PrestoCast changelog

New

• «Only unread» filter in the inbox — New button in the inbox that shows only threads with unread messages. Combines with the type filters (All / Whispers / Comments) so you can, for instance, see «only unread whispers».

Fixed

• Inbox filter was lost on pagination — If you selected «Comments» or «Whispers» and went to the next page, the filter reset to «All». Pagination links now preserve the active filter. Reported by @paquihouse.
• Threads stayed unread after replying from the episode — If you replied to a whisper or comment directly from the episode page (instead of opening the thread from the inbox), the «unread» dot kept showing in the inbox even though you'd clearly seen it. Now posting a reply marks the thread as read automatically. Reported by @dmarzal.
• Reply placeholder in the inbox — Public comment threads were showing «Reply privately…» as the reply placeholder, which was misleading. Now shows «Reply…» for public comments and keeps «privately» only for whispers. Reported by @paquihouse.

New

• Universal inbox for Premium users — Your inbox now groups whispers and public comments on your episodes in one place, with «All / Whispers / Comments» filters and a new messaging-style layout.

Improved

• Editorial redesign now on the app too — We've ported the same visual identity we launched on the web to the app.
• Tighter spacing on the episode view on mobile — Responsive margin adjustments so the episode page uses space more efficiently with no unnecessary gaps. Suggested by @dmarzal.

Fixed

• Wrong next-renewal date — On /billing the «Next renewal» date was actually the date of the last payment (already in the past), because we were reading it from Stripe's latest invoice. Now we read the correct field (item-level current_period_end) and show the real upcoming renewal. Reported by @dmarzal.
• Following didn't hide played episodes (app) — On the Following tab in the app, episodes didn't disappear when you finished listening to them even with the filter on; Discover worked fine. Now both filter the same way during the session. Reported by @paquihouse.

Improved

• New design applied to more pages — We've extended the editorial redesign (Source Serif 4 typography, terracotta palette, three-column layout) to the Documentation, Legal, Press, Ideas and Numbers pages, so the whole site now shares the same identity.
• Tabs and filters usability tweaks — Several small improvements to tab navigation and the home episode filters so everything feels cleaner and more accessible.
• Public web updated to the new design — The sidebar for signed-out visitors now follows the same editorial identity as the rest of the site: unified typography and logo, terracotta buttons, and layout consistent with the signed-in view.
• Growth chart with dual Y axis — On /numbers, the users vs episodes chart now uses two independent Y axes (episodes on the left, users on the right) so the users line stops looking flat when sharing scale with thousands of episodes. Colors adapted to the editorial palette. Suggested by @dmarzal.
• Side menu on mobile — On the responsive layout some sidebar options (Notifications, Inbox, Stats, My listens, Settings…) were out of reach. We've added a «Menu» button on the bottom bar that opens a side drawer with the full navigation. Suggested by @madrillano.

Fixed

• Footer restored — Removed by mistake, now visible again on all pages.
• Empty-category message — Opening a category with no episodes showed the raw translation key instead of a message. Now it correctly shows "No episodes in this category yet".
• Last episode not marked as played on iOS — When finishing the last episode of a podcast in the iOS app, it stayed unmarked and the miniplayer button got stuck with a spinning loader. Now it correctly marks as played at 95% and the miniplayer returns to its normal state. Reported by @emilcar.
• Unfollow not persisted on the server (app) — In the app, tapping «unfollow» showed the UI as unfollowed but the server kept the follow record, so that person's episodes still appeared in the Following feed. Now it's persisted correctly. Reported by @emilcar.
• Map didn't frame correctly on «World» — On /map, selecting the «World» view ended up centered on Africa with the rest cut off. On top of that, the tile palette had low contrast and the zoom controls sat on an empty band above the map. Now the full world fits aligned to the top, using the more legible CARTO Voyager tiles and with controls inside the visible area. Reported by @dmarzal.

Added

• Web redesign — New warmer, more personal and organic visual identity: terracotta palette on cream background, editorial typography with Source Serif 4, and a three-column layout inspired by classic print magazines. Includes matching dark mode and polished components throughout.

Improved

• In-page recording modal — You can now record, upload and publish an episode without leaving the page, using a unified modal. After publishing, quick-edit shortcuts let you rename, change the cover art, or cancel the schedule without breaking the flow.
• /press and /about pages refreshed — We've updated the press and about pages with the latest additions from the past few weeks: native iOS and Android apps, whispers, followers-only episodes, AI audio enhance, podcaster map, audio comments, mentions and echoes, Instagram Stories, scheduled episodes and more.

New

• Share episodes from Android — You can now share episodes from the app on Android.
• New Home tab with Discover and Following — The main tab now groups Discover and Following into a single Home with two sub-tabs, and Categories has been added as a direct shortcut in the bottom bar to improve podcast discoverability.

Improved

• Better share flow for episodes — We've redesigned the app's share flow to be clearer and faster.
• "Share to social media" button right after publishing — A shortcut appears immediately after publishing an episode from the app, so you can share it as a video to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc. without navigating to the episode page first.
• Categories page in a two-column grid with icons — The app's Categories view is now a two-column grid with icons, matching the web's design, for clearer navigation.

Fixed

• Bottom sheets overlapped the Android navigation bar — Bottom sheets (episode options menu, share, etc.) appeared underneath the system navigation bar on Android, hiding some options. They now correctly respect the device's safe area. Reported by @familydojo.
• Long comment text was clipped at the top — When writing a long comment, the first lines would get hidden by the rounded edge of the input. Text is now always visible and the box shape is adjusted for multi-line input.

New

• Share episodes to Instagram (iOS) — Tapping share on an episode in the app generates a vertical 1080×1920 video with the cover, the title, the podcaster and the episode's audio. You can send it to Instagram as a Reel, Post, Story or direct Message. On Android, sharing currently sends a link. Video-sharing coming soon.
• New app version submitted to the stores — Version 1.4.0 of the app has been submitted to App Store and Play Store. It includes the Instagram sharing feature and several internal improvements. We're waiting for Apple and Google to approve the review.

