Search by idea, follow a question, or let boxlore suggest what’s next.
Then it stays quiet while you listen. Free, with no app ads and no paywalls.
What’s new · Curious · Calm · Yours · Every feature · Questions · Install · The soul of boxlore · What we track
Read the release notes
🐛 Fixed:
- Playback controls on the lock screen, in notifications and in Samsung's Now Bar show rewind, play and forward in that order, even when nothing is queued next, with a Next episode button beside them when there is.
✨ Highlights:
- Listening history has a new Insights tab: your listening time, top shows, when and where you listen, how much of it is new episodes, and your records.
- Each month, Echo tells the story of your last month of listening: your numbers first, how you listened, your records, and something new to say each time, ready to share.
- Subscriptions has a cleaner look, and making a folder takes a few short steps: pick shows yourself, follow one genre, or let Auto make a folder for every genre.
- Timeline lets you search your listening history, jump to any day and pick up where you left off.
- The Vergecast, Conspiracy Theories, Waveform, Crime Junkie, The Joe Rogan Experience, Rotten Mango and The Daily now have show pages in their own style, with a boxlore "Made for" tag, the latest episode up top and a short moment when you subscribe.
- Show pages can list episodes straight from a show's own feed, keep them for offline viewing, and tell you when boxlore is showing its own episode list instead. Rolling out gradually.
- On New Episodes, swipe right to add an episode to your queue or left to mark it played, and pull down to check for new episodes.
- Listening in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian or Dutch? You can now turn English off in Library settings › Languages, and boxlore then adds English shows to recommendations, search and suggestions only when there aren't enough in your languages.
- Free up space with Clear saved shows in Library settings: it removes the episode lists saved for shows you opened but don't follow.
- Feedback is now a conversation: pick a type, write your message and send, no email needed. The boxlore team's reply shows up in Feedback, Home's Feedback button lights up, and a notification tells you when it arrives if you turn them on.
- Your listening time, longest sessions and where you listened carry over with cloud sync and backups, backups include your whole listening history, and listening on each of your phones counts once.
- Cloud sync keeps your progress, likes, finished episodes and queue in step across all your devices, including ones on older versions of boxlore, and episodes you remove from the queue stay removed everywhere.
- Restoring a library backup keeps your played and liked episodes on the right episodes, and exported OPML files point other apps to each show's own feed.
- Subscriptions remembers whether you chose grid or list, and shows you follow later are added to their genre folder automatically.
- Show pages load more smoothly, with the page's shape appearing right away and clearer messages while episodes load.
- In light mode, the player keeps a light Play icon on a deeper cover colour and uses a soft dark shade of the cover for its text, and its quick-action buttons use cleaner, matching icons.
- On Android 17, the Cast button asks once for permission to find devices on your network. If you'd rather not allow it, it opens Android's own picker, so you can still cast.
- Shared episode links open the right episode for friends on any version of boxlore, even episodes only in a show's own feed, and keep your plays, progress and downloads on the episode you already have.
- Library settings has separate rows for your chart country and your languages, and changing your country keeps your languages.
- After importing your library or picking shows in search, choose whether to see similar shows or go straight to Home, and skip to Home anytime while suggestions load.
- When boxlore needs a quick check that you're a person before Echo can suggest shows, Echo asks for it in its own voice, and the check fits in with the rest of the screen. Fewer phones need it: phones that are slow to confirm they run genuine boxlore now get more time to finish in the background.
- New-episode notifications arrive sooner after a release.
- boxlore asks to send notifications only when you turn them on for a show or finish importing your library, not every time you open Home.
- On Explore, tap the Explore tab again to start searching. From a show or episode you opened in Explore, the first tap takes you back to Explore.
- Every few months, right after you finish an episode, Echo asks how likely you are to recommend boxlore, with one short follow-up question. It never pops up as you open the app, and it uses your theme's colours.
- Shows whose feed stopped working or moved to a new address get new episodes and notifications again: boxlore follows the new address, checks the shows you follow after updating, and passes the fix to your other devices through sync.
- New-episode notifications no longer repeat for the same episode when one show's feed misbehaves.
- Turning off episode notifications for an RSS feed stops sharing its feed link from your device. Links already shared stay in earlier public backups.
- Shows that changed their catalog number stay followed once: no more Subscribe button or duplicate follow, and the episodes you played before the change stay played.
- Shows with more than 100 episodes keep progress, history and downloads on their newer episodes, and an episode of one show no longer replaces an episode of another show that uses the same feed.
- Shows no longer list the same episode more than once after refreshing.
- Hiding completed episodes no longer empties a show's page: boxlore keeps loading until it finds episodes you haven't finished, and tells you when you've finished them all.
- On foldables and tablets, and when Android closes boxlore in the background, a show's search, open dialogs and selected episodes stay where you left them.
- The Subscribe button on a show's page no longer stays stuck in its pressed shape after you tap it.
- Full episodes that a show's feed labels as trailers show as normal episodes and can play next in Smart Queue.
