# AntennaPod

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/antennapod/

12 people recommended AntennaPod in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 12 months, in 12 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source Android podcast app that people call an excellent player; some with mixed feelings find its polish and defaults behind paid rivals.

Summary written by Claude from the comments below.

## Why people recommend it

- Excellent, well-regarded podcast player (3 comments in the sample): "Antenna Pod is a great podcast player!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172927)) "Antenna Pod is really good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46758212)) "excellent FOSS podcatcher" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47047358))
- Good choice for Android and old phones (2 comments in the sample): "If you're on Android you can use AntennaPod" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49717633)) "Antennapod for podcasts on an old phone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49394807))
- Open-source, Google-free alternative (1 comment in the sample): "Some recent apps I've found that work great and replace google infested stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47483927))

## What people warn about

- Lacks UX polish and defaults (1 comment in the sample): "AntennaPod is good but it really lacks in UX polish / defaults." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49139001))
- Missing silence clipping and normalising (1 comment in the sample): "but it's missing all the silence clipping and audio normalising features that Pocket Casts has" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49132155))
- Overcast feels nicer to use (1 comment in the sample): "I still think Overcast is nicer to use than Antenna Pod." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755830))
- Hard to get others to switch from Spotify (1 comment in the sample): "trying to get them to use AntennaPod instead of Spotify is a much taller order" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47784756))

## Other podcast apps people recommend

- [Overcast podcast app](https://hackerapproved.com/p/overcast/): 9 recommend, 6 mixed, 3 criticize
- [Apple Podcasts](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-podcasts/): 7 recommend, 3 mixed, 27 criticize
- [Pocket Casts](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pocket-casts/): 6 recommend, 3 mixed, 2 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "AntennaPod", https://hackerapproved.com/p/antennapod/ (12 recommend, 5 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.