Improved

• Better design of the share cards — The 1080×1920 cards now feature the PrestoCast logo at the top, rounded corners on the episode cover, the image vertically centered to avoid cropping in Stories, and more legible typography for the username and URL.
• Much faster share-video generation — Time to create the video shared to Instagram dropped from ~50s to ~2-3s in production (ffmpeg encoding optimized: 1 fps + ultrafast + audio without re-encoding).

New

• Whisper inbox PRO — New premium feature to manage all your whispers in one place. Access the inbox from the navbar icon, see every private thread with podcasters and listeners, and reply directly from there, messenger-style. Unread threads are highlighted and the navbar counter alerts you of new messages.

Fixed

• Static links opened empty profiles in the app — Opening links like prestocast.com/ios, /android, /docs or /search from another app made the mobile app treat them as usernames and show an empty profile. Now reserved routes correctly open in the browser, and /ios, /apple and /android jump straight to the relevant store. Reported by @dmurana.
• Whispers counted in the public comment counter — The comment count shown in episode lists (Discover, Following and podcast page) was including private whispers, inflating the counter visible to everyone. Now the counter only counts public comments. Reported by @paquihouse.

New

• Whispers (private comments) — When commenting on an episode, you can mark a comment as a "whisper": only you and the podcaster will see it. Replies to a whisper are automatically private too. Available on web and app.
• New logo in the app UI — The new PrestoCast logo (design by @alexmvid) is now integrated in the app UI. Only the app icon on Android and iOS is pending — we'll update it in the next build.

Fixed

• "Followers only" button broken after "load more" — On a podcast page, episodes loaded via "load more" did not allow toggling visibility to "followers only": the page scrolled to the top instead. The user context was not passed correctly to paginated episodes. Reported by @jeijoland.
• Mention autocomplete not working when replying from the episode view — When writing a reply to a comment from an episode page, the @user autocomplete wasn't showing. It worked correctly from the timeline and the main form. Fixed: now works the same across all surfaces. Reported by @ivanvega and @paquihouse.
• Share from the app only sent the title — When using the share button in the app, Android only received the episode title without the URL. Fixed: the message now includes title, podcaster and URL. Spotted by @pablo.
• "Followers only" audio played on Discover timeline — On the Discover timeline, episodes marked as "followers only" served the real audio instead of the fallback message for non-followers. The Discover query wasn't returning visibility data. Fixed. Spotted by @paquihouse.
• Missing invoices in billing — Premium subscription payments were not generating invoices due to a Stripe API change that broke detection. Fixed the detector and manually generated pending invoices for all affected subscribers.

New

• Downvote on Ideas — You can now vote for or against proposals on the Ideas board. One vote per proposal: up or down. Requested by @danielvigueras.
• New logo — PrestoCast has a new logo. We're still testing and may make some tweaks before settling on the final version. Design by @alexmvid.

Improved

• Keyboard shortcut for dark mode — Press Option+D (Mac) or Alt+D (Windows/Linux) on any page to toggle between light and dark mode.

Fixed

• Followers-only episodes in RSS feeds — Episodes marked as "followers only" now serve the fallback message in public RSS feeds (Discover, category, podcaster), instead of the actual audio. Previously, any podcatcher could access the full audio without restriction. Reported by @madrillano.
• RSS feed error for some podcasters — Fixed an Internal Server Error on the RSS feed for podcasters with verification data (podcast:txt) stored in an incorrect format. Reported by @jaespin.
• Incorrect location tag format — The <podcast:location geo> tag in RSS feeds was generated with European comma decimals or spaces, invalidating the geo URI format (RFC 5870). Now correctly normalized. Reported by @dmarzal.
• Empty OPML export — The OPML subscription file (/{username}/opml) was generated empty because the query did not include the required data. Now correctly includes followed podcasts with their titles.
• Description and category not saving in the app — Podcast description and category were not loading correctly in the mobile app, making changes appear to not save. Fixed. Reported by @jaespin.

Added

• Language filter in Discover — New option in Settings to choose which languages you want to see in Discover. If none are selected, all episodes are shown.
• Hide echoes in Following — New option in Settings to hide echoes (episodes shared by other podcasters) from the Following feed. Available on web and app.
• Upload audio files (app) — You can now publish episodes by uploading audio files from your device, in addition to recording directly in the app. Suggested by @rafaelroa.

Improved

• Clickable links in descriptions — URLs in episode descriptions are now clickable on both web and app. Line breaks are also preserved on the web. Reported by @paquihouse.
• Push notifications (app) — Tapping a push notification now navigates directly to the corresponding episode instead of opening the home screen.
• Preserve scroll position (app) — When entering an episode and going back, the scroll position in the episode list is now preserved. Suggested by @coolpapayap.
• Follow without an account — Non-registered users can now see the "Follow" button on profiles, episodes and the explore page. Tapping it opens the login or registration window. Suggested by @andanafoto.

Fixed

• Display name (app) — Fixed display name changes from the app not being saved correctly. Reported by @coolpapayap.
• Followers-only episodes (app) — Fixed the app not allowing "followers only" even when the non-followers message was already recorded. Validation is now done server-side. Reported by @ivanvega.
• Scheduled episode time — Scheduled episodes now show time in UTC with local time in parentheses. Previously the displayed time could be confusing depending on the user's timezone.
• Your most loyal listeners — Fixed the podcaster appearing in their own most loyal listeners list when self-following.

Added

• Followers-only episodes — Premium users can mark episodes as exclusive to followers. Non-followers hear an alternative audio message recorded by the podcaster instead of the real episode. Available on web and mobile app.
• Revenue on /numbers — New revenue section on the platform statistics page showing the number of premium subscribers and monthly revenue.

Fixed

• Listening stats — Fixed a podcaster appearing in their own "most listened podcasters" list when self-following.
• Track change detection (app) — Fixed several edge cases where the app failed to correctly detect track changes when skipping forward or backward in the playlist.

