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Original poster

Is it just me or is the bbc sounds app a bit shit?

118 replies

museumum · 18/09/2019 14:13

So BBC’s radio app is going and we must switch to sounds. Hmmm ok.
But it’s crap. I can never find what I want, downloading is almost impossible (still haven’t found a programme with a download symbol) and why can’t I find the podcasts I follow? I’m going back to my apple podcast app.
Anyone else?
What am I missing? BBC should know what they’re doing with app design really.

OP posts:
LolaSmiles · 29/09/2019 20:19

I also hate it.

I dislike the fact that after playing some things I actually want to listen to suddenly I'm subjected to 5/10 minute sound bites of radio 1 doing something apparently funny.

Has anyone managed to find a way to stack up podcasts that I WANT to listen to in an "up next" queue rather than having to accept whatever sounds has decided I want to listen to (which 60% of the time isn't what interests me)?

Radio4andChocolate · 29/09/2019 20:22

Ha ha, just as I came on here to mouth off about how dire Sounds is, it asked me to leave a review in the app store. Certainly I will, and it won't be complimentary.

RosamundGarth · 29/09/2019 20:23

I've always used the iplayer radio website (while working from home) which turned into Sounds last year. My standard approach now is to click Schedules, open two tabs, one for Radio4 and one for Radio4 Extra (because there is no button to swap from one channel's schedule to the next) and work backwards through them looking for quizzes and drama because I can't bloody find them any other way. If they ever change the Radio 4 quiz slot from 3 pm on a Monday, I'm sunk.

This seems to result in less of "you have just finished listening to episode 16 of Tumambay so we've deduced what you would like next is last Wednesday's news in Welsh".

coconuttelegraph · 29/09/2019 20:24

Tonight, I had to find the Counterpoint quiz by googling it-it was impossible to find on Sounds

Luckily my iplayer radio still works but I have downloaded the sounds app on phone so I did the above test - I typed conterpoint into the search bar and it came up instantly - has it had a majotrupdate in the past couple of days? It couldn't have been easier to find it.

Ostanovka · 29/09/2019 20:24

It's terrible, I can't find anything and it's bright white - I am insomniac and listen all night so that isn't good for me.

Frankiestein402 · 29/09/2019 20:30

Horrid, horrid app - wastes oodles of screen space, doubles power usage on android, constantly having to scroll down past stuff I'd never listen to - when you get to categories - each insist on using an arbitrary classification that you have to scroll through to get the all & latest/most popular sorting

Classic incompetent 'adaptive' design by a team that have obviously never listened to BBC radio output or used the old iplayer - throwing away years of development - I'll bet it was an 'agile' delivery team too.

('agile' was an IT fad that has had its day but has left an awful lot of rubbish implementations to be cleared up.)

C8H10N4O2 · 29/09/2019 20:37

Has anyone managed to find a way to stack up podcasts that I WANT to listen to in an "up next" queue

By not using the sounds app and switching all podcasted items to podcasting software instead. Autodownloads or downloads on request and I can play in order, reverse order or random. And mostly don't get random inserts if shite from other stations.

monkeytennis97 · 29/09/2019 20:43

I don't like it. BBC radio app so much easier to navigate

QuaterMiss · 29/09/2019 20:48

Yeah ... It’s crap.

I stuck to iPlayer as long as it lasted, but now - I hate that stupid orange logo. I hate the slowness and refusal to put things in places that make them easy to find. Why can’t I click once from the front page to see the full day’s schedule for R3 or R4?

Intensely annoying and ill conceived. Angry

Ihatesundays · 29/09/2019 21:00

I found something else I hate - when to the end of the drama episodes you are listening to - it just starts playing something else. Instead of just stopping.

C8H10N4O2 · 29/09/2019 21:29

I found something else I hate - when to the end of the drama episodes you are listening to - it just starts playing something else. Instead of just stopping

You can turn that off in settings - little cog, top right-hand corner. Its annoying that its on by default but that at least is fixable.

HeronLanyon · 29/09/2019 21:49

Reviews on the app sometimes get answers but most usually not. I’ve been moved to do a bit of digging as to who the team is in charge. A newly appointed head (‘controller’) of Sounds took up post in August. Announced as the first controller of sounds - surprising it’s a brand new post given sounds has been in development and running for some time and now mandatory for us all. Might explain things if it’s been slightly rudderless (?) in development ?
Anyway I’m planning a direct bit of feedback to him once I can collect my thoughts and finish the long list of things which make it infuriating and far less user-friendly than radio iplayer.

impostersyndrome · 29/09/2019 22:12

I too miss the iplayer radio app. Why have they inflicted this on us? FWIW I’ve been using Overcast for podcasts for a long while now and it’s truly excellent. Not all BBC output is on a podcast, but still useful for what’s available.

