Release notes

Release notes

We publish release notes so you can see what’s new and what’s changed in Podhoc.

• Public release notes: nexoapex/podhoc-releases — dedicated public repository with Podhoc release documentation.

Release notes are maintained in this public repository so they remain accessible even if the main application repo is private.

Note on prices in older entries. Prices quoted in release notes reflect the pricing that was in effect on the release date. For current pricing, see /pricing/ and the pricing history for the full change log.

Podhoc v1.3.0 — August 2026

Date: August 15, 2026

Podhoc comes with you into the car. On Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, this release puts your own library on the dashboard: browse what you have made, see cover art for your published episodes on the car’s screen, and use the play and pause controls exactly where you expect them. Cars with Android Automotive OS built in get a dedicated Podhoc app that previews the public Discover catalogue. There is also a new offline audio cache you can switch on, so an episode you have already finished normally replays without spending mobile data again.

Below is the full list of changes since v1.2.0, grouped Features / Improvements / Fixes.

🆕 New Features

• Apple CarPlay. Podhoc appears on your CarPlay screen with your Recent episodes, your Library (the 50 most recent, and your car may show fewer), and Discover. Pick something from Recent or Library and it plays through the car, with a proper now-playing screen: transport controls and the elapsed time ticking along as it goes. A paid Discover episode asks you to confirm first, because playing one can use credits.
• Android Auto. Podhoc now registers as a media app on Android Auto, so your library can be browsed and started from the car’s own screen without touching the phone. This is a first release and we would particularly like to hear how it behaves in your car.
• Android Automotive OS. For cars with Android built into the dashboard, Podhoc is rolling out as a dedicated in-car app and opens onto Discover, so there is something to hear from the moment it is installed. This first version plays 30-second previews of public episodes, labelled on the tabs you browse and on the now-playing screen. There is no sign-in on the dashboard yet, so your own library is not on this surface, and cover art on the car’s screen is still patchy — both are the next step for it.
• Search from the car. On Android surfaces you can search from the car’s own search box — your library on Android Auto, the Discover previews on Android Automotive OS — and accents are handled the forgiving way a car keyboard demands: typing guia finds Mi guía.
• Offline audio cache — replays cost no data. Switch it on in Profile and an episode you finish while on Wi-Fi is kept on the phone, so playing it again uses no mobile data at all. Finish one on mobile data and it is skipped rather than queued, so play it again on Wi-Fi to save it, or allow mobile data from the same screen. You choose how much room to give it (256 MB to 4 GB), see what it is currently using, and clear it from there. It is off by default — nothing is stored until you ask for it. Saved copies refresh about once a month, and your phone may reclaim the space if it runs low.

A note on the car surfaces. These are first releases, and head units differ enormously from one manufacturer to the next. On CarPlay and Android Auto, open Podhoc on your phone before you set off for the smoothest experience: the car reads your library from the app, and a phone app that has been fully closed may not pick up a tap made in the car straight away. If something does not look right in your car, tell us through support.

✨ Improvements

• Skip controls that actually do something. On the iPhone lock screen and on CarPlay, previous and next now appear only when there is a real list to move through — and in My Podcasts they follow the list you were looking at, instead of sitting there doing nothing.
• A cleaner My Podcasts. The Public and Embeddable controls are now compact chips on a single line rather than a bordered box of switches, so a good deal more of your library fits on screen at once.
• The car says something useful when you are signed out. If your session has expired, the car now tells you to sign in on your phone first, instead of only offering a retry that could never work from the driver’s seat.
• Your Android Auto library stays put through a bad signal. A brief loss of connection used to leave the head unit claiming you had no podcasts at all; it now keeps showing what it already had. If your session has genuinely expired it clears and asks you to sign in, which is deliberate.

🐛 Bug Fixes & under the hood

• Signing out clears cached audio. Anything kept on the phone for offline playback, along with the library the car surfaces read, is removed when you log out, so on a shared phone the next person does not inherit one account’s episodes.
• The episode you tapped last is the one that plays. Changing your mind quickly between two episodes now lands on the one you chose most recently, whichever request the network answers first.
• Correct library scoping on mobile. Fixed an issue where accounts with administrative access could see podcasts that were not their own in My Podcasts.
• Behind the scenes: search-engine indexing, internal tooling, and infrastructure improvements.

