Reviewer’s Guide

Last updated: 29 October 2026

Updates is a podcast player for iPhone and iPad built around one goal: get you listening as quickly as possible.

For most podcasts you follow, one episode matters most: the next one you want to hear. The Home tab in Updates lists your shows with that episode ready to play: the latest one for news and the next unplayed one for a series.

No discovery feed, no inbox, no backlog to manage.

Version 2.0 adds a Playback Queue and a tidier Library, and makes Sleep Timer, Listening History and more free for everyone. Also, Updates now speaks French and Japanese.

At a glance

Version: 2.0
Requires: iOS or iPadOS 17.4 or later, on iPhone and iPad. Works with CarPlay.
Languages: English, Swedish, German, French and Japanese
Price: Free. Premium is $1.99 a month, $14.99 a year or $49.99 once (US prices; see the App Store page for yours).
Privacy: No account needed. Usage analytics are anonymized (privacy policy).
Download: Updates on the App Store
Developer: Jonas Salling, Salling Software AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact: the help button at the bottom of this page

Why Updates exists

“I don’t need my podcast app to be like Netflix. When I open it, I just want to see what’s new from the shows I follow.” — Jonas Salling, developer of Updates

Jonas built Updates because two things in mainstream podcast apps kept getting in the way:

• Discovery overload. Opening the app means scrolling past “Up Next”, “Continue Listening” and “You Might Like” carousels before you get to new episodes from the shows you actually follow.
• Feed chaos. Some podcasts publish monthly, some daily, some every hour. In a single list of latest episodes, the busy shows push everything else out of sight, and fixing that takes filters, rules or priority settings.

Apps for heavy listeners often tame the feed with inboxes, queues or playlists that fill up by themselves, so listening turns into managing. In Updates, nothing builds up: Home keeps one row per show, and nothing goes into the queue or the Library unless you put it there.

Updates is for people who know what they want to hear and would like listening to feel like an easy habit, not a to-do list or yet another feed that demands attention.

How it works

• Getting started. No account needed: search for shows to follow, or bring your podcasts over from Apple Podcasts or any app that exports OPML.
• Every show, ready to play. A list of the shows you follow is a familiar start screen. Updates takes it a step further: each row on Home also holds that show’s next episode, so you can start listening without opening the show first. Newest updates come first, and a news show that publishes every hour takes up one row, just like a monthly one. If you want to, pin favorites, filter Home to unplayed shows or today’s updates, or sort it alphabetically. Tap a show to see all its episodes. Try it: follow a daily news podcast like Global News Podcast and a narrative series like Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, and see how Home handles both.
• The right next episode, automatically. What counts as a show’s next episode depends on the show: for news, it’s the latest one; for a narrative series, it’s the next one you haven’t played, and Home shows how many unplayed episodes come after it. Podcasts tag themselves as episodic or serial and Updates follows the tag, but many narrative series are tagged as episodic, so you can change the Next Episode Rule per podcast. Next Unplayed Episode also suits any show where you want to hear every episode. Try it: open Sherlock Holmes Short Stories and find its Next Episode Rule, just above the next episode. Then, on Home, swipe right on the show’s row to mark that episode as played, and watch the next one in the series take its place.

What Updates leaves out, on purpose

• No recommendations on Home. Discovery is there when you look for it, under Search, and never in the way.
• No pressure to “Continue Listening”. Coming back after a few days, Home leads with what’s new, not a row of everything you started and didn’t finish. Unfinished episodes are there when you want them: in Listening History, saved to your Library or lined up in the queue.
• No badges or lists that fill themselves. No count on the app icon nagging you, no inbox to triage and no backlog to clear.

Each of these is a choice, not a gap. Together, they keep Updates quick to open and easy to put down.

Worth trying

• Playback Queue. Line up your next few episodes and they’ll play one after another. It’s built for times when you can’t reach for your phone, like a bike commute: plan your listening before you leave, and the phone stays in your pocket. When the queue is empty, each show’s Next Episode Rule takes over again (and plays on by itself, if you turn on Continuous Playback). Try it: swipe left on any episode and tap Queue, or long-press it and choose Play Next.
• News, hands-free. The Play Next Updated Podcast control works from the Action button, Control Center and the Lock Screen (iOS 18 or later). Press it to start listening, and press again to skip to the next updated podcast on Home: a quick way through the morning’s news without looking at your phone.
• Search inside a podcast. Search a show’s episode titles and notes, with excerpts that show each match in context. A deep back catalog like In Our Time becomes something you can dig into. Try it: open In Our Time and search for a person or a period.
• Podcasts from around the world. Browse the top podcasts by genre in other countries, and search the podcast directory there too. It’s an easy way to find shows beyond your own country’s charts, or to practice a language you’re learning. Try it: in Search, tap the flag and pick another country.

New in 2.0

• Playback Queue — Line up episodes to play one after another (see Worth trying).
• A tidier Library — Your saved and downloaded episodes, in the order you like. Played episodes are hidden by default, so the list stays clean. Your Listening History and complete list of downloads are a tap away.
• Now free for everyone — Sleep Timer, Listening History, filters, pinned podcasts and changing a podcast’s Next Episode Rule used to need Premium, and only 10 saved and downloaded episodes were free in all. Now they’re all free.

Look and feel

Updates is built mostly from standard iOS controls, with a little customization here and there, so it feels familiar from the first launch. It fits the screen it’s on, with layouts for iPad and iPhone Duo, and supports dark mode throughout.

The biggest custom touch is the full-screen player: swipe up for the episode notes and chapters, and down to close. It’s vertical only, on purpose: using sideways swipes to cram more stuff in there was tempting, but one direction is simpler. While you scrub, the timeline snaps to chapter starts as you pass them, with a light haptic tap.

Also included

CarPlay, AirPlay, Sleep Timer, playback speed, chapters, video podcasts with Picture in Picture, downloads for offline listening, adding any show by its feed URL, Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, Siri and Shortcuts, OPML import and export, and iCloud Sync between your devices.

Free and Premium

Almost everything in Updates is free. Updates is an indie app, and Premium is what keeps it going. As a thank-you, Premium adds per-podcast speed, intro and outro skipping, custom skip buttons, and a choice of app icon and accent color.

Free Premium is available to press and reviewers who are covering Updates. To request it: in Settings, long-press Current Plan, choose Copy App User ID and send it with the help button at the bottom of this page, along with where your review will appear.

About the developer

Updates is made by one person: Jonas Salling, an independent developer in Stockholm. Jonas has made apps for more than 20 years, from Salling Clicker, winner of two Apple Design Awards in 2003, to Skype for iOS and Schibsted’s Nordic news apps. Updates began in 2024, during a break from client work, and launched in 2025.

Screenshots

Light and dark iPhone screenshots in English, Swedish, German, French and Japanese are in the Press Kit.