HOWL - NEW iOS App

[Shannon 2953]

ANDROID USERS!!! Would any of you like to talk to me on the phone for just a few minutes about Howl this Thursday? It won't take long, you can win $50, and you can tell me everything you've ever wanted to about Howl. If you're interested, can you please email me, shannon@midroll.com with you phone number, a good time to call on Thursday November 12th, and what time zone you're in. I appreciate it greatly!!

 

 

EVERYONE ELSE!!! I am taking a survey of Howl users and non-users and cancelled users, EVERYONE and if you take a few minutes to take it you could win a $50 gift card! So, please take this survey! Do it do it do it!!

[DanFardell 0]

Help! I'm an Android user (Android 4.4.2 on Samsung Galaxy Note 3) and I've been sent over here from the WTF app. So far I'm still only listening to WTF but I like the look of loads of the stuff on here.

 

The app was working great at first with the occasional glitch but now it's completely messed up; once it hits the main screen displaying all the different shows available, the graphics basically freeze most of the time. I can't seemingly enter any of the shows depicted, I can't even pull down the phone's own options over the Howl screen. When I hold down the phone's home screen to show active programs it will actually show Howl as if it was working properly, ie it will show the WTF sub-menu or whatever. I have even managed to navigate blind to play a few random episodes but this is really no good, I want to be able to download the premium episodes and play them sequentially.

 

I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling several times but no luck.

 

Has anyone else been experiencing this?

[Ghost of HST 71]

Is the discussion about this app going on somewhere else?

 

First, as with many others I assume, I love Earwolf and have been here since the beginning. I am more than happy to pay for the Howl app even though it isn't perfected yet. However, I still see many issues remaining that I feel could hurt maintaining new subscribers.

 

- I appreciate that episodes can now be downloaded. I see that I can select "Delete completed episodes" but is there an easy way to delete them from my device's memory without having to go all the way to the end?

 

- I have had the imperfect d/l problem with an occasional clicking sound.

 

- Ads in the episodes. Yes, I can FF through them but isn't this supposed to be a big selling point? I can't imagine that it isn't turning off new listeners.

 

- Lock screen control. It seems that every audio player has this. I set my screen lock time very low and it is a major pain to unlock every time I want to pause...

 

I have not had the problem Dan 72 mentions

[itrainmonkeys 25]

Is the discussion about this app going on somewhere else?

 

Not that I know of. I wish there was more discussion and status updates on here but it's kind of been dead lately.

 

 

- I appreciate that episodes can now be downloaded. I see that I can select "Delete completed episodes" but is there an easy way to delete them from my device's memory without having to go all the way to the end?

 

It's totally easy but definitely not obvious (and there's NO call to action for it that I could find) but when you're looking at the Downloaded Episodes section you just swipe the episode to the left and it gives you the option to delete. That was driving me nuts for a while as well.

 

- Ads in the episodes. Yes, I can FF through them but isn't this supposed to be a big selling point? I can't imagine that it isn't turning off new listeners.

 

Yea, I'm still not entirely sure what the reason is behind this? Seems like it should be pretty easy to swap out the old and the newer ad-free ones but I'm sure there's technical junk that makes it difficult. It would be nice to get an update on this, though. That was a major selling point for me. I don't like trying to re-listen to old Affirmation Nation episodes (some of which are only 2 minutes long) and have to sit through a 30 second ad every time.

 

 

- Lock screen control. It seems that every audio player has this. I set my screen lock time very low and it is a major pain to unlock every time I want to pause...

 

 

For Android, at least, it allows me to pause/play on the lock screen now. THey pushed out that update at some point.

[Ghost of HST 71]

Thanks so much ITM!! I guess I should always "try swiping" with anything these days~~

 

I definitely do not have a pause/play on the lock screen and I updated the app a few days ago. I see a bar over the app screen when it is open but just a notification that Howl is operating on the lock screen. Wonder why. Again my other (Google Play and Poweramp) players are displayed. I'd rather just d/l new ones and use another player.