Podhoc v1.2.0 — July 2026

Date: July 22, 2026

Meet Podhoc Digest — your interests, delivered as podcasts. Pick the topics you care about and Podhoc sends you a monthly podcast newsletter, with every episode built from curator-verified source feeds for that topic. There’s a free tier to get started and a premium tier for the full experience, a friendly welcome email when you subscribe, and a clean re-subscribe path if you ever change your mind. Elsewhere in this release, Discover now labels AI-generated content, sign-in got quietly smoother and steadier, and there’s a wave of audio, reliability and security work under the hood.

Below is the full list of changes since v1.1.4, grouped Features / Improvements / Fixes. For the marketing-tone walkthrough of Podhoc Digest, see the feature announcement on the blog.

🆕 New Features

• Podhoc Digest — topic-based podcast newsletters. Subscribe to the topics you care about and receive a monthly podcast newsletter in your inbox. Each topic draws on curator-verified source feeds, so every episode is built from sources a human has vetted — not an open-ended scrape. Start on the free tier or unlock the full experience with premium, get a welcome email the moment you subscribe, and re-subscribe in a click if you ever leave. Explore it at podhoc.com/digest.
• AI-content disclosure on Discover. Discover now clearly labels AI-generated content, so listeners always know what they’re hearing — in line with the EU AI Act (Article 50) transparency rules.
• Now on Apple Watch. Listen to your episodes straight from your wrist. Apple Watch joins Garmin on the roster of places Podhoc goes with you.

✨ Improvements

• Richer audio, tier-gated. New audio enhancements, progressive music blending and the foundation for sound packs give paid tiers more control over how episodes sound.
• Smoother, steadier sign-in. Sessions now refresh silently up to the refresh-token horizon and auto-renew when they expire, so you stay signed in without interruption — and logout is hardened to be reliably global across the app.

🐛 Bug Fixes & under the hood

• More reliable ingestion. YouTube and transcript ingestion is steadier, so more sources make it through cleanly the first time.
• Security & reliability hardening. We added multi-region audit logging, SSRF protection on user-supplied URLs, and database connection-slot hardening to keep the platform stable and safe under load.

Podhoc v1.1.4 — June 8, 2026

Date: June 8, 2026

Podhoc is now in your pocket. The marquee of this release is the launch of our native iOS and Android apps, live today on the App Store and Google Play. You can now generate podcasts on the go — paste a link or drop a file straight from your phone, anywhere — and then listen however you like: in the app, by asking the Telegram bot, or from a desktop browser, in every language we support on the web. Create on mobile, and your library is everywhere.

Below is the full list of changes since v1.1.0, grouped Features / Improvements / Fixes. For the marketing-tone walkthrough of the app launch, see the feature announcement on the blog.

🆕 New Features

• Native iOS + Android apps — live now. Podhoc is now a native app on both platforms, ready to download:

  • iOS: Download on the App Store
  • Android: Get it on Google Play

  Generate podcasts directly from your phone — paste a YouTube link, a web article, or a PDF/DOCX/TXT file, choose a style, and tap generate. The episode is built in the cloud while you carry on with your day. Then listen however suits you: stream or download in the app, request it from the Telegram bot, or open it in a desktop browser — your account and library are the same wherever you sign in, in all the web languages Podhoc supports.

• Your library, everywhere. Everything you’ve ever created syncs across devices. Start an episode on the phone this morning, skim its transcript on your laptop tonight — one library, no re-uploading, no setup twice.

• Offline listening for the commute. Download any episode in the app and play it with no signal — built for trains, planes, runs and the gym.

✨ Improvements

• Smartwatch listening — in progress. Standalone playback on Apple Watch and Garmin (generate on your phone, leave it behind, and play straight from your wrist) is in active development. The phone apps are today’s headline; hands-free wrist listening is the next step.
• Cross-surface continuity. The mobile apps share the exact source types, pedagogical styles and Discover access as the web app — nothing is a stripped-down “companion” experience.
• Polished mobile player and library. Browsing, search, replay and download have been refined for the native experience on both platforms.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• No more Garmin prompt for non-Garmin users. Android users who don’t own a Garmin device are no longer prompted to install the Garmin Connect app. The watch integration is now fully optional and only engages when you actually pair a watch.
• Steadier sign-in across devices. Account and session handling has been hardened so signing in on a new device drops you straight into your existing library.
• General stability and performance improvements across the mobile apps.