Added

• PrestoCast Premium — New premium plan to help keep the platform running. Includes: PRO badge visible on your profile, your votes on Ideas count x5, AI audio enhancement, and you can leave links in comments. €5/month, cancel anytime.
• Listening stats — New page for premium users with your favourite podcasters, weekly activity and listening streak.
• PrestoCast audience — New section in Stats for premium users with total listens, unique listeners and your most loyal listeners.

Improved

• Podcaster avatar in episode description (app) — The episode detail view in the app now shows the podcaster's avatar to the right of the description. Tap it to go directly to their profile.
• PRO badge in more places — The PRO badge now also appears in Explore Podcasters, in newly posted comments, and in the mobile app (episodes, comments and profile).

Fixed

• Billing data — Fixed an error that prevented saving billing data in production.

Added

• AI audio enhancement (in development) — Early implementation steps. Enhanced audio will be saved as a separate file without modifying the original, with the option to restore at any time.
• Block import (podcast:locked) — New setting on web, app, and bots (/lock) that lets each podcaster prevent closed platforms (like Spotify) from auto-importing their podcast without consent. Enabled by default for all podcasters, following the Podcasting 2.0 standard.
• Mark all as played — New button on the Following tab that marks all episodes from podcasters you follow as played at once (including echoes). Great for starting fresh and seeing only new episodes. Available on web and app.

Improved

• Unified action buttons — The order, played visibility, and mark-all controls on the Following tab now use a uniform button style instead of mixing toggles and links. Cleaner and more consistent.

Fixed

• Scheduled episode timezone — Scheduling from Telegram interpreted the time as UTC instead of local time (Spain). Now scheduling at 06:00 publishes at 06:00 Spanish time. Also, the scheduling badge on web, app, and bots now always shows local time, not UTC. Reported by @paquihouse.
• Recording preview in the app — After recording an episode, tapping play to preview before publishing showed an error and the audio didn't play. Fixed.

Added

• Mute podcasters — From the three-dot menu on any episode you can mute the podcaster. Their episodes no longer appear on Discover, Saved, or in search results. Muting also automatically unfollows them. To see them again, visit their profile and tap "Unmute". Available on web, mobile app, and Telegram/WhatsApp bots (commands /mute, /unmute, /muted).
• Report episodes from the app — The three-dot menu on episodes in the mobile app now includes the report action, with the same reasons as the web (inappropriate content, spam, copyright, or other).

Improved

• Improved comment system in the app — The comment icon on any episode now opens a bottom sheet (without leaving the feed) showing existing comments, their reactions and nested replies. It includes a row of quick emojis above the input to add them to your text with one tap, a microphone button to record voice comments, and a send button.
• Mentions and tappable usernames in comments (app) — Typing @ followed by a username in a comment now shows an autocomplete dropdown with suggestions (same as the web). Also, author names in comments are now tappable and take you to their profile. Requested by @paquihouse.
• Auto-pause when recording a voice comment (app) — If you were listening to an episode and you record a voice comment, playback now auto-pauses so it doesn't bleed into the mic. When you finish (or discard) the recording, the episode resumes automatically. Suggested by @paquihouse.
• Clearer "Following" message — When you follow podcasters but have already listened to all their episodes, the Following tab incorrectly said "You don't follow anyone yet". It now shows "You're all caught up!" and the toggles to view played episodes or change the order are always visible when you follow someone. Reported by @mardalena.

Fixed

• Scheduled episode covers — Scheduled episodes uploaded before the thumbnail system was deployed didn't have their small variant generated and showed no image in listings. All missing thumbnails have been regenerated.
• Self-follow on your own profile — On your own profile, the "Follow" button didn't correctly reflect whether you were already self-following (to see yourself in the Following tab). It now shows the real state.
• Scheduled episode time — The scheduled episode badge was showing the time in UTC instead of your local timezone, making it look like the episode would publish 2 hours early. Actual execution was always correct (episodes went out at the hour you picked), only the display was misleading. Now shown in your local timezone. Reported by @miafont.

Added

• robots.txt — Added a robots.txt file to prevent search engines from indexing private or non-content pages (login, settings, API, etc.).
• Sitemap.xml — Added an XML sitemap (with index) to help search engines discover and index all public pages: home, podcaster profiles, episodes, and category pages.
• Schema.org structured data — Added JSON-LD metadata so search engines understand PrestoCast content: Organization + WebSite on every page, PodcastSeries on podcaster profiles, and PodcastEpisode on episode pages (with audio, duration, transcript, etc.).
• Meta descriptions — Added unique meta descriptions to every public page (home, podcasts, episodes, categories, explore, map, etc.) so search engines display meaningful snippets in results.

Improved

• Image alt text — Added missing alt attributes to images (doodles, map avatars) for better accessibility and SEO image indexing.
• Page headings (h1) — Every public page now has a single, meaningful <h1> tag — required by search engines and accessibility standards. Pages without one (podcaster, episode, explore, categories, map, etc.) now have a properly structured heading hierarchy.
• Faster image loading — Covers, avatars and episode art now have a small 300×300 thumbnail variant served on cards and lists. Reduces bandwidth ~9× per image, dramatically speeding up page loads on the home, podcast and explore pages. The original 1400×1400 is still served on detail pages and RSS feeds.

Fixed

• Episode deletion — Fixed a bug where some episodes could not be deleted from the web or Telegram. Reported by @davidsolis, @eliasgomez and @vidalpascual.

Added

• PrestoDoodles — Introducing PrestoDoodles. The PrestoCast logo changes on special occasions. Click it... things happen.
• Keyboard shortcuts — Navigate episodes with your keyboard: j/→ next, k/← previous, space play/pause, m mute, l like, c comments, s share, ? help. Suggested by @pildain.

