Pinecast changelog

Timecode support in WordPress

Matt — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:28:05 -0000

In the Pinecast WordPress Sync Plugin, adding timecodes to your show notes now links them on your site. For example:

# Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:45 Topics covered
01:21 First topic

In the example show notes above, 00:00, 00:45, and 01:21 will be linked to the corresponding timecodes in the player. This works with both the WordPress built-in player as well as the Pinecast embeddable players.

This functionality is available as of version 2.3.0 of the plugin.

Newly imported shows alert you when a redirect is active

Matt — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:21:28 -0000

For folks bringing their podcast over to Pinecast, we'll now check the feed you've imported from to make sure that it gets redirected properly. When the redirect is active, you'll get an email confirming it. If the redirect does not become active within a few days, you'll get an email reminder.

Updated Podcast Reviews

Matt — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:33:44 -0000

Podcast Reviews has gotten a fresh new look.

Now located under the Communication tab in your podcast dashboard, Podcast Reviews now has a cleaner, simpler interface. We've made it more obvious how to filter reviews, we've made the review list less visually distracting.

We've also added a new Analytics tab:

This new tab shows a numerical overview of your podcast reviews, showing you a breakdown of ratings, how many ratings you've over the past 90 days, a breakdown of which service your reviews are left on, and a map of where the reviews originate from.

Network player

Matt — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:49:06 -0000

The Crew add-on just got a new feature: the network player.

The network player is a variant of our existing playlist player that's available on individual podcasts. This version of the player shows episodes from all of the podcasts in a network. If you run a website for your podcast network, this is a simple way to allow your audience to see what's new—and all it takes is copying and pasting some simple HTML.

The network player has the same limits as the podcast playlist player: 100 recent episodes shown (up to Unlimited when combined with the Hi-Fi or Growth add-ons). And of course, you can customize the colors used.

Listener feedback got an upgrade

Matt — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:21:21 -0000

Listener feedback allows your listeners to leave messages for you. The messages they type are shown on your podcast dashboard. There's also episode-specific feedback URLs which can be included in your show notes as an auto-include.

This feature has been a part of Pinecast for almost a decade. Originally part of the legacy Pro plan, it was moved to the Growth add-on. In recent years, we've added a feedback section to the Tip Jar, allowing your paid listeners to leave feedback for you directly.

Today, we have a few announcements:

More availability

First, we're making listener feedback available to everyone with a Starter subscription. If you're a paid subscriber, you now have access to listener feedback.

Feedback over email

We previously announced @listener.email addresses to protect your privacy. Now, we're announcing @listener.feedback email addresses: every podcast on Pinecast gets its own email for feedback.

If your show's slug is my-show, your listeners will be able to reach out to my-show@listener.feedback with their messages. Those will be collected on your podcast dashboard.

All of the moderation features available with the web-based listener feedback tool are available as part of the email listener feedback tool.

New Growth add-on benefits

Making feedback available to Starter customers takes away one of the perks of the Growth add-on. We didn't forget about you! We're introducing a new Insights tab that offers an report on listener sentiment and offers suggestions on future topics.

Note: this report is generated in part with generative AI.

More configurability

You can now individually enable and disable listener feedback in each place it's available:

On the web
Via email
In the Tip Jar

Improved transcript editor

Matt — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:09:28 -0000

We've shipped some big improvements to the transcript editor! The new UI is simpler to use and far cleaner.

Changes now auto-save, avoiding awkward pauses as you switch from field to field. We'll also make sure the transcript is fully saved before you leave or close the browser tab.
For folks who use screen readers, the change should mean that there are fewer jarring transitions as you move from utterance to utterance.
The text fields for each line of dialog grow vertically as you type rather than getting scroll bars.
If you add a paragraph break into the transcript, we'll show a button to split the line into two.

New Episode page gets cleaned up

Matt — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:19:45 -0000

A big focus of our most recent release has been cleanup. The "New Episode" and "Edit Episode" pages are two of the most critical UIs on Pinecast, but neither has gotten an overhaul in a very long time. We've taken time to pick apart the UI visually, and the result is a cleaner look. Here's what you'll see:

You might say "That doesn't look very different!" And you're right! We've put a great deal of energy into making sure it's familiar. Let's talk about what's new.

The fields have more room to breathe

We've spaced out our fields more. This comes with a trade-off: some fields are now below the fold. That's okay! Almost every field that's visible by default is something you should pay attention to, and so we expect you'll scroll down regardless.

The improvement, though, means groups of components like "Episode type", "Season number", and "Episode number" aren't bunched up and/or wrapping on mobile devices.

Scheduling is more obvious

We now have less boilerplate around the "Episode release" section of the form.

