Castamatic

Press Kit — Castamatic 13

Castamatic app icon

Overview

Castamatic 13 brings on-device AI to podcasting with Magic Transcript and Magic Chapters — the first podcast app to generate both transcripts and chapters entirely on-device, with no cloud processing and no data uploaded. Everything runs locally through Apple Intelligence.

What's New

Magic Transcript

Generate full episode transcripts directly on your device using Apple's Speech framework. Tap any line in the transcript to jump to that exact moment. Multi-language support is built in, with automatic detection of the podcast's language. No internet connection required.

Magic Chapters

Many podcasts don't include chapter markers, making long episodes hard to navigate. Castamatic 13 generates chapters automatically using a multi-stage on-device AI pipeline: a local sentence-embedding model running on the Neural Engine detects topic boundaries, episode metadata refines them, and Apple's Foundation Models framework generates concise chapter titles. Apple Podcasts recently introduced server-generated chapters — Castamatic takes the opposite approach, running the entire pipeline on-device, privately and offline.

Transcript Panel

A live-scrolling transcript view built into the player. It highlights the current line as the episode plays and includes full transport controls — play/pause, skip forward/back, and chapter navigation.

Key Facts

  • Developer Franco Solerio
  • Release date April 20, 2026
  • Platform iPhone, iPad, Mac
  • Requires iOS 26 or later. Magic Transcript and Magic Chapters require a device that supports Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or later).
  • Price Free. Optional premium subscription ($14.99/year).
  • Website castamatic.com
  • App Store Download
  • Beta castamatic.com/beta
  • Contact info@castamatic.com

What Makes This Different

Other podcast apps — including Apple Podcasts — rely on server-side processing, third-party APIs, or publisher-provided data for transcripts and chapters. Castamatic 13 is different:

  • Fully on-device: transcripts and chapters are generated locally using Apple Intelligence and a bundled CoreML embedding model. Nothing is uploaded.
  • Works offline: once an episode is downloaded, transcripts and chapters can be generated without an internet connection.
  • Language-aware: transcript generation automatically adapts to the podcast's language.
  • Publisher-respectful: when a podcast already includes chapters or a transcript, Castamatic uses the published data instead of generating its own.

Videos

Magic Transcript

Magic Chapters

Screenshots

Clean screenshots, no device bezels. Click to view full size.

Magic Transcript

Transcript request screen Transcript generation in progress Live transcript panel

Magic Chapters

Chapter generation in progress Generated chapter list

App

Library view Episodes list Player Value for Value streaming

About Castamatic

Castamatic is an independent podcast player for iOS, built by Franco Solerio. It has been on the App Store since 2015 and focuses on audio quality, playlist flexibility, and Podcasting 2.0 features including Value4Value payments, live podcast support, and Podping instant notifications.

Key features include smart playlists, a custom AudioUnit-based player, an adaptive Gap-Zapper for speed listening, an automatic audio leveler, iCloud sync, CarPlay and Apple Watch support, Siri shortcuts, and manual/automatic backups.

Serverless by design: Castamatic does not depend on any proprietary backend. If the studio behind it closes, the app keeps working.

Contact

Franco Solerio
castamatic.com
info@castamatic.com
@francosolerio@podcastindex.social