Improved

• Database query optimization — Optimized all RSS feed queries by selecting only the fields needed for feed generation instead of fetching entire rows. Removed unnecessary comment count subqueries from feed queries. Reduces database load and improves feed response times.
• Faster feed generation — RSS feeds (explore, top, rising, category, podcaster, listener) now use lightweight dedicated queries, reducing latency and CPU usage on the database.

Fixed

• Ideas page avatar — Fixed broken avatar image on the Ideas page when a podcaster has no profile picture. Now shows the username initial instead.

Added

• Contact form for bug reports — The contact form (web and app) now includes a subject selector with a dedicated bug report mode. When reporting a bug, users can describe the steps to reproduce, expected behavior, and actual behavior. Device info (model, OS version, app version, screen size) is automatically captured and sent with the report.
• Explicit per episode on the web — You can now mark or unmark an episode as explicit directly from the episode options menu on the web. Suggested by @paquihouse.
• Follow yourself — You can now follow your own podcast to see your episodes in the "Following" feed. Suggested by @polrodriguezriu.

Improved

• Reduced server costs — Blocked abusive AI crawlers (PerplexityBot) that were consuming web traffic without providing value. In-memory cache for the featured podcaster section eliminates redundant database queries.
• Database migration to Google Cloud SQL — Migrated from Supabase PostgREST to a direct PostgreSQL connection on Google Cloud SQL. Lower latency (same region as the server), zero egress costs, and better observability with Query Insights.

Fixed

• Map pins — Fixed a bug where some podcasters with a location set were not appearing on the map. The map now shows all podcasters with a location. Reported by @rafaelroa.
• Multi-account authentication — Fixed a bug where actions (comments, publishing) could be attributed to the wrong account when multiple accounts were used on the same device.
• RSS feed copyright — The copyright tag in individual podcast feeds now shows the podcaster's name instead of "PrestoCast". Reported by @gvisoc.
• Continuous playback in the app — Fixed a bug where the UI (title, progress bar, mini player) stopped updating after the second episode when playing multiple episodes in sequence. Episodes played with this bug were also not marked as listened. Reported by @dekkar, @emilcar, @rmoratos, @mardalena, @paquihouse.

Added

• Automatic podcast language detection — The podcast language is now automatically detected from the first published episode and applied to the RSS feed.
• Map in the app — New world map of podcasters available in the mobile app. Accessible from the side menu.
• Deep links — PrestoCast links now open directly in the app if installed, instead of the browser.
• Followers and following in the app — You can now view the followers and following lists of any podcast by tapping the counters on their profile.
• Website link on profile — Podcasters can now add a link to their website, project, or linktree in podcast settings. Shown as a button on their profile. Suggested by @ivanvega.

Improved

• App v1.2.0 (iOS + Android) — Podcaster map, deep links, followers/following lists, compact podcast profile design, categories page, platform statistics, and performance improvements. Available on App Store and Google Play.
• RSS feed caching — Podcast feeds are now cached in memory, drastically reducing server resource consumption and speeding up response times.
• Podcast header buttons — The podcast profile header now shows Web, RSS, Podlink, and Support buttons, on both web and app.

Fixed

• Security improvements — Fixed a vulnerability that could cause internal server errors on certain malformed requests.
• Categories — Fixed the podcasters list in categories, which was not showing some podcasts correctly. Reported by @jenmaratu.

Added

• Moderation roles — New role system that allows moderators to help remove spam, piracy, and inappropriate content from the platform.

Improved

• Podcast view in the app — The episode list on podcast profiles now uses the same compact layout as Discover, Following, and Saved.
• Server performance — Internal optimizations to improve loading speed and platform stability.

Fixed

• Scheduled episode publishing — Fixed an issue that prevented scheduled episodes from being automatically published at their set time. Reported by @hosteleando.

Added

• OPML subscription export — You can now export an OPML file with all the podcasts you follow from /your-username/opml. Importable in any podcatcher. Suggested by @jeanbedel.
• PrestoCast Daily — New AI-generated podcast that summarizes each day’s highlights in 30 seconds. Voice generated with ElevenLabs, script with Gemini. Follow @sara. We’ll keep refining the format day by day.

Improved

• Intro beep volume — The beep that plays at the beginning of each episode has been lowered to match voice levels.
• App v1.1.0 (iOS + Android) — Lock screen playback controls, AirPods support (play/pause, next, previous), continuous playback between episodes, and performance improvements.

Added

• App available on Google Play — PrestoCast is now available as a native app for Android. Download on Google Play.

Improved

• Report episodes — You can now report episodes that violate platform guidelines from the three-dot menu on any episode. Reports are reviewed by the moderation team.
• Visual echo indicator — The echo icon now changes color based on its state: gray (no echoes), blue (has echoes from other users) and green (you echoed it).
• Performance improvements — Internal server optimizations to improve performance as platform traffic and usage continue to grow.

Fixed

• “Echo” translation — The word “echo” was not translated in several places in the Spanish interface. Now correctly shows “eco”. Reported by @yagollopis.
• WAV and OGG file upload — Some browsers reported an incorrect format when uploading WAV or OGG files, preventing publication. Now also validates by file extension. Reported by @dmarzal.
• Follow icon on “Load more” — When loading more episodes via the “Load more” button on the timeline and podcast pages, the follow icon always showed as unfollowed. Reported by @emilcar.

Added

• Platform statistics page — New /numbers page with daily-updated counters (users, podcasters, episodes, follows, comments, echoes), growth and category charts, Google presence stats and a full platform cost breakdown. We’ll keep adding more data over time.

Improved

• AI-generated title shown in the app — After publishing an episode from the app, the confirmation screen now displays the title automatically generated by AI. Suggested by @emilcar.