There are fewer borders, labels, and explainer text. We've tried to make it more obvious what you're looking at and why it matters, and reduced the amount of visual noise. If you use a screen reader, it should be slightly more intuitive to tab through options.

Artwork and metadata

One of the most common places for folks to get stuck while uploading an episode is at the artwork and metadata step.

This has been one of the most-refined UIs on all of Pinecast. Folks have written in about getting stuck at this step dozens of times in the last decade, and we've made tweaks consistently to help improve the wording and appearance. This is our latest iteration:

We have clearer directions on where to look and what to do.
The option to skip looks less like a call to action and more like an alternative.

We think this is going to eliminate a lot of confusion for users and hopefully make it easier to get started with a new podcast.

Better colors

Matt — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:16:53 -0000

We've gone through all of our UIs with a fine-toothed comb. In the process, we discovered a number of problems, primarily around dark mode. Notably, we found a bunch of colors that were murky or hard to read: as the code shifts, changes were unintentionally made that caused the way our UI looks to drift from what was intended.

A lot has gone into cleaning this up, but the result has had two notable outcomes:

Dark mode is now much more visually pleasant, with many colors being easier on the eyes.
Our UI is more accessible, with far more colors meeting WCAG AA contrast requirements.

Clips ❤️ Transcripts

Matt — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 01:22:55 -0000

Clips and transcripts haven't played nicely with each other up until now. This week, we're starting to roll out transcript support for clips.

What does it mean?

Previously, transcripts were disabled for episodes with clips.

Now, episodes with clips will correctly show transcripts. We do the hard work of getting the transcribed text to have the correct timestamps: when your clips change, we update the transcript to match.

Not only that, clips now support transcription. Transcribe your clips a single time, and the transcripts will be used in any episode where the clip is placed.

Pricing

No costs change. Every two weeks, we'll start including five transcripts up to five minutes for clips with your Starter subscription at no extra cost (ten for Growth add-on subscribers). If you'd like to transcribe more clips than that, you can use transcription credits ($0.03/minute).

Transcripts in WordPress

Matt — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 22:08:05 -0000

On the latest version of the Pinecast WordPress Sync plugin (2.2.0), you can now choose to add your transcripts to your synced posts.

Transcripts can be shown with one of four options, defaulting to off:

A link to the transcript short link page is shown below the player. This requires short links to be enabled for your podcast.
The transcript can be displayed in a collapsible section below the player.
The transcript can be shown inline in the post above the show notes.
The transcript can be shown inline in the post below the show notes.

Email privacy

Matt — Mon, 11 May 2026 12:44:33 -0000

We're starting to roll out a new opt-in feature to protect your privacy. Starting this week, you can opt to replace your email address with a forwarding address in your public feed. This hides your personal email from the public, and replaces it with a sort of "podcast PO box".

Forwarding addresses look like this:

your-show@listener.email

To opt-in, visit your podcast dashboard and click Settings > Email Privacy. Flip the switch to enable the feature.

More details are available in our knowledge base: https://help.pinecast.com/article/196-email-privacy

"Serial" podcast ordering now requires automatic episode numbering

Matt — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 06:02:38 -0000

In the past, Pinecast allowed podcasters to set custom episode numbers on episodes for podcasts set to Serial episode ordering (versus Episodic episode ordering). Serial ordering causes a podcast to show episodes in episode order rather than reverse chronological order. This option was initially added by Apple Podcasts some time ago, but is used by fewer than 10% of podcasts on Pinecast.

The trouble with Serial ordering is that it is not a default feature of podcasts. That is, because it was added many years after podcasts were invented, support in the podcast ecosystem is mixed (but improving).

Rather than simply ordering a show chronologically, Serial ordering displays your show in episode order. For apps that support serial ordering, episodes are shown in the order which their episode numbers appear in, generally ignoring their publish date. Consider these episodes:

Episode 1, published June 1
Episode 2, published January 1
Episode 3, published December 1

A "default" ordered episodic podcast will show these episodes as 3, 1, 2 (reverse chronological order). A "serially" ordered podcast will appear as 1, 2, 3 in an app that supports serial ordering. However, in apps that do not support serial ordering, the same serially ordered podcast will still appear as 3, 1, 2.

This causes a couple of painful problems:

Many people are confused why their episodes appear in an unexpected order when they set an episode number.
Podcasters commonly publish episodes in unusual orders, which leads to many podcast apps appearing "wrong".
Some apps implement serial ordering, but use different behavior than Apple Podcasts for choosing how to order episodes that lack numbers.

Moreover, the "Podcasting 2.0" specification defines similar-but-incompatible RSS tags to Apple's season and episode RSS tags, but does not define a mechanism for changing the ordering of the episodes. There's no universal way to solve this problem that works with every app and covers every use case.

