I’m excited to announce a major new version of Castamatic, designed to bring you even closer to the podcasts you love. With this release, you can now listen to live podcast episodes directly in the app and get instant notifications as soon as a new episode—live or recorded—is available.

Live shows are an exciting step forward for podcasting, and Castamatic now supports them natively. If one of your favorite shows is broadcasting in real time, and it supports the liveItem tag from podcasting 2.0, you’ll see it in the app, get a notification when it starts, and be able to tune in instantly—no digging around for links or switching to another platform.

At the core of instant notifications—both for live shows and regular episodes—is Podping, a clever, decentralized notification system developed by the Podcasting 2.0 community. Unlike traditional RSS polling (which can be delayed by several minutes), Podping alerts Castamatic almost immediately when a podcast feed changes. That means you’ll get notified within seconds when a new episode is published or a live stream goes online—and Castamatic can even begin downloading the episode right away so it’s ready when you are.

This update also includes a handful of improvements behind the scenes and the usual bug fixes: smarter episode detection, more efficient background refresh, and more control over notifications so you only get the ones that matter to you.

Castamatic has always aimed to put listeners first, with a focus on speed, privacy, and support for open podcasting standards. This new version builds on that vision, and I think you’re going to love what it adds.

The update is available now on the App Store. I’d love to hear what you think—feedback is always welcome!