BBC Sounds: Radio & Podcasts
August 10, 2024
More About BBC Sounds: Radio & Podcasts
Features include:
‐ Listen live to all BBC Radio stations
‐ Pause and rewind live radio, see past and future station schedules
‐ Download and listen to your shows on the go
‐ Continue listening from where you left off on any device
‐ Autoplay multiple episodes of series or podcasts or all your downloads (optional)
‐ Subscribe to BBC podcasts, mixes and programmes
‐ See the latest episodes from your favourite programmes and podcasts in one handy list
‐ Get personalised recommendations to discover new audio you’ll love
‐ Send music tracks you like to Apple Music and Spotify
‐ Browse by speech and music categories
‐ Sleep Timer
BBC Sounds supports Google Talkback as an accessibility service. In order to use it, you will need to download the Android Accessibility Suite from the Google Play Store.
When using the Android Auto enabled version of BBC Sounds, it is your responsibility to always follow safe driving practices (i.e. don’t be distracted and focus on the road at all times). Comply with all relevant laws, traffic regulations and road signs.
To give you the best experience, this app tracks what you’ve listened to on BBC Sounds and how long you’ve listened to programmes for. It also tracks when you add something to Bookmarks or Subscriptions. By “Allow Personalisation”, you will get personalized recommendations. More information can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/account/about-your-personalisation-settings/.
In addition, the BBC Sounds app uses standard Android app permissions that are defined by the Google Android platform.
The BBC uses cookies and similar technologies to understand how audiences interact with our services, content (such as podcasts and radio) and marketing messages. The categories of personal data processed by our data processors include the following:
• IP address to determine which UK city/region you are in, or which country/continent you are in if outside of the UK
• Activity data, such as time when you first used this app and programmes you listened to and interacted with
• Your device information, such as device type and OS version
For Android devices, the following personal data is also processed:
• Which sites referred you to download and use this app
• Personal data such as unique identifier, BBC Account data, type of campaign seen, social media channel used will be collected. We will aggregate it for reporting purposes
You can “opt out” from our data processor’s tracking by filling the “Forget My Device” form in this link https://www.appsflyer.com/optout
For more information about how and why we use information about you, please visit the BBC Sounds App Privacy Notice. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/about-bbc-sounds-and-our-policies/sounds-app-privacy-notice
To read the BBC’s Privacy Policy go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/privacy/
If you install this app you accept the BBC Terms of Use at http://www.bbc.co.uk/terms/
The app is published by BBC Media AT (BBC Media Applications Technologies Limited) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
Full details of BBC Media AT are available on the Companies House website at: http://data.companieshouse.gov.uk/doc/company/07100235
BBC © 2021
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking: http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/web/links/
Latest Version
2.21.3.22504
August 10, 2024
BBC Media App Technologies
Entertainment
Android
8,076,683
Free
com.bbc.sounds
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User Reviews
ACKY WOTHRY
1 year ago
Some of the issues I once complained of have now disappeared so I'm going it to give it top marks., even though there's several things I'd like to see improved. Make the play order of downloads more customisable. Include some external links or more in in the ap, because some great ideas only work through the BBC website. E.g. the paintings , or the programme's website.
Paul Baxter
1 year ago
Excellent app, can't fault it and the BBC offer a great variety of quality programs. One suggestion for improvement would be to have a feature to allow one to multi-select episodes in the My Sounds latest and program episodes lists to bookmark, rather than having to bookmark episodes individually. Also in the list display a tick next to the episodes that have been bookmarked already.
A Google user
1 year ago
Recently, Sounds - after playing a few podcasts - just will not respond. I can hit 'play' as often as I like but... nada. It is extremely annoying as I like to catch up on R4 in the wee small hours but because of this defect, have to interrupt my listening and reinstall the app. And evthat doesn't always work first time. This has been happening for the past 3 or 4 months. BBC, please read this and act!!
David Sheldon
1 year ago
The content is amazing don't ever stop BBC. I just wish there was a 'mark as played' feature, my subscriotions came to the home screen and more sorting ootuins. Generally more adaptability would be great. Take a look at Pocket Casts as a stellar example. Don't get me wrong the content is 5* but the app could do with work from a user/listener/subscriber point of view.
Paul Warren
1 year ago
It's fine no doubt if used the way they want you to. For me it's a pain as you can't remove items from continue listening list, including the ones that just appear there without even starting on them Also, maybe harder to fix, it would be great to be able to pause and resume listening to a live program without having to worry about when it ends, where at present you often lose it, with it being replaced by what is currently live
David Stocks
1 year ago
I reviewed in 2022. I complained then that the "Latest" feature shows page upon page of programmes I've already listened to. That is still the case. Also, there is no proper history feature. If I'm listening to a series that has not finished, the only way to catch the next episode is to record the name and searfor it. Useless when there are many different series that I'm listening to. In opening the app, I'm shown dozens of "latest" episodes of NewsCast, not my recent listening.
