Android phone:
Listening to podcasts
This animated course shows how to listen to podcasts on your Android phone using the free ABC Listen app.
It shows how to download the app, find radio programs and podcasts, live-stream or listen to them later, and also how to follow, auto-download and delete episodes you've saved.
Watch our animation by pressing the Play button below, or click on the handy Chapters icon in the video playbar to go straight to the information you want to see, such as how to:
- download the ABC Listen app from the Google Play Store
- open and explore the ABC Listen app
- explore podcasts in the ABC Listen app
- stream a podcast
- download a podcast
- find and play a downloaded podcast
- Follow and Auto Download podcasts
- find podcasts you follow
- manage your downloads and playback settings.
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Transcript
Welcome to the 'Android phone: listening to podcasts' course. In this course, you'll learn how to get the ABC Listen app from the Google Play Store and how to download radio shows or podcasts to listen to in your own time.
There are many types of Android phones. If your Android phone is a different model to the one shown in this demonstration, the steps might be slightly different, but you can still follow along.
A podcast is like a radio show, but instead of listening to it live, you can listen to episodes at any time that suits you. It's like radio on-demand. There are lots of different apps that can help you do this, but in this course, we are going to use the free ABC Listen app, which you can download from the Google Play Store. You can use the ABC Listen app to listen to live radio over the internet or download podcasts to listen to later. To begin, find the Play Store icon. For this demonstration, it's on our Home screen. Tap on it to open the Google Play Store. The Google Play Store is where you can browse and download approved apps for your Android device. Some must be purchased using a credit card, but the ABC Listen app is free. Let's search for it now.
Tap the Search bar at the top of the screen, and the keyboard will appear. Then type in ABC Listen. Look for the Search key on the keyboard and tap it to search for the app. You'll now see some search results. ABC Listen will be at or near the top of the list. Tap on the search result to see some more information about the app before downloading it. Before downloading an app, make sure you check the star rating and developer by tapping on the app's name in the Google Play Store and scrolling through the information. The authentic ABC Listen app is developed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Tap the green Install button, and your phone will download the ABC Listen app and set it up for you, all in the background. When the installation is finished, a green Open button will appear. You could tap this to start using the ABC Listen app, but for this demonstration, we'll open it from the Home screen instead.
Tap the Home button to close the Google Play Store. Swipe up from the bottom of the Home screen to open the Apps screen. If you can't find the ABC Listen app icon on the first Apps screen, you might need to swipe over to the next screen. Once you've found it, tap it to open the ABC Listen app.
When the app opens for the first time, it might ask you if you want to set up an ABC Listen account. Tap Not now to open the Home screen of the ABC Listen app. At the top of the page are radio stations that you can listen to. You can swipe through these to explore the options and tap on one to listen to a live radio broadcast. It's worth exploring the different radio stations at a later time, but for now, we are going to look at podcasts.
A podcast is like an episode of a radio show, which you can download to your phone and listen to at any time. In the ABC Listen app, podcasts are presented on the Home screen, organised by category. The first category is called Latest and Best, and you can scroll through this list to look at the podcasts available. Scroll down to see even more categories. Swipe through the podcast to find one of interest. If you find one you like, you can tap on it to play it. But for now, we are going to look at how to use the Search option, which is in the bottom right of the screen.
Tap the magnifying glass icon to open the Search screen. Scroll down this screen to look at the Browse By Topic list, which organises podcasts into categories. You can tap a topic category, such as Music, to see all ABC music podcasts. We're going to use the Search bar at the top of the screen to find the "Health Report" podcast. Tap in the Search bar, and the phone's keyboard will appear. Type in the Health Report. The program will appear as the top search result. Tap on it to open the main Health Report podcast screen.
At the top of this page is the cover artwork for the podcast and some information about it. You could tap Play to play the latest episode, or scroll down to see all the episodes. Each episode is presented with a short description of what it's about. If you find one that you want to listen to, tap Play, and the episode will be downloaded to your phone as it's playing. This is called streaming. And if you're not connected to your home Wi-Fi, it will use some of your mobile data allowance. When streaming a podcast or radio station using your mobile data allowance, remember to stop playback when you finished listening. Apps like ABC Listen can keep working in the background and use up your data without you realising.
