Find out what a station is in the Apple Podcasts app and how to create, play, and delete it on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The stations feature in the Apple Podcasts app lets you group multiple podcast shows. It’s like creating a playlist of your songs in the Music app, except that in a station, you add your podcasts, and they update automatically with new episodes, and played episodes are auto-removed from the station.
You can use it to bundle up all podcasts of a particular type, like tech, news, finance, sports, etc. You may also use it to group podcasts you only listen to at night, during evening runs, or while driving to work.
Before you begin: Make sure you’re following a podcast. You can do so by going to the show page and tapping Follow.
Create a station in Apple Podcasts.
Stations you create on one device will sync to your other Apple devices with the same Apple ID and syncing turned on (iOS Settings > Podcasts > Sync Library).
On iPhone and iPad
1) Open the Podcasts app and tap Library.
2) Tap the three dots icon and choose New Station.
3) Enter the station name and tap Save.
4) Now set the desired settings as per your preference:
- Play: Select to play shows in manual show order, newest to oldest, oldest to newest, or manual.
- Group by Show: Enable this feature to organize your station by show title.
- Episodes: Select to play all episodes, the most recent, or the most recent two, three, five, or ten.
- Media Type: Choose audio podcasts, video podcasts, or both.
- Hide Played Episodes: Enable this feature to include only episodes you haven’t played yet.
5) After that, tap Choose Podcasts and select the podcats you see in the list. The list here displays the podcast shows you have added to your library or followed. After that, tap the Back button to return to the previous screen.
6) Finally, tap Done.
On Mac
1) Launch the Podcasts app, and from the top menu bar, click File > New Station.
2) Give this station a desired name and hit Save.
3) Set your preferences and click Choose Podcasts.
4) Select the shows and click OK.
5) Finally, click OK once again.
Play your station in Apple Podcasts
On iPhone or iPad
1) Go inside the Podcasts app and tap Library.
2) You will see your station here, which will have a gear icon. Tap it.
3) Now, tap one of the episodes to start playing your station. It will play all the show episodes in order.
You can remove an episode from the station, mark it as played and do other things by clicking the three dots icon next to its name.
On Mac
1) Open the Podcasts app and select your station from the left sidebar.
2) Click the arrow next to the episode name from the top and choose Play.
Episodes you finish listening will be removed automatically from the station if you had left Hide Played Episodes enabled while creating the station.
Change station settings
You can adjust the settings or add more shows to your station by following these steps.
On iPhone or iPad
1) Open the Podcasts app and tap Library.
2) Tap a station name.
3) Tap the three dots icon from the top and pick Station Settings.
4) From here, you can change the existing settings. You can also tap a show’s name and choose to include only its most recent episode in the station or 2, 3, 5, or 10 of its most recent episodes, or even all the episodes of that show!
On Mac
1) Select a station inside the Podcasts app.
2) Click its name or arrow from the top, choose Settings, and make your changes.
Delete a station in Apple Podcasts
Since your Podcasts library syncs to all your devices, deleting a station from one will also remove it from your other devices.
On iPhone and iPad
1) Go to the Podcasts app and tap Library.
2) Select a station.
3) Tap the three dots icon and hit Station Settings.
4) Tap Delete Station from the bottom and confirm.
On Mac
1) Open the Podcasts app.
2) Right-click or Control-click over the station name and choose Delete Station.
Check out next: How to create a radio station in Apple Music on iPhone, iPad, and Mac