As podcasters we focus on Apple’s hardware releases and how they will create a more seamless experience in podcasting. Truth be told, we’ll be discussing it at length on Episode 220 of The Feed, but I decided to give a quick overview of what iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and WatchOS 9 can possibly bring to our podcasting workflows.
Podcasting Got a Mention at WWDC 2022!
The moment was 44:19. The mention, from Kevin Lynch, VP, Technology:
“Another way to stay connected is by listening to the latest stories or sharing your favorite content. With Watch OS9, the podcast app allows you to discover and follow new podcasts using ‘search’ and ‘listen now.’ And the app is now available to kids using family set-up.”
Yes! Loved the framing of podcasting and podcasts as a solution to stay connected, not only by listening to stories, but by sharing stories, and now with more freedom from your wrist!
More to come on exactly how all of that works as WatchOS 9 comes into the scene.
Get your widgets all set up for a more purposeful podcasting workflow.
Have you messed around with widgets yet? They have changed the way that I interact with my iPad Pro 100%. I pick it up and immediately get quite a bit of information in seconds.
In iOS 16 widgets are getting redesigned and becoming ever more helpful, and here’s the great part — you can customize per Focus mode! I cannot wait to set this up on my iPhone.
‘Fess up now. Have you set up a podcasting Focus mode? It’s the best thing ever.
Whenever I’m about to record, I turn on my podcasting Focus mode and no more interruptions! With the new lock screen + focus mode, you’ll be able to get information and vital notifications easily accessible at a glance, without having to get distracted by anything else.
And on that note …
The lock screen has been redesigned to be more personal, helpful and beautiful.
Podcasters love to personalize stuff, and now with iOS 16, we can personalize type faces and colors in lock screens! And yes, that would be lock screens as you can have more than one. The first thing I thought about when I saw this was how lovely the lock screen would look featuring the She Podcasts artwork with matching font!
It could be a nice conversation starter.
Picture this, as the iPhone lies on a desk at a coffee shop with gorgeous artwork peeking out, and a delightful color palette calling attention to itself, a passer by says, “that’s a very colorful image! Does that say She Podcasts? Is that your podcast?”
One can always dream.
Time to listen to podcasts together through enhanced sharing features.
SharePlay is coming to Messages and now we can listen to podcasts together! Or at least that’s my hope, since you can listen to music together? Right? Who’s with me?
I would love to easily share an episode that I’m listening to directly with my best friend so that she can start listening with me — and of course, we can continue texting.
In a perfect world, time-coded chapter marks would make it easy to share that exact moment in the podcast that blew my mind, but I’ll take anything I can get. Maybe in September?
iPadOS 16 and multitasking
My MacBook and Mac Mini are my production machines. Although I have edited some audio and recorded audio on my iPad Pro separately, it hasn’t felt like the easiest thing to do.
I’m curious whether or not I’ll be able to finally record, and easily reference my shownotes. Will I be able to use something like Streamyard or Squadcast for full-on recording while having other screens open in front of me?
Using an external monitor and supercharged multi-tasking has got me amped up to greater possibilities. That said, the fact the functionality is only available for M1 iPads broke my heart a little bit, not gonna lie.
The one we were not expecting: using your iPhone as an external camera for your Mac!
This was not in any of my bingo cards.
At all.
And it can be an incredible game changer for recording corresponding video with your podcast.
It seems that you can use the iPhone camera with your Mac, as a webcam without having to do much of anything. It will recognize it when it’s nearby.
When using Facetime it has all these awesome extra features like Portrait mode, Center Stage and Studio LightPortrait. And yes, you can use it with Zoom and other video conferencing apps!
There is also this quite astounding feature where it uses the ultra-wide setting to capture the keyboard. Um. Wut? How does that even happen? I’m curious if the iPhone 13 mini can do it too?
Super excited about the possibilities!
I’m sure there will be more ways to use iOS 16, iPad OS 16 and WatchOS 9 to make podcasting easier, whether it’s workflow or as a podcast listener.
Did you watch the Apple WWDC Keynote? What did you think? Reach out to us on Twitter! Follow @libsyn or my personal account @TheElsieEscobar.
We would love you to subscribe to The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast. Rob and I will be discussing all the hardware releases on Episode 220 to let you know whether or not dream podcasting is actually here.