Fixed

• Following tab empty with “Oldest first” — For users with many played episodes, enabling “Oldest first” in the Following tab showed an empty list. The played episodes filter has been moved to the server so pagination works correctly. Reported by @ivanvega, @madrillano and @jeijoland.
• Duplicate buttons on podcast profile — On mobile, the RSS, Podlink and Support buttons appeared twice in the podcast header. Reported by @paquihouse.
• Bottom navigation bar invisible — On mobile, logged-out users couldn’t see the bottom navigation bar. It now shows for everyone, with publish and podcast buttons linking to the login screen. Reported by @dmarzal’s brother — thanks, bro. 🙌

Added

• App available on the App Store — PrestoCast is now available as a native app for iPhone and iPad. Download on the App Store. The Android version is pending approval on Google Play. We’ll announce it as soon as it’s available.

Improved

• Performance improvements — Internal server optimizations to reduce memory usage and improve response times. Removed unnecessary database queries on the most visited pages. PrestoCast has now surpassed 1,000 registered users.

Fixed

• Recording playback in the app — When previewing a recorded audio in the app, the sound played through the earpiece instead of the speaker, and trying to listen a second time would get stuck. Reported by @yoyo308 and @materron.
• Microphone permission in the app — The first time microphone permission was granted, the recording would fail and you had to try a second time. Reported by @yoyo308 and @materron.

Added

• Podcaster of the day — A different podcaster is featured every day in the sidebar. The selection rotates among all podcasters with 5 or more published episodes.

Improved

• Podcast page header redesign — Podcast pages now show the podcaster’s name as the main title, with the podcast name in the card header. Stats and location are displayed next to the avatar, and action buttons (follow, RSS, Podlink, support) are grouped in the card footer.
• Infinite scroll in the app — Discover, Following, Saved and podcast profile screens now load episodes 20 at a time as you scroll. When the player reaches the last episode, it automatically loads more and continues playback.
• Save icon — The save/bookmark button changes from a star to a heart, on both web and app.
• Explicit content indicator — Episodes marked as explicit now display an “E” badge next to the title on the web, both in listings and on the episode page. Suggested by @paquihouse.

Fixed

• Follow button on episode page — The “Follow” button in the podcast header on episode pages was not working (error: toggleFollow not defined).
• Hide played message in the app — When hiding played episodes with an empty list, the app showed “You’re not following anyone” instead of “You’ve listened to all episodes”. Reported by @madrillano.

Added

• App version in settings — The mobile app now shows the current version (CalVer) in the Podcast Settings screen, so betatesters can confirm they have the latest build installed.
• /switch command (Telegram & WhatsApp) — Allows publishing as another one of your accounts by sending /switch username password. To go back to your original account: /switch off. Useful for managing multiple accounts.

Improved

• Redesigned search page — The /search page now shows a prominent search input with real-time AJAX results, and curated lists of top-followed and newest podcasters when no search is active. Suggested by @madrillano.

Fixed

• Episodes in app search — Tapping an episode from search results showed "Ep undefined" instead of opening the episode correctly. Reported by @paquihouse.
• Audio with embedded image — MP3 files with embedded cover art (ID3) failed to convert because ffmpeg tried to process the image as a video stream. Non-audio streams are now automatically discarded. Reported by @paquihouse and @dmarzal.
• HTML in transcripts and descriptions — Pasting HTML into episode transcripts or descriptions showed raw tags. Now automatically cleaned on save.
• Hide played episodes in feed — The “Show played” toggle was not working on the home page (Discover and Following tabs). Reported by @dekkar.

Added

• New 25/50/25 layout — Redesigned main interface with three columns and sticky sidebars that stay visible while scrolling through content.
• Search & trending sidebar — New right sidebar with improved search and a trending topics section showing the most mentioned themes in recent episodes.
• Mobile bottom navigation bar — New fixed navigation bar at the bottom for mobile, with shortcuts to Home, Search, Record, My Podcast and Settings.

Improved

• Database server upgrade — Upgraded database server resources for improved performance and platform stability.
• No bounce scroll — Disabled elastic bounce effect when reaching the top or bottom of the page.
• Redesigned episode card — Actions (follow, comment, echo, save, share, edit) are now shown below the player. The three-dot menu is replaced by a pencil button integrated into the action row.
• Unified episode list — Episodes on the home timeline and podcast page are now shown as a continuous list inside a single card, with a cleaner and more compact design.
• Podcast header on mobile — On small screens, the cover art appears on the right with text wrap-around, and action buttons are placed below.

Fixed

• Episode page sidebar — Fixed an error that prevented loading the episode page with the new unified sidebar. Reported by @dmarzal.
• "Government" category icon — Missing icon on the categories page. Fixed. Reported by @hosteleando.

New

• App submitted to App Store and Google Play — The native PrestoCast app has been submitted for review to the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android). Coming soon!
• Rising Stars Feed — New RSS feed (/rising/feed) featuring episodes from emerging podcasters: creators with recent activity, consistency and growing community engagement.
• Delete account — Option to delete your account from the web (Settings → Account) and the mobile app. Requires confirmation by typing your username.
• Categories — New /categories section with all 19 Apple Podcasts categories, with icons and translated to Spanish. Each category shows its associated podcasters.
• Universal search — Search bar in the sidebar that finds podcasters by name/username and episodes by title/transcript. Supports accents and multiple words.
• Notification bell — Notification icon in the navigation bar, visible from any page.

Improved

• Expanded Top Feed — The most-followed podcasters feed (/top/feed) now includes the top 20, up from 10.
• Sidebar and layout redesign — All pages (home, explore, categories, map, settings, record, notifications) now share the same sidebar with consistent navigation.
• Podcasters section — The /explore page now combines podcaster lists into a single card with a selector: "Most followed" and "Rising stars" (emerging podcasters with recent activity).

Fixed

• Notifications not visible in the app — Some users couldn't see their notifications in the mobile app. Fixed the authentication system to work correctly on all devices.
• Playback speed in the app — The speed change button (1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x) wasn't working on iOS. Fixed.
• Follow button in "Load more" — When loading more podcasters in Explore, the follow button didn't detect if you were already following the podcaster. Fixed.