Trevor Lawson
1 year ago
With Android auto the app has become glitchy again. Issues are: forgets which station you were listening too between journeys; offers up the same downloaded podcast, that has already been listened to, rather than the next one in the list - every time I start Auto; repeatedly says "Service is unavailable", so have to go all the way back up the start to select a station or podcast; still shows stations as a scrolling list rather than easy buttons or in most used order.
Mark
1 year ago
Nice app but would be good if could use as my main podcast app and subscribe to other podcasts outside of BBC. Also odd bug that's been happening for months now where if you listen to episode to end an then close app, when you reopen app it marks that one back to unplayed. If you don't listen to it all it's fine. Always have to make sure I play a few secs of something else after I listen to a subscribed episode to stop this.
Dave Lennon-Copeland (Flickering State)
1 year ago
Well, the new update has crippled this app on my Android phone. All it does now is stall at the start page, the one that is black with the BBC Sounds logo. So much for the so called small bug fixes... They completely mucked it up; it's pathetic. 😡 Additionally, I've reinstalled it 3 times, cleared cache and all that, restarted my phone for the updated app to stall at the start page... Why Devs HAVE to "fix" stuff that works fine is beyond reason.
Richard Coe
1 year ago
Something has happened over the last week, meaning the sounds app doesn't work on my android phone. Started with not being able to clear a part listened to program. I uninstalled and reinstalled and rebooted phone all to no avail. Now it only gets as far as the face page then stalls. I also can't get BBC news app to work.
Joe Green
1 year ago
Great but I have one minor gripe. I'm running it on 2 Android phones, one on Android 10, the other on Android 14, listening to Radio 3 live. On the one running 10, the "Track now playing" info scrolls horizontally to show the entire title. On the 14 device it doesn't scroll, so I can't see beyond the first 33-ish characters. It *can* scroll because it does when displaying the programme name. Both devices are running 2.21.3.22504.
Nigel Perry
1 year ago
I resented being forced to move from iplayer radio, but this app is growing on me. I like the instant response of the live streaming, and the ability to rewind to any point in the broadcast. I dislike the seemingly random autoplay function. I also dislike that there is no rewind facility once a live stream has been cast to Chromecast. I wish there were playlists! Edit: lose another star for using large amounts of storage on both internal memory and SD card. Why?
Ian Collin
1 year ago
Great content, unfortunately the app has too many shortcomings to give it 5 stars. For example, when listening to a podcast with multiple episodes you can't guarantee it will automatically play them in the correct order which is very confusing if you don't realise. The worst thing in my experience is the search functionality. If you don't know the name of the item you're looking for (but know something about the content) it won't find it so you end up searching on Google... which does find it
Liz
1 year ago
Found this app useful, even with the functionality niggles. Last week, the app ground to a halt - opened up, nothing would play, rebooted phone, check storage has space (has lots of space). Opened app, the page just stalls and won't load. Reluctant to delete and reinstall, as last time I had to do this, I lost all my subscriptions/bookmarks etc. Took me many weeks to find them again, but only half of what I had. Frustrating....
Me
1 year ago
Chromecast doesn’t work properly. The app keeps forgetting that I'm casting the audio, sound will start playing through my phone's speaker with the sound from the speaker I want to listen to, either ceasing or continuing. If you want to listen to a long programme in parts, often your place will be lost, or it thinks that you have only partially listened to a programme that you have actually completed. This app used to be more reliable.
Steven Owens
1 year ago
It's a good app but as I use this mostly in the car through Android Auto I feel it really needs improved in this area. Being able to continue listening is slightly easier than it used to be but the interface could be a lot better if it was specific, sometimes continue listening keeps the last episode of a series you have already completed. It is also difficult to impossible to find a new series to listen to without first selecting it on your phone, again not great if you mostly use it driving
T M
1 year ago
While BBC has some great content, the app is an irritating experience. It seems designed to promite new entertainment contents more than support dedicated listeners to pick up where they left off. For example, if you want to hear all episodes available in a subscription, you will have to scroll each and every time. I wish I could hide played episodes. I wish it were easier to pick up where I last listened without having to carefuly navigate. Why have inconsistent older when adding new seasons?
Ava Cell
1 year ago
Would love to have full access to their stations and music Playlists. It's maddening to attempt to open content and be met with a prompt that says this isn't available in my area...over and over again. Literally half the app does not work in the states due to copyright laws. My bad for trying to be cool and listen to music from the UK. The half that does work is pretty epic. Check out Dead Ringer for some slamming news updates delivered dressed up as British stand up. 👍
Russell Ericksen
1 year ago
Current version has overall been a positive experience in comparison to previous versions. My main gripe remains the lack of buffering. If you don't have strong connection for 10-15 seconds the show cuts out. So forget it if you're using the subway or pass through an area of bad reception. They should allow 2-3 min of buffering and/or work to allow users outside the UK to download shows.
Nicole Heinzmann
1 year ago
I'm very happy to have so many shows to listen to, especially as I'm in the US and audio dramas and sitcoms aren't really a thing over here. My biggest gripe with this app, however, is the way things are ordered. I can't tell you how many times I've started on the wrong episode of a show because there's no rhyme or reason to the way things are ordered, and also no consistency from show to show. I also wish I could hide episodes once I've finished them. Other than that I do like the app.
