Apple has updated the Podcasts app on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS with features that make it easier to find content in your favorite genres. It now includes nine new subcategories: Mental Health, Relationships, Self-Improvement, Personal Journals, Entrepreneurship, Documentary, Parenting, Books, and Language learning. These join existing subcategories like True Crime, Sports, and more.
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Apple has been focusing on mental health in recent years, and recently introduced a Journal app that lets you document how you're feeling. Additionally, the company recently introduced a mood-tracking feature as part of Health in iOS 17. The addition of a Mental Health subcategory to Podcasts, along with others like Relationships, Self-Improvement, and Personal Journals, seems to be part of that.
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Each subcategory has its own charts that show the top shows and episodes in a specific market. For example, a listener in the US can browse the Mental Health charts, which show the top 200 shows and top 200 episodes available in the US, based on a combination of listening, watching, and completion rate, Apple wrote on the Podcasts for Creators blog.
For comparison, Spotify has eight main podcast categories and at least 54 subcategories. YouTube offers 14 main podcast categories and PocketCast 19, but neither offers subcategories.
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With the upcoming release of iOS 17, Apple is adding some new features to Podcasts, including a revamped Now Playing and Queue experience, search filters, and more. Podcasts updates have been relatively sparse, though, with the last major one coming a year ago with the new Podcasts Charts. Apple's arch-rival Spotify, which invested heavily in podcasts in 2019, recently laid off 200 employees from that department.
Information source: engadget.com
