Podcast App or better inbuilt controls

[GeoffA]

Hi I gave up trying to listen to Podcasts on the Ionic about 6 months ago because of the lack of controls, pause stop rewind etc. However I am starting to get into a bit more vigorous exercise and would love to leave the phone behind.

Has there been any update to the numerous requests for a specific podcast player or inbuilt controls. 

Thanks  Geoff

[Rich_Laue]

To my knowledge their has not been any changes for access to the music app while recording an activity. 

Their is a request to be able to move activity recording to the background which will then allow access to the full music controls. 

[GeoffA]

Thanks Rich. I do note that you only state "music" in your reply. And to be honest I didn't even realise that the music controls were not accessible during exercise.

No my annoyance is that especially with podcasts, the in-built app doesn't even remember where it stops. So you either start again or miss the end. No ability to partially fast forward etc. 

All that is needed is a 3rd party approved and functional podcast app.

[Sepulved7a]

The best podcasts, in our opinion, are not simply on-demand radio shows upsers.

[Rich_Laue]

@GeoffA I never mentioned that music controls are not accessible. On the ionic, hold in the left button to bring up basic music controls. Volume, pause, start, forward rewind, skip forward, skip back. What can not be accessed is changing playlists. 

[GeoffA]

Thanks Rich. But again my initial query was not on music. As a legend do you have any ideas about listening to podcasts. 

[Rich_Laue]

Sure, download the unencrypted podcasts to your computer then transfer them to your ionic. 

Your OP was about controlling music while exercising. I assume you meant while the Fitbit is recording the exercise. 

I think your asking about a podcast app, of which their isn't one, for the tracker. 

[Rich_Laue]

What type of running are you recovering from? 

[GeoffA]

Hi Rich I am sure you are trying to help but I never mentioned the word music in the initial request for any information. 

Lets leave it that obviously fitbit have not done anything about making a podcast app. 

[Rich_Laue]

You mentioned podcasts, I assume you are recovering to an audio podcast. Which by nature is the same type of file as a music file. 

I simply explained how one can listen to podcasts through their tracker. Currently the only way is to save the audio file to a computer, then transfer it to the tracker. 

Currently we have a 3+ year old request for a podcast player. With only 142 users who like the idea. This is barely enough votes for the developers to even notice. 

In the past, some ideas have received a thousand votes within 30 days. 

[GeoffA]

Hi Rich

I was going to revert to my phone but I have decided I must be doing something wrong if only 145 people are annoyed about this. 

I can download podcasts to my PC, if necessary convert to mp3 and then load onto my Ionic. All good 

I can play them and they work very well EXCEPT. 

When I stop the podcast AND it is not finished, I can never get back to that spot again. Ionic does not remember where I stopped. On resuming listening I have to go to the start again and say listen to 30 minutes that I listened to the previous time. There are no fast play or timer jogs. 

Is this scenario correct or am I missing something.

Thanks

geoff

[Rich_Laue]

Yes @GeoffA your experieance is a known limitation and why a request for a true podcast player has been suggested. 

Why so few responses, either we don't have many podcast listeners, I like audiobooks, people are not advertising in their sig, or maybe they are not aware of the suggestion. 

Your not missing anything. 

[GeoffA]

Hi Rich

Great to be in sync finally. I too enjoy audiobooks but not when exercising. 

How can we push hard for some sort of improvement to the music player to handle these situations. I am not a programmer but i feel it should be "easy" to at the very minimum get the music app to remember the stop/pause point in an Mp3 

I can only hope and re submit every 6 months or so.

[Asdffgg]

Well here we are in 2021 still with no resolution to this problem.  Fitbit simply doesn't care about its customers. This is not the only issue that fitbit has ignored for years.  And it's way over 145 people believe me.

We need a podcast app for the only watch that fitbit makes that has GPS,  to date.  Fitbit just doesn't care.  We want to download a podcast from our PHONE and go.