Podhoc v1.1.0 — May 21, 2026

Date: May 21, 2026

This is the biggest update since we launched. The short version: Podhoc has opened up. The podcasts you create can now reach an audience without you lifting a finger; visitors can sample any episode in 30 seconds before deciding whether to sign up; and you can drop a Podhoc episode into your own blog, newsletter or documentation site with one line of code. Readers can leave comments and reactions on every public podcast.

We also tidied up the pricing ladder so it is easier to read, easier to budget for, and — for yearly subscribers — much more useful month-to-month. The full list of changes below is grouped Features / Improvements / Fixes; for the marketing-tone walkthrough, this very entry is what we point people to.

🆕 New Features

• Discover — a public library of AI podcasts. Head to podhoc.com/discover and explore podcasts created by the Podhoc community. No sign-up required to browse — search by topic, filter by language, find something interesting and tap Play. Every published episode has its own shareable page with title, AI-written summary, per-podcast cover, audio player, and creator’s username.
• Anonymous preview play — sample any podcast in 30 seconds. This is the change that makes Discover come alive. Anyone who lands on a podcast’s page can tap Play and hear the first 30 seconds — no account, no friction, no asking for an email up front. When the preview ends, a friendly nudge invites them to sign up if they want to keep listening. Full audio remains gated behind sign-in. For creators, that means a podcast you publish has a real chance of being heard before someone has to commit.
• Comments + reactions. Logged-in listeners can leave comments on any public podcast and tap thumbs-up, neutral or thumbs-down to express how they felt. Comments are visible to everyone; spam and inappropriate content can be flagged by the community and auto-hides pending review.
• Embed widget — like a YouTube embed, but for AI-generated podcasts. Any public Podhoc podcast can be embedded on your own blog, newsletter, portfolio or documentation site with a single iframe. Listeners on your site can play without ever leaving the page. See Embed docs for the snippet.
• Anonymous embed snippet. You do not need to be the creator to grab the snippet — any visitor can copy the iframe snippet from any embeddable podcast’s public page. Readers, journalists, course authors, and anyone curating great content can drop a Podhoc episode straight into their material.
• Per-podcast cover images. Every podcast now has its own 1200×630 cover image. YouTube-sourced podcasts use the original video thumbnail; everything else gets a clean gradient cover. Covers surface on Discover, on shareable pages, and in social previews when you share a link.
• Owner controls — Public/Private and Embeddable toggles. Each podcast now has two clean, tier-aware toggles on your My Podcasts surface. Free accounts can keep podcasts private to experiment; Creator and Pro subscribers can publish publicly. Embeddable can be turned on only for public podcasts. Taking a public podcast back to private cleanly cuts off any active embeds — your content, your rules.
• Brand intro & outro. Newly generated podcasts now open and close with a short, localised Podhoc intro/outro so every episode sounds polished from the start.
• “Auto-publish to Discover” control. When you create a podcast you choose whether it appears in Discover. Paid plans (Creator / Pro) can also flip the default globally so every new episode goes live automatically, or retract a previously-published episode at any time.