New

• Status and filter in Ideas — Each proposal in /ideas now has a status (open, in development, planned, completed, declined) with a colored badge. A filter in the header lets you view only ideas with a specific status.

Improved

• Performance improvements — Internal server optimization to reduce memory usage and improve response times.

New

• Publish episode button — New shortcut in the home sidebar to record and publish an episode directly from your browser.

Improved

• Counters in Discover — The Discover tab now shows comment and echo counts for each episode, just like the Following tab. Suggested by @paquihouse.
• Echo details — Hovering over the echo button in the timeline shows who echoed (tooltip). The episode page displays the full names of users who echoed, with links to their profiles.

New

• Podroll on profile — Each podcaster's page now shows a section with their recommended podcasts (podroll), displayed as a mosaic of clickable covers linking to each recommended podcast's profile.
• Podroll on Explore feed — The /explore/feed RSS feed now includes the <podcast:podroll> tag with the 8 most recent podcasters, so Podcasting 2.0-compatible apps can display dynamic recommendations.
• Echo — Share episodes from other podcasters with your followers. When you echo an episode, it appears in the "Following" timeline of your followers. Available on the web (the button on each episode) and via bots with /echo user N.
• Hide played episodes — Episodes you've already listened to automatically disappear from the timeline (with a smooth animation). To see them again, enable the "Show played" toggle on the Following and Discover tabs. Your preference is saved to your account and syncs across devices. Suggested by @rmoratos and @sunne.

Improved

• Autocomplete in recommendations — When adding a podcast to your podroll in settings, a dropdown with user suggestions now appears as you type, showing avatar and name. Suggested by @paquihouse.
• Oldest first — New toggle on the timeline and on each podcast page to reverse episode order and listen from oldest to newest. Ideal for serialized podcasts. The preference is saved to your account and synced across devices.
• Synced playback speed — Playback speed (1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x) is now saved to your account and synced across devices. Previously it was only stored in the browser.
• Wider timeline on mobile — On small screens, timeline avatars and the vertical line are hidden, giving episode cards the full width so text and cover art are no longer cramped.
• Unified interaction icons — Comment, echo, and save icons have been relocated and unified in the top area of each episode card, social-media style. Each icon shows its counter and links directly to its action (comment opens the comment box, echo shares, star saves).

Fixed

• Larger comment box on mobile — The comment text field now shows 4 lines instead of 2, making it more comfortable to type on small screens. Suggested by @rmoratos.
• "Replying to" not clearing — After replying to a comment, the "Replying to @user" indicator didn't hide properly, requiring a page reload to leave a new top-level comment.
• /explicit command in /help — The /explicit [N] on/off command (mark episode as explicit) was listed under "Podcast settings" instead of "Episodes". Moved to the correct section. Reported by @dmarzal.

New

• Schedule publication — Record or upload an episode and schedule it for a future date and time (up to 30 days). Available on the web (a datepicker appears after recording the audio), as well as on Telegram and WhatsApp via the /later dd/mm/yy hh:mm command.
• Music content filter — To comply with copyright regulations on distribution platforms, a filter has been implemented to detect episodes with music content. In some cases, these episodes may not appear in the general PrestoCast feed, although they will remain available on the podcaster's own feed.
• Trailer on profile — Each podcaster's page now includes a "Trailer" button that plays the trailer directly, with a visual progress bar that fills during playback.
• Contact form — New contact form accessible from the website footer. Additionally, each podcaster profile now shows a "Send email" button that lets listeners contact the podcaster directly (only if the podcaster has an email configured). Suggested by @materron.

Improved

• Episode scheduling — Improved usability of episode scheduling: scheduled episodes now display a calendar icon and the scheduled date/time clearly, and the episode number is assigned at publication time to avoid gaps in numbering.
• RSS feed descriptions — Episode descriptions in the feed now include a direct link to the episode on the web, so listeners can easily leave text and audio comments. Additionally, formatting has been improved so Apple Podcasts and other podcatchers correctly display line breaks between the description and transcription.
• Quick actions after publishing — After publishing an episode, quick shortcuts now appear to edit the title, description, add a cover image, or set a location — no need to find the episode afterwards. Suggested by @victorcorreal.
• Comment counter — Episodes with comments now display the comment count in listings, with a direct link to the episode.
• Tabbed notifications — Notifications are now organized into three tabs: Comments (comments, replies and reactions), Follows and Mentions. Each tab displays an unread notification counter.
• Telegram account linking — Improved the error message when linking Telegram accounts: now includes a direct link to the @PrestoCastBot bot to simplify the process. Suggested by @esthermorote.
• Simplified documentation — The documentation page (/docs) has been migrated from a translation key system to direct HTML (like the changelog), making it easier to maintain and edit.
• Scheduled episode management — You can now reschedule, publish immediately, or cancel scheduled episodes from the web (3-dot menu) and from the bots with /later list, /later [N] dd/mm/yy hh:mm and /later [N] now.

Fixed

• Silent error on short episodes — Fixed a bug where episodes shorter than 6 seconds failed silently without showing any error message to the user. A clear modal alert is now displayed.

Added

• Automatic password — When registering from Telegram or WhatsApp, a password is automatically generated so you can also log in from the web without extra steps.
• Trailers feed — New RSS feed at /trailers/feed that aggregates all PrestoCast podcasters' trailers. Subscribe from any podcatcher to discover new podcasts.
• Minimum 6-second duration — Episodes must be at least 6 seconds long to prevent accidental publications or unintended messages.

Improved

• Explore search — The /explore page has been redesigned with curated sections (most followed, new podcasters) and a search bar to find podcasters by name or title.
• Apple Podcasts compatibility — RSS feeds now respond correctly to HEAD requests and episodes include byte-range request support, avoiding Apple Podcasts ranking penalties. Thanks to @dmarzal for the help.

Fixed

• Voice comments on web — Recording a voice comment on the web showed a false error message even though the comment was published correctly.
• Editing titles with special characters — Fixed an error that prevented editing titles and descriptions containing quotes or apostrophes from the web. Reported by @miafont.

