IOS – set a sleep timer with Podcasts

iospodcasts.app

I listen to a lot of podcasts and would like to be able to set a timer so that they automatically stop playing after a set period of time. I guess a 'sleep 'timer' function is what I’m looking for but I can’t find anything like this option in the podcasts app.

I’ve tapped and 3D Touched everywhere that I can think of and see lots of other options, like download, delete, save, play next, share episode, skip 15s, playback speed, subscribe, unsubscribe, settings. If I tap in Settings it’s all about subscriptions and how to deal with episodes. No sleep settings or timers to be found anywhere.

My questions are:

  1. Does the Podcasts app support some sort of sleep timer function?
  2. If yes, how do I use it?

I’m on an iPhone running iOS 11.4.1.

Best Answer

Actually, the Podcasts app does have a sleep timer function.

The easiest way to access this is to:

  1. Open an actual episode (i.e. by double-tapping on it) so that it pops up the main episode screen (the pop-up with the episode artwork at top centre and the play/pause button below it with the skip buttons and volume slider)
  2. Now swipe up from the bottom near the play/pause button (so that you're scrolling the page up, not bringing up the Control Centre)
  3. Below the 1x button you’ll now see a Sleep Timer button (it has a moon icon on it)
  4. Tap on the Sleep Timer button to access a number of options, including one to stop playback when the current episode ends

Below are some screenshots for reference:

enter image description here

Finally, there’s also an iOS-wide way to use a sleep timer. Not only does this work with the Podcasts app, but also any apps that play audio (incl. 3rd party apps). If you’re interested, see my answer here for details: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/289108/300323 . The gist of the solution is to use the "stop playing" option under "when timer ends".

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