Ostroff has been confirmed for a SXSW keynote in March alongside the co-founders of Gimlet Media and Anchor – the two podcasting startups recently acquired by Spotify.
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