The BBC’s iPlayer Radio app has become something of an audio dinosaur. Released five years ago, before everyone started talking to you about what podcasts they were listening to, its relatively modest set of features made it feel redundant. No more.
In response to the new world of on-demand content and audio streaming, and after a year of development, the BBC has released its new free app: BBC Sounds. The app provides an up-to-date way to access the BBC's enormous library of content, and encourage more users, especially young people, to listen to its shows and podcasts.
The layout is fairly simple, a clean white interface with orange highlights, featuring swipeable tiles for all the different shows and podcasts available. The live radio section has retained the virtual tuning dial used in the iPlayer Radio app – a feature that was well loved by users. Under the hood, the app has been designed for “scaleability and sustainability”, according to Dan Taylor-Watt, head of iPlayer and Sounds at the BBC, so it can continue to adapt effectively in the future.
Personalisation in BBC Sounds activates automatically once you sign in with an iPlayer account, populating lists based on your listening history. There are also curated collections of speech and music themes, such as comedy, rock, documentaries or dance, if you want to explore beyond your normal interests or preferred radio stations.
Currently there is no ability to download content onto the app, but this is going to be added soon, along with many other new features. One such feature will be integration with services such as Chromecast and CarPlay, which was present in iPlayer Radio. The BBC’s intention is to get people using the app as soon as possible, almost as an informal beta test, so these future updates can be tailored to the demands of the users.
Taylor-Watt said that while the original app was good, it had a major flaw in the fact that it didn’t have recommendations, nor was it properly optimised for podcasts.
“Podcasting's been a big growth area, and I think the BBC played a big role within that in the UK, but our own product hasn't necessarily been totally optimised for the podcast experience.”
By converting many of its radio shows into podcasts, the BBC has ended up with an estimated 80,000 hours of audio, which is tricky to find your way through without some help from the app itself. “We've tried to make the new app as simple as possible and to surface the bits of audio that we think are going to be relevant to you, rather than let you wade through all the available content."
After the release of Sounds, the app will run in parallel with iPlayer Radio for a few months while it acquires more features and the existing users move over, before iPlayer Radio is then shut down completely.
Updated 26.06.18, 14:15 BST: There is an option to bookmark shows in the BBC Sounds app
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