 

And the ads??

[texter 27]

Yeah it would be good to get the ad free eps in. But what I'd really like to see are some curated introductory playlists for shows. Like I know with Who Charted you could do something with a Cliffs Notes on Howard, find a good ep to cover the whole summah stuff, get that one where he talks about the superhero team he had with friends as a youth, throw in a few other things and then bam someone can get a good handle on where he's coming from and are primed to go thru the archives in earnest. It would be cool to have that for shows I haven't checked out yet.

 

And then that leads to the other thing I'd really like to see, which is some kind of persistent icon or something that shows when you've already listened to an episode. Because if you poke around a bit at first when getting into a show, it can be hard to remember which episodes have been listened to later on.

[itrainmonkeys 25]

Any update / info about when we can expect ads to be removed and the app can remember our spot in the podcasts?

[itrainmonkeys 25]

Heynong Man! Any updates?

[Ghost of HST 71]

Don't know if it was due to an update, or changing my settings, but I see there is now lock-screen play/pause!

[itrainmonkeys 25]

Don't if it was due to an update, or changing my settings, but I see there is now lock-screen play/pause!

 

Yea, probably an update. They had that included sometime during/shortly before November. It's great. There's really only two or three more changes that I'd like to see happen before I really love the app.

[Shannon 2953]

Heynong Man! Any updates?

 

Heynong Man, I gotta be real open and honest with y'all. There is probably never going to be a time where I will be able to tell y'all "On ____ day ___ will happen on Howl!" As we have seen since launch, there are just too many factors and you never know what might fall through at the last minute. So announcements will most likely only ever be made when something is done/ready to go/already in Howl.

 

We always post about new shows on Twitter and our Facebook page when they come out, (which is every Wednesday) I will try to get better at posting on the forums when new stuff happens. For example, as of today, the iOS app has a sorting feature now which is pretty neat.

 

But please let me stress again, if you ever have a specific Howl question and want an answer in say 48 hours or less, please email me at support@howl.fm. I try to remember to check the forums, but since it's not really my job anymore and I have so many other jobs now, I'm not as good at it as I should be. I will try in 2016 to announce anything and everything I have to announce about Howl here on the forums too. Sorry for dropping the ball gang.

 

That email again is support@howl.fm. Use it. Love it.

[itrainmonkeys 25]

Thanks so much for the updates info! I'm more concerned with updates to the app itself, not just when new shows are being added. I like getting the e-mails about the new shows that are added. Hoping we get some of the other features that were discussed as soon as possible.

 

I'd love to see the ads removed as promised but my #1 request is that the app will remember my spot on specific podcasts. When I turn off the app and open it the next day I usually have to try and locate my position again and if I didn't check the day before then it can be really annoying to scan through.

[Shannon 2953]

Dear everyone,

 

If you are the type who uses apps to listen to podcasts and likes to take a quick survey we need you to follow this link!

 

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2551141/Podcast-App-Survey

 

Thanks in advance for your time. I love you.

[darkesword 83]

I've got a request for a feature I'd like to see on Howl.

 

Long-running shows like CBB often feature continuing "storylines" where we can follow certain character arcs, like Wompler and Listler, or Gilly and Garry. I would love for there to be some kind of "curated playlists" section where Earwolf staff puts together playlists of episodes that are related to each other. That way I can browse around and find something like "The Chronicles of J.W. Stillwater" and get all of the episodes where J.W. shows up, or listen to all of the Andy Daly character appearances that led up to the epic two-parter where the world was almost destroyed.

 

I realize that I could obviously do this all myself using Howl's "playlist" feature, but it's not easy to browse episodes by guest in the app, nor is there a way to share my playlists with anyone, so I couldn't use these to recommend certain storylines to friends.

 

Hopefully something like this can be considered. Thanks.

[LinusLindberg 8]

I would like to be able to tap on a performers portrait under the episode I'm listening to and get a list of all podcast appearances of that person, the way you can on the earwolf website!