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CastBox is a free podcast player app. Rated for listeners ages 10 years of age and older, the CastBox app is free to download from the App Store or Google Play Store and features in-app purchases. The app itself is safe for kids but parents may want to be cautious about the content of podcasts.
What is Podcast Player - Castbox?
CastBox is a free podcast player app that uses listening history and subscriptions to generate suggestions for additional listening.
Rated for listeners ages 10 years of age and older, the CastBox app is free to download from the App Store or Google Play Store but does feature in-app purchases in the form of subscriptions.
What sets CastBox apart is the In-Audio Search feature. Rolled out after the app was launched, CastBox developer set out to create a search feature as robust with audio as it is with text.
Users can search through the more than 50 million available podcasts, narrowing down and sifting through selections based upon keyword and phrases contained in individual audio files.
CastBox also features cross-platform support, allowing users to pick up where they left off on other devices. Listeners can easily move from their car to their home and pick up where they left off on that smart home assistant.
CastBox also features CarPlay support, allowing users to navigate through the app from their in-dash receiver easily. An additional usability feature comes in the form of CastBox’s daily popular lists, featuring top-ranking podcasts each day for users to discover new shows to add to their queues.
Is Podcast Player - Castbox safe for my kids?
While CastBox itself is safe for kids to use, it’s merely a third party player, the podcasts are where parents may have concerns. Mature themes, profane language, sexual innuendo and crude humor may all be encountered in podcasts, and the CastBox player does not have any built-in content filters.
Instead, parents may opt to enlist the help of the built-in restrictions on their iOS devices which can provide a bit more, albeit not foolproof, filter for content.
To enable restrictions on iOS devices, just navigate to the settings menu. Under the “Allowed Content” menu, there will be an option labeled “Music, Podcasts & News.” Under the “Music, Podcasts & News” menu, users can tap to deselect the explicit rating, which will provide a modified content filter, specifically for podcasts.
An auto-delete feature is especially handy for avid podcast listeners, which deletes podcasts from user devices within an hour of listening and completing an entire podcast episode.
The auto download feature, however, is what many parents may be wary of as it can quickly eat into a data plan with a kid who subscribes to many podcasts.
Unless connected to a wireless network, the CastBox app will send new episodes as they become available and can quickly eat away at available monthly data.
Not only does CastBox have excellent user reviews, but it has won a handful of awards along the way. Named a Google Play Best of 2017 app in addition to the Android Excellence App of 2017.
Additionally Castbox was nominated for the Google Play Awards: Standout Startup; winner of “Top Trending Apps” from Global Best 2016 by Google Play; winner of “Most Entertaining” from Best Apps 2016 by Google Play; named number 1 in “Top Podcast Player Apps, 50 Best Podcasters: by TCC.
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