- Episodes you queue from another show, or play from Downloads, appear under the right show in the player, even after you restart boxlore.
- Swiping the mini player aside to dismiss it no longer leaves its shadow behind.
- Downloaded episodes that the Smart Queue adds play from your download.
- boxlore no longer crashes on some tablets and foldables when you scroll to the end of the top row on Home.
- Marquee hero cards with Artwork or App theme cover colours show the cover clearly instead of a dark blur.
- Covers for CBC shows load right away instead of after a long wait.
- Home and Explore keep the picks and trending shows you already see when boxlore can't reach the server.
- Listening insights count every episode you've finished, started or liked, not just recent ones.
- If boxlore can't check Google Play for updates, it offers to open its Play Store page so you can update there.
- Clearing boxlore's data no longer opens a random episode on the next launch.
- On an episode's page, More from shows the show's cover instead of a placeholder, and its header stands out from the episodes below it.
- The prompt to rate boxlore appears only right after you finish an episode, counts only episodes you finish in boxlore on this phone, waits two days after you install or import your library, and doesn't ask twice for the same milestone.
- Search by idea. Describe a topic and get episodes about it, not just shows with that word in the name.
- Lore. Swipe through questions that lead to episodes you’d never have searched for.
- Recommendations. Picks shaped by what you actually listen to, on Home, in Explore and in your queue.
- The boxlore brief. An optional daily news episode, with sources.
- No app ads, no paywalls. Every listening feature is free.
- Pages that follow the show. Show and episode pages take on the colours of the show’s artwork.
- A player that stays out of your way. Sleep timer, chapters, transcripts, and intro and outro skipping.
- Ready before you go offline. Smart Downloads get new episodes onto your phone.
- Classic, Pure, or Material 3? Start from one of three styles, or build your own theme from any colour you like.
- Floating navigation, or a classic bar? And Crisp, Soft or Round lettering.
- Skip the intro? Set where playback starts, and how far each skip goes.
- Tagged Tech, but it’s really Philosophy? Then it’s Philosophy. Give any show you follow your own tag and icon.
- Coming from another app? Import your shows, add any RSS feed by its link, including private ones, and back up everything.
- And much, much more. See every feature.
- Search by idea. Describe a topic and get shows and episodes about it, even when the words don’t match. Misspelled show names still work.
- Recommendations. Matched on boxlore’s servers from what you’ve listened to, liked or finished, then re-ranked on your phone. On Home, in Explore’s For You, and in Smart Queue.
- Home. Daily Mix, Because you like, rows for the time of day, and trending shows.
- Lore. Question cards that each lead to an episode. What you play and skip teaches your taste.
- The boxlore brief. An optional daily news episode with sources, in Global, India, US and UK editions.
- A start that asks first. Answer a few questions and get shows to begin with, or search, pick genres, or import your library.
- Player. Audio and video episodes, 0.5× to 3× speed, and a sleep timer that can stop at the end of the episode.
- Seek and skip. Separate back and forward amounts from 5 to 120 seconds, optional seek buttons on the miniplayer, and intro and outro skipping with per-show overrides.
- Chapters and transcripts. Chapters and transcripts that follow playback, chapters read from show-note timestamps, and both saved with downloads.
- Smart Queue. Keeps something playing: the next episode, unfinished listening, new episodes, then recommendations. Or keep it to the show you’re playing.
- Support a show. A show’s funding links appear as a Support chip on its page.
- Folders. Group shows in folders from 1×1 to 3×3, or let boxlore sort them by genre. Reorder folders and shows however you like.
- Tags and icons. Give any show you follow your own tag and one of 31 icons. Tags become filters at the top of your shows.
- Downloads. Auto-downloads for the shows you choose, and Smart Downloads with episode and storage limits, Wi-Fi and charging options, and auto-delete for played episodes.
- Alerts. Choose which shows send new-episode alerts.
- Any RSS feed. Add a show by its feed link, including private links.
- Themes. Classic, Pure, Material 3 from your wallpaper, or a custom theme from any colour.
- Artwork colours. Show and episode pages can match the show’s artwork, or keep your theme everywhere.
- Layout. Floating or classic navigation, Crisp, Soft or Round lettering, and player layout.
- Android Auto. Browse Home, Library, Downloads and Discover in the car. Playback picks up when you reconnect.
- Google Cast. Play on TVs and speakers, with the player in the app kept in sync.
- Widgets. Now Playing, playback controls, Your Shows and New Episodes.
- Cloud sync. Sign in with an optional account to back up your library and keep it in sync across your devices.
- Full backup. Export your shows, tags, folders, history, likes and settings to a file, and restore them later.
- OPML. Import and export your subscriptions to move between podcast apps.
Always free, with no app ads, no subscriptions and no paywalls.
Is boxlore free?
Yes. No subscriptions, no paywalls, and no app ads. The soul of boxlore explains why it stays that way.
Will I hear ads?
Not from boxlore. Some podcasts include ads their creators put in their own episodes, and