The Podcast tool for the Light Phone II is designed around intentionality, providing a super simple interface for streaming or downloading your favorite episodes.
Notes on the Podcasts Tool:
-The phone must be running the LightOS version 102 or later to use this feature.
-Streaming Podcasts using your SIM (no Wifi) will use data. Please make sure your plan supports enough data to avoid any unintended charges.
-Long pressing the Toolbox Menu button while an episode is playing is a quick way to navigate back to the currently playing episode from other parts of the phone.
-There are a few outstanding headphone / bluetooth speaker compatibility issues that we are currently investigating. If you experience an issue, please let us know at support@thelightphone.com so we can look into it. Sorry for the inconvenience if this affects your experience.
Syncing with the Dashboard:
If the device has a reliable internet connection (LTE or Wifi), the podcast itself should show in the Subscribed Podcasts list within a few seconds from following on the Dashboard website. The individual episodes will begin syncing to the main feed ~30 seconds later. This may take several minutes for the episodes of a podcast catalog to fully sync, depending on the size.
NOTE: If you make changes to the dashboard when the phone has no connection or is OFF, the phone will not be made aware of that change until it is turned ON, connected to the service and the dashboard is updated again. You can simply remove, and re-add the Podcasts tool, which will not erase all of your followed podcasts, to reset that connection.
Issues with syncing?
If you make a change on the dashboard and do not see it reflected on your phone, you can always remove and re-add the Podcasts tool, which will not erase all of your followed podcasts, and that reset of the connection will fix any syncing issues.
Downloading Episodes (offline listening):
You can download an episode for offline listening from the Light Phone II itself. Depending on the size of the episode and the connection quality, the download can take up to a few minutes. Once completed, you will see a DOWNLOADED icon next to that episode in your main feed. You can also view only downloaded episodes, and from there you can use EDIT to remove any episodes you no longer need to store.
What about storage?
The Light Phone II currently allocates 1gb of data for audio files to be stored. An average podcast is about ~.75mb/minute. The tool will begin to clear the oldest episodes if you reach your limit automatically.
Which podcasts are available to subscribe to from the Dashboard?
The Light Phone Podcast tool searches the iTunes podcast library, which is one of the most comprehensive libraries of free podcasts available. You can browse some of those podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26
How long are the “playing controls” on the home/lock screen?
The playing controls are displayed on the HOME screen while listening to an episode. The controls will disappear once the episode has completed or if it has been paused for over one minute.