Frankiestein402 · 30/09/2019 10:10

Another annoyance - listening to live radio on mobile - if you are out of coverage (in shop etc) the thing carries on from where it stopped when you get back in coverage - however long - ditto if you stop it by earpiece switch and later switch back on - it does the same thing - meaning you can't switch off to avoid a program / interview (the annoyingly smug and condescending Bragg for instance)

It's supposed to be 'live' radio not 'buffered' radio

Weezol · 30/09/2019 10:19

V grumpy about this. I knew it was coming but the total blackout of Radio iPlayer means I've lost a load of downloaded content.

FiveShelties · 30/09/2019 10:21

It is bad, definitely a step back. Drives me mad trying to find something, especially when listening to a drama broadcast in serial form.

HeronLanyon · 30/09/2019 10:28

weezol my downloads transferred. My ‘listen later’ did also - now named ‘bookmarked’. In fact that’s the one thing which worked well for me.

averythinline · 30/09/2019 10:52

its mainly rubbish...I am a mainly 'speech' listener and the the search is really poor, as is episode listing - most of the time they dont even say what bloody episode it is in the title ...
I listen to drama and dont want to plough through days n days of archers in the list and then some to me random order of things
also listen to sport - but if you search 'test match special' when the cricket is on it takes you to the podcast(day before) ...... not the actual broadcast as obviously you should go via teh radio station icon.....

however it is better at playing the radio stations in the car as seems to connect better and need less better signal than before

v annoying

C8H10N4O2 · 30/09/2019 10:56

my downloads transferred

That's odd because none of mine did and I also had a large number of downloads on iplayer. Did you do anything to activate a transfer?

MissSueFlay · 30/09/2019 11:46

My main beef with it is that the Apple podcasts app automatically downloads new episodes to my phone, and removes them when I've listened to them. Sounds doesn't - I have to manually download and remove episodes.
I don't have an unlimited data package, and I use the tube, so I'm not connected for streaming all the time. I use Apple's podcasts app for that, although I have a feeling they are going to start keeping content exclusive to Sounds before too long...
I did email them with my feedback on it, and like a PP got a response thanking me and saying it would be forwarded to their development team...

MouthyHarpy · 30/09/2019 17:19

You can’t adjust the volume from within the app

You can’t easily move from radio station to radio station

You can’t rely on the Autoplay. It plays weird stuff and out of order

You can’t organise your “Subscriptions “ in any way - they appear quite randomly

The browsing function via genre (eg Comedy, Drama, etc) is not obvious or easy to find

Everything takes more clicks

It works far better as a web page than an app

We’re people really PAID to develop this?

As I said upthread W1 was clearly a documentary.

HeronLanyon · 30/09/2019 17:35

c8h I didn’t knowingly do anything re downloads. I downloaded sounds around three weeks ago. I then spent a few days using it. Then reverted to iplayer as sounds was so frustrating. Then only back to sounds when absolutely no choice. I wonder if I’ve downloaded and updated version of app and earlier versions didn’t carry over downloads ??

SamBeckett · 02/10/2019 00:26

I really dislike bbcsounds too , I loved the radio Iplayer , my commute to and from work is at least a hour each way so I could listen to loads of stuff over a week as well as going to sleep listening to it . Now it takes to long to find what I want . Why do we have to keep telling it what station we want inbetween down loads it is infuriating.

To PP that said the screen is to bright YES !when I listened to it last night i wanted to change the program I had put on ( i had already heard it ) I opened my phone and got so dazzled that I could 'see' the white image for about 20 seconds after I had put my phone down.

Also turning on/ off the auto play is a lot more laborious now

MockersthefeMANist · 04/10/2019 09:50

It's gone. iplayer Radio RIP. The only app I ever loved.

And it was murdered. An innocent 'update' that claimed to be "bug fixes" and it was replaced with a black screen that did not invite but instructed you to "Download BBC Sounds."

Radioplayer UK is a fine substitute.

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.radioplayer

C8H10N4O2 · 05/10/2019 09:16

didn’t knowingly do anything re downloads. I downloaded sounds around three weeks ago. I then spent a few days using it

I wonder if having teh ttwo functioning in parallel made a difference? I test Sounds and uninstalled it some time back so this time i was forced onto Sounds after iPlayer had been blocked.