Our solution is "automatic episode numbering" for serial podcasts. With automatic numbering, episodes receive an episode number based on their reverse chronological ordering. The first full episode that was published becomes episode 1, the second becomes episode 2, etc. For shows that already have episode numbers set, the previously-defined episode numbers will persist. New episodes will be numbered based on their publish timestamp after previously-numbered episodes.

The original intention for serial ordering is documented by Apple:

Serial shows are designed to be listened to in sequential order — from the first episode to the last. These include documentaries, investigative reports, scripted dramas, and fictionalized narratives. When you set your show type to serial, episodes are presented in sequential order with the first episode at the top of the show page and the final episode at the bottom.

In the spirit of this, we do just that: the first episode published becomes episode 1, the second becomes episode 2, and so on. We do not believe that this is perfect, but it has a number of compelling benefits:

There's no undefined behavior. You can reason about where an episode will appear in your feed for every listener on every podcast app.
Backdating an episode changes the episode number as you might expect. It would be very unusual for episode 1 to be published after episode 2.
Serial podcasts are "correct by default" in this way. It shouldn't ever take extra effort to make your show appear as you intend.

If you have a show that uses out-of-order episode numbers intentionally or skips episode numbers, we recommend switching from Serial to Episodic ordering. Episodic ordering will continue supporting custom episode numbers indefinitely.

If your show has had incorrect episode numbers set in the past, you can edit them in bulk on a desktop computer by visiting Episodes > Tools > Episode Renumbering.

This is a disruptive change, and we understand that it may change your workflow. If you have questions or concerns, or need help adjusting the order of your episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're glad to help.

Automatic podcast website HTTPS support when using a custom domain name

Matt — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:41:28 -0000

Historically, setting up a custom domain name required you to use Cloudflare to have HTTPS be available on podcast websites. This is no longer necessary: all podcast websites using a custom domain will automatically have HTTPS available.

When setting up a new podcast website, you'll get an email when we've seen that your custom domain name is set up correctly. We'll also send you an email if we discover a problem with your DNS settings.

All analytics are now available in tabular format

Matt — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 05:23:40 -0000

For all analytics charts, you can now switch from "Chart" to "Table" view. This shows you a tabular version of the analytics. If you use a screen reader or just want to see numeric data, this will avoid having to download episode data as a CSV so it can be opened as a spreadsheet.

Immediately release withheld episodes

Matt — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 02:54:36 -0000

Our Clip Insertion feature lets you add clips like ads or cross-promotions to your episodes using clip placeholders. If you create a new episode that includes placeholders, we'll withhold your episode from being published until clip insertion can finish: this prevents your episode from being released without clips being added.

If you need an episode to go out immediately, we now show a banner at the top of the episode Overview tab that lets you publish the episode immediately (without clips). When clip insertion completes, new listens will include the inserted clips.

Podcast website dashboard updates

Matt — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 02:29:58 -0000

We've done some housekeeping on the Site Builder and the podcast dashboard. Podcast website settings have been moved from the Site Builder into the podcast settings tab under a new Podcast Website sub-tab. This combines podcast website settings with the existing "Delete podcast website" tab.

New host and contact handles

Matt — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 20:38:53 -0000

The site builder now lets you set a myriad of new social handles for your Host and Contact pages. The full list now includes:

Email
Twitter
Instagram
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook
URL
LinkedIn
Bluesky

A faster dashboard

Matt — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 20:24:19 -0000

The dashboard received a major upgrade this weekend! We've upgraded almost everything behind the scenes, including the code that pulls data about your podcasts and episodes, as well as the code that turns that data into the interface that you interact with on-screen.

You won't notice much of a difference visually, but we think things will load a little faster and behave more consistently.

Improved WYSIWYG editor

Matt — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 20:17:25 -0000

We've taken time to upgrade our WYSIWYG editor across Pinecast. The old editor was built on some legacy technology, and our replacement for it is built on much more modern foundations.

The new editor is both more responsive and has better accessibility properties. We've also updated the controls to better match other WYSIWYG editors on the web. For example, pasting a URL onto some text will automatically link the text to the URL.

Podcast website season pages

Matt — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 19:49:10 -0000

Pinecast podcast websites now have season pages. These will list off episodes by season.

Season pages are enabled if your podcast has season numbers on the episodes, and you have at least two seasons.

If you haven't customized the layout of your podcast website in the past, you'll automatically see links to each season in the header of your podcast website. If you have customized the layout, you can add season links under the Layout tab in the site builder: you can add a Seasons List module to either the header/footer (under "Header and footer") or above or below your hero section (under "Episode lists" on the Homepage tab).

As always, these pages are fully SEO-optimized and built for performance.