Added

• "Feeds" tab in settings — New tab with direct access to all three feeds (public podcast, private playlist and global feed) plus a guide explaining what a feed is for new podcasters.
• Feed redirect — If you're moving to another platform, set your new feed URL in settings or with /feed-redirect in the bots. Your feed will return a permanent 301 redirect so your subscribers follow you automatically.
• Autoplay — When an episode finishes, the next one in the list starts automatically with smooth scrolling. Works on the timeline and podcast pages.
• @mention autocomplete — When typing @ in comments, a dropdown appears with user suggestions for easy mentioning.
• Public timeline — The homepage is now accessible to everyone, with the episode timeline visible without login. The informational landing has moved to /about.

Improved

• Account linking — Clearer messages when linking platforms, automatic detection of existing accounts, and email verification when doing /start on Telegram if you already have a web account.
• Private playlist cover — The private playlist now has its own cover image, different from the global feed, to easily distinguish them in your podcatcher.
• Author names in private playlist — Episodes in the private playlist feed now show the podcast name and author in the title. Suggested by @madrillano.
• Modal login — All login buttons now open a modal instead of redirecting to another page.
• Simplified welcome message — The welcome message on Telegram and WhatsApp no longer includes the feed URL, to avoid confusion.

Fixed

• Circular merge protection — Prevents two accounts from merging into each other, which caused an infinite redirect loop. Already merged accounts can no longer initiate a new link.
• "PrestoCast" transcription — The transcription engine (Whisper) now correctly recognizes the platform name, avoiding variants like "Presto Cash".
• Comment counter — The counter showed one extra after posting a comment; now updates correctly without reloading.

Added

• Comment replies — Reply to any comment (text or voice). Replies are shown indented under the original comment, one level deep. The parent comment author receives a notification. Suggested by @victorcorreal.
• Docs: schedule & preview — New tutorials in /docs: how to schedule voice messages from Telegram and how to preview them before sending (Telegram & WhatsApp).

Improved

• Per-episode author in global feed — The /explore/feed now includes <itunes:author> for each episode, so podcatchers show who made each episode.
• Discover → Explore — The discovery page moved from /discover to /explore, consistent with the global feed /explore/feed. The old URL redirects automatically.
• "Following" tab prioritized — If you follow 5 or more users, the "Following" tab becomes the default on the home page, so you see your favorite podcasts first.
• Consistent feed URLs — Private listening playlists now use /{username}/feed/{token}, consistent with the public feed /{username}/feed. Old URLs (/feed/{token}) still work via redirect.
• Comment rate limit feedback — If you exceed the comment limit, you now see an explanatory message instead of a silent error.
• Bot account login guidance — If you try to register or log in with a username created from Telegram or WhatsApp (no password), you now see a message guiding you to link your account with /link.
• One episode per user in "All" — The "All" tab on the home page now shows only the latest episode from each user, so no one monopolizes the timeline. Filtered at the database level for performance.
• Map on Explore — The /explore page now shows a world map with podcasters who have set their location. To appear, set your location in settings or use the /location podcast command on WhatsApp or Telegram.

Added

• Comment reactions — Users can react to episode comments with icons (like, heart, fire, star, etc.). Reactions generate notifications for the comment author.
• Podping integration — Real-time notification to podcast apps when an episode is published or edited. Compatible apps update immediately instead of waiting hours. <podcast:podping> tag in the RSS feed + automatic notification to hub.podcastindex.org. Suggested by @dmarzal.
• @username mentions — Comments detect @username, validate that the user exists, convert it into a clickable profile link, and generate a mention notification for the mentioned user.
• Followers pages — New dedicated pages /{username}/followers and /{username}/following with full user list, avatars and follow/unfollow buttons. Replaces the previous modals. Reported by @dmarzal.

Changed

• Improved location — Approximate coordinates (aprox) for privacy, automatic place name via Nominatim (OpenStreetMap), customizable name and rel attribute (creator/subject) to distinguish between "recorded here" and "about this place". osm and rel attributes in the <podcast:location> RSS feed tag. Suggested by @dmarzal.
• License picker — The /license command now shows selection buttons (inline keyboard on Telegram, list picker on WhatsApp) instead of requiring typing the name. Suggested by @dmarzal.
• RSS button copies to clipboard — The RSS button on podcast profiles now copies the feed URL to the clipboard instead of opening the XML. Suggested by @emilcar.
• Clickable follower links in sidebar — Follower and following counters on all pages (home, profile, episode) are now clickable links to the new dedicated pages.

Fixed

• Web listens in OP3 — Plays from the web player are now correctly counted in OP3 (Open Podcast Prefix Project). Thanks to @emilcar.
• Uncompressed images in Telegram — The bot now accepts images sent as documents (uncompressed) for cover, avatar and episode art. Previously only compressed photo uploads worked. Reported by @dmarzal.
• Delete comments as owner — Podcast owners can now delete any comment on their episodes, not just their own.
• Mobile comments — Fixed 500 error when creating comments from mobile devices (iOS/Safari).

2026.03.15

Added

• Press page — Full press section with quick facts, press release, media kit (logos, colors, screenshot) and featured podcasts. Scroll spy sidebar.
• Press release PDF — Downloadable in English and Spanish from the press page.
• Changelog — This page. Change history grouped by date.

Changed

• Revamped home page — New features section (6 cards) and expanded FAQ from 6 to 11 questions.
• Load more episodes — "Load more" button on profile pages to load additional episodes without reloading the page.
• TXT ai-content tag — Support for the <podcast:txt purpose="ai-content"> tag in the RSS feed, to label AI-generated podcasts. Suggested by @dmarzal.
• Multiple TXT tags — Support for multiple <podcast:txt> tags in the RSS feed with different purposes. Configurable from web, Telegram and WhatsApp.
• Podlink integration — The "Subscribe via RSS" button now links to pod.link, a universal subscribe page that detects your platform and shows available podcast apps. Needed for Android, where there's no native RSS feed handler. Suggested by @dmarzal.
• Private playlist — Renamed "Listening feed" to "Private playlist feed" across the entire platform (web, bots, RSS feed).