For this demonstration, we are going to download the podcast using our home Wi-Fi to listen to later. Look for the cloud icon with a downward arrow to the bottom right of the episode description. Downloading a podcast will save it to your phone so you can listen to it later or when you're out and about, without using your mobile data allowance.
Tap the download podcast icon, and it will start downloading to your phone. Once it's downloaded, a small tick will appear inside the cloud.
The ABC Listen app stores all your downloaded podcasts in one place. Let's look at this now. Look for the Your Listen option at the bottom of the screen. Tap it to open the Your Listen screen. Look for Downloads, which is the second circle near the top of the page. Tap it to open the Downloads screen. Here is a list of the podcast episodes that have been downloaded to our phone. For this demonstration, there's just one in the list. Tap on it, and the podcast episode will appear full screen.
To start playing the episode, tap the large Play button, and the podcast will start playing. [Speaker] Over 3 million Australians suffer from chronic pain, and often the issue is low back pain, which can radiate down the leg. It's disabling and the treatment is controversial. Opioids...
A banner will appear at the bottom of the screen, with the cover artwork of the podcast you are listening to, plus, the name of the episode. There's also some playback controls. Tap on the name of the podcast to see this information presented full screen. To stop playback, tap the large pause button, which is near the bottom of the screen. It will change to a play button, which you can tap to resume playback.
Either side of the large play/pause button are two icons displaying the number 15 inside round arrows. Tap the one on the left side to skip back by 15 seconds, and tap the one on the right to skip ahead by 15 seconds.
If you want to regularly listen to a podcast, you can follow it to automatically receive new episodes as they are released. Let's see how to do this now. Tap the down-facing arrow on the top left of the screen to return to the main episode screen, where you can see more details about this episode, including the show notes. Tap the icon that looks like three vertical dots near the right side of the screen. Some options will pop up. Tap View Program to go to the main screen for the podcast. Now, tap the Follow button, which can be found under the podcast description and contains an outline of a heart. You may be asked if you want to save to an account, but this is optional. So for this demonstration, we'll tap Not Now. The heart icon is now full, which means you are following this podcast. Your phone will automatically download new episodes of this program when you are connected to Wi-Fi. If you change your mind, tap the heart icon again to unfollow it.
The ABC Listen app stores all the podcasts that you are following in one place. Let's look at this now. Tap the back arrow, then tap Your Listen at the bottom of the screen. All the programs that you follow will appear on this screen. Here's the Health Report, which we are now following. Tap this to go to the main podcast page and listen to it.
To finish this course, let's look at a few important settings, including how to automatically delete podcasts after you've listened to them. This will make room on your phone for new episodes. From the Your Listen screen, tap the personalised settings icon, which is in the top left of the screen and looks like a person. Look for the Downloads option, and tap it to open the Downloads screen. Right at the top is the Delete 24 hours after listening setting. In this demonstration, this switch is already on, which means that episodes will be deleted 24 hours after we've listened to them. If this switch is grey on your phone, you can tap it to turn the setting on.
Let's look at the next setting in this list, Automatically downloaded on. When this is set to Wi-Fi only, episodes of podcasts you follow will automatically download to your phone when you are connected to Wi-Fi, so you can listen to them later when you are out of Wi-Fi range without using your mobile data, or even when you are not connected to the internet.
Tap the back arrow to return to the Main Settings screen, where we'll look at one last setting, Continuously play podcasts. When this switch is on, your phone will continue to play episodes until you pause the playback or close the app. If you'd prefer a podcast to stop playing at the end of an episode, tap this switch. The switch will move to the left, and this setting is now switched off.
To finish up, tap the Home button to close the ABC Listen app and return to the Home screen. You've learned how to use the ABC Listen app to find your favourite radio programs, download podcasts to listen to later, and follow a program to get new podcasts automatically.
If you are unsure about any steps, you can rewind the video or click the chapter headings to jump to the start of a chapter. If you are ready to move on, there are many other courses to explore on Be Connected.