✨ Improvements

• Canonical pricing ladder (2026-05-19) — clearer, fairer, more useful month-to-month. Subscription tiers and top-up packs are now consolidated on a single, transparent ladder:
  • Creator — €20.99/month or €230.99/year (was €9.90/month). 1,000 credits a month and the full feature set you need to take Podhoc seriously.
  • Pro — €72.99/month or €802.99/year (was €29.00/month). 3,500 credits a month, the highest source limits, and the fastest processing tier.
  • Yearly plans now refill your credits monthly, all year long. Before, the entire year’s allocation dropped on day one and you ran dry by month two — now you get a fresh monthly drop just like a monthly plan, but at the yearly discount. The key fix that makes the yearly tier actually usable.
  • Top-up packs start at €2.29 for ~100 credits and scale up to €66.99 for ~3,000 credits. The €22.99 pack (~1,000 credits) carries the Best Value anchor — it matches Pro’s cost-per-credit with the flexibility of paying only when you need to.
• Transcript front and centre — it’s the main attraction now, not an afterthought. On every podcast’s public page, the full transcript now renders above the comments and player section (was below). Raw speaker labels and stage directions are stripped from the rendered text so what you read flows like prose, and the page is wider so longer scripts are easier to follow.
• Smoother checkout. The card form is now embedded directly on the recharge page — no more bouncing through an external checkout. Fewer clicks, same security.
• Smaller top-ups, more credits. You can now recharge from €2.29 (was €5) and get roughly a third more credits per euro. The free tier is restructured as a one-time welcome bundle (50 credits) so new accounts can try the full pipeline before deciding to upgrade.
• Faster discoverability — crawlers see new content within seconds. When you publish a podcast, your sitemap and our llms.txt are regenerated within seconds (not on the next scheduled cron), and Google Search Console and IndexNow (Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver) are pinged at the same time. The practical effect: your new episodes show up in search results and AI assistants much sooner than they used to.
• Private share-link warning. Pasting a Google Docs / Notion / private SharePoint URL? The app now warns you that the link needs to be public before generation can read it.
• Mobile polish. Podcast titles, profile header, and Android packaging refreshed.
• Updated legal pages. Privacy and Terms now spell out exactly what’s public on Discover, what stays private (your source files always stay private), how comments are handled, and how to file a DMCA takedown.
• Clearer ratings UX. The thumbs-up / thumbs-down icons next to the comment box now show a helper line clarifying that they’re attached to your comment. A standalone “react without commenting” button is on the roadmap.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Mobile webhook stability. Mobile checkout webhooks now have a 60-second integration window, matching the underlying service’s processing wall. This eliminates the class of “504 then silent continue” incidents that occasionally affected checkout flows on slow networks.
• Linked-account retry. Users who signed up with Google and later linked Apple (or vice versa) can now retry or recreate podcasts that were originally created through the other provider.
• Dev / prod browser tabs no longer collide. If you keep both environments open at once, signing in to one no longer logs you out of the other.
• Reliable ingestion from slow external URLs. File downloads from sites that respond slowly no longer time out the pipeline; the system retries cleanly.
• Discover metadata. Fixed a backend issue that prevented Discover summaries from being generated reliably.
• iOS development builds. Engineering unblocked on the latest Xcode toolchain.

Podhoc v1.0.x — April 16, 2026 (previous)

Build: 20260416-develop Date: April 16, 2026

This release adds a programmatic API for Pro users, a Telegram bot for managing podcasts, and several platform improvements.

🆕 New Features

• API Integrator (Pro) — Generate podcasts programmatically via REST API. Create tokens, submit URLs, poll status, and download completed audio — all from your own tools and scripts.
• Telegram bot — Manage your Podhoc account from Telegram. Link your account, create podcasts by sending URLs, browse your library, check credits, and download episodes — all from chat.

✨ Improvements

• MP3 generation — Podcasts are now automatically transcoded to MP3 after generation for broader device compatibility including smartwatches.
• API rate limiting — Improved throttling across all public endpoints for better fairness and abuse prevention.
• Website fetcher — Automatic retry with exponential backoff when source websites return rate-limit errors.
• SEO — New dedicated landing pages for key topics (PDF-to-podcast, NotebookLM alternative, notes-to-podcast) in 8 languages.
• Mobile apps — Ongoing improvements to the iOS and Android apps including download button, podcast descriptions, and player UI enhancements.
• Smartwatch apps — Continued development of Garmin, WearOS, watchOS, and Huawei watch apps with podcast browsing, playback, and multi-language support.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed authentication crash when token response was empty.
• Fixed credit ledger tracking for entity references.
• Fixed audio duration detection for WebM files.
• Various stability and performance improvements.

Podhoc v1.0.0 Release Notes

Build: 20260312142914-a58f588 Date: March 12, 2026

Welcome to the official 1.0.0 launch of Podhoc! This release introduces our core AI podcast generation engine, flexible subscription tiers, and a highly stable infrastructure designed to protect your data while scaling up.