2026.03.14

Added

• Web notifications — Notification system for comments and new followers. Badge with counter in the sidebar, /notifications page.
• Audio comments — Listeners can leave voice note comments that are automatically transcribed.
• Transactional email — Resend integration for email verification and notifications for new comments and followers.
• Saved episodes — Favourites system to save episodes, with its own tab in the feed.

2026.03.13

Added

• Episode comments — Text comments on each episode. Visible on the episode page and in the bots.
• Community — Follow podcasters, save episodes and get a personalised feed of the podcasters you follow.
• Episode maps — Leaflet integration to display an interactive map on each episode page with geolocation. Suggested by @paquihouse.

Changed

• Feed and tabs — Improved main feed with tab system (All, Following, Saved).
• Image fallback chain — Episodes show their individual artwork. Fallback chain: episode art → podcast cover → avatar → placeholder.

2026.03.12

Added

• Download statistics — Integration with OP3 (Open Podcast Prefix Project). Monthly downloads, weekly trends, per-episode detail and top apps.
• Episode detail — /stats/episode/{id} page with day 1/3/7/30 downloads and time chart.
• Share on social from Telegram — When publishing an episode from Telegram, an option to share directly on social media is offered.

Changed

• Publication dates — Episode dates are now relative for the first 24 hours (5min ago, 2h ago) and absolute after one day.

2026.03.11

Added

• Individual episode pages — Each episode has its own URL (/{username}/{n}) with player, Open Graph, Twitter Cards and oEmbed.
• Embeddable player — Iframe embed to insert episodes on any website. Includes oEmbed endpoint.

Changed

• WhatsApp audio quality — Improved OGG→M4A conversion for WhatsApp voice notes for better sound fidelity. Reported by @emilcar.

2026.03.10

Added

• Automatic distribution — Auto-registration of the feed on PodcastIndex when the first episode is published. /distribute command in bots.

Changed

• Full RSS feed — Support for <podcast:person>, <podcast:license>, <podcast:location>, <podcast:trailer>, <podcast:podroll> and more Podcasting 2.0 tags.

2026.03.09

Added

• Advanced podcast settings — iTunes category, licence, geolocation, audio trailer, podroll with recommendations. All configurable from bots and web.
• Podcast type — Support for serial and episodic. /type command in bots. Suggested by @emilcar.
• Explicit content — Explicit marking per podcast and per individual episode. /explicit command. Suggested by @paquihouse.

2026.03.08

Added

• Project home page — Landing page for anonymous visitors (what is PrestoCast, how it works) and episode timeline for logged-in users.
• Cover art and avatar — Upload cover art (1400×1400 iTunes) and avatar (400×400 centre-crop). From bots and web.
• Per-episode artwork — Custom image for each individual episode.

2026.03.07

Added

• Account linking — 6-digit temporary code to link Telegram ↔ WhatsApp to the same podcast. Confirmation screen before merge.
• Ghost users — Cross-platform merge system: the secondary account becomes a "ghost" and everything unifies.

2026.03.06

Added

• Web interface — Full web dashboard: record from browser, manage episodes, configure podcast settings.
• Web authentication — Password login (PBKDF2-SHA256), JWT with HTTPOnly cookie. Registration from bots via /web.
• WhatsApp Flow /podcast — 3-step interactive form inside WhatsApp to configure the entire podcast (name, description, category and more).

2026.03.05

Added

• WaveSurfer.js player — Audio player with visual waveform. Peaks pre-computed with ffmpeg (100 points). Two phases: static preplay + real player on click.
• Audio composition — beep.m4a + random ad + raw audio → final M4A episode. Lazy recomposition via /play/{id}.

2026.03.04

Added

• Automatic transcription — Every episode is automatically transcribed with AI. The text is included in the RSS feed description.
• Automatic title — AI-generated title from the transcription. You just talk.

2026.03.03

Added

• RSS feed — Dynamic RSS feed generation for each podcast. Compatible with Apple Podcasts, Spotify and any podcatcher.
• Public profiles — /{username} page with episode list, avatar and feed subscribe button.

2026.03.02

Added

• WhatsApp bot — Publish episodes by sending a voice note on WhatsApp. Interactive menu with list picker, reply buttons and commands.
• i18n — Full internationalisation in English and Spanish. Automatic detection via cookie and Accept-Language header.

2026.03.01

Added

• Legal page — Legal notice, terms of use, privacy policy and cookies. All on one page with scroll spy.
• Meta business verification — Verified WhatsApp Business account for unrestricted messaging.

Changed

• Audio trimming warning — When audio exceeds 60 seconds, the user is warned before trimming. They can confirm to trim or re-record.

2026.02.28

Added

• Supabase — PostgreSQL database with Supabase REST API. Tables: users, posts, follows, podroll, ads, comments, notifications.

Changed

• Google Cloud migration — All infrastructure moved from AWS (Lambda + S3 + CloudFront) to Google Cloud Run + GCS. Deploy with gcloud run deploy.

2026.02.27

Added

• prestocast.com domain — Domain registration, DNS configuration and Google Cloud Run mapping. 301 redirect from presstocast.com (double S).
• Post-publication editing — Full menu after publishing an episode: change title, cover, location, replace audio or delete. From Telegram and WhatsApp.

2026.02.26

Added

• Audio separator — Each episode starts with an audio "beep" marking the beginning of the content. Automatic composition via ffmpeg.

2026.02.25

Added

• Bot commands — First management commands: /start, /list, /delete and /settings.

2026.02.24

Added

• Telegram bot — First version of the bot. Send a voice note and it becomes a podcast episode.

2026.02.23

Added

• Project kickoff — PrestoCast begins as a proof of concept: can you create a podcast by sending a WhatsApp voice note?