Why are Apple Podcasts playing a random show by default when the current podcast ends?

Groundskeeper_Willy wrote:

I tried PocketCast but was turned off by the Subscription fee. Almost everything in the Apple Store has sub fees, so I steer clear of that.

You don't have to pay a subscription fee to use Pocket Casts. You only have to pay if you want additional features. I don't pay anything. And no ads.

Groundskeeper_Willy wrote:

Apple, please change how the Up Next feature works.

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

If you don't like Apple's Podcast app, consider one of the many others available in the App Store. I've been using PocketCast for years and really love it.

I completely agree with you. I can’t stand the up next feature, and found this thread while searching if I could obliterate it from the app. If you have a queue, it plays the queue. If you don’t it plays from this randomized list that makes no sense.

Sometimes when I go into a Show and hit play, the app will populate my queue with nothing but that Show…because what I want is to KEEP LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST. But other times it refuses to do so, and will just revert to the list it feels I will enjoy. If it’s learning my preferences with machine learning it’s been wrong 100% of the time.

Brunnjon wrote:

If it’s learning my preferences with machine learning it’s been wrong 100% of the time.

There is no indication that Apple has introduced machine learning in that manner.