Here is everything new in v1.0.0:

🎙️ Core Podcast Creation Engine

We’ve built a robust and highly customizable workflow for turning your content into engaging audio.

• Multi-Source Inputs: Drag and drop URLs, raw text, or file uploads (PDF, DOCX, TXT) directly into the creator.
• Extensive Language Support: Generate podcasts in up to 72 different languages, or keep the original language of your source materials.
• Customizable Duration: Set your target podcast length anywhere up to 120 minutes.
• Curated Podcast Styles: Tailor the tone of your output using one of our 8 distinct frameworks: Deep Dive, Critique, Didactic, Debate, Feynman Technique, Simplified Explanation, Pedagogical Framework, or Alchemist’s Formula.
• Diverse Voice Library: Choose from a pool of 13 female and 17 male high-quality AI voices.
• Marketplace Integration: New controls for auto-publishing directly to the Podhoc Marketplace (feature unlocking soon).

💳 Subscriptions & Feature Scaling

To provide better transparency, we’ve integrated clear capability limits based on your active tier. You can now easily scale your resources (sources, voices, and processing speed) to match your workflow.

> Note on Credits: Users on any tier can purchase extra credit packs as needed. For example, a Free user can generate a podcast costing up to 150 credits by purchasing top-ups.

🌍 Platform & Access

• Multilingual Global Site: The podhoc.com landing page and story are now live and fully localized in English, Español, العربية, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Русский, and Català.
• Frictionless Authentication: Added support for Google and Apple SSO alongside standard email/password login.

🛡️ Security, Infrastructure & Support

• Data Privacy & PII: Implemented strict, automated handling of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to ensure your uploaded data remains secure and private.
• Log & Error Handling: Tighter internal error management and log sanitization to prevent data leakage.
• Load Stability: Deployed significant monitoring and backend infrastructure improvements to keep podcast rendering stable during high-traffic spikes.
• Streamlined Support: Launched a new custom support portal with an easy-to-use email response system for tracking your tickets.

Podhoc v1.0.0 Update — March 16, 2026

Build: 20260316160717-2deeab7 Date: March 16, 2026

A major feature update bringing script editing for Pro users, a redesigned email experience, wishlist previews, and much more.

🆕 New Features

• Wishlist auto-preview — URLs you save to your wishlist now automatically show a title, description, and thumbnail.
• Redesigned email templates — All notification emails now feature a clean, modern editorial design.
• Script editor (Pro) — Pro subscribers can now review and edit the generated podcast script before creating the final audio.
• Support ticket system — Submit and track support requests with file attachments directly from the admin dashboard.
• Podcast explorer — Browse and manage all your podcasts, sources, transcripts, and scripts from a single view.

✨ Improvements

• Better audio playback — Audio player is now more resilient and works reliably across all browsers.
• Dark theme polish — Improved contrast and readability throughout the dark theme.
• Smoother authentication — Login and account linking flows are now more reliable, with better error recovery.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed various display issues with language names, wishlist text visibility, and credit balance formatting.
• Fixed email delivery using the correct domain for each environment.
• Other bugfixes and improvements.

Podhoc v1.0.1 — March 17, 2026

Build: 20260317130906-fc83a6c Date: March 17, 2026

This release introduces the Podhoc browser extension, a dedicated support page, and several language and SEO improvements.

🆕 New Features

• Browser extension — Save any webpage to your Podhoc wishlist directly from Chrome or Firefox with one click.
• Extension prompt — A new banner on your Wishlist page helps you discover and install the browser extension.
• Support page — A dedicated support page is now available at podhoc.com/support in 26 languages.
• Email support — You can now reach the Podhoc team by sending an email directly to the podhoc.com domain.

✨ Improvements

• Better language experience — The website now auto-detects your browser language and redirects accordingly. Your manual language choice is remembered via cookie.
• Smoother language switching — Changing the website language no longer asks you to log in again.
• Language selector on mobile — The language picker now displays correctly on phones and tablets.
• Marketing site SEO — Improved page structure, security headers, and sitemap for better search engine visibility.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed translation issues in Catalan, English, and Spanish versions.
• Improved error handling for audio generation.
• Other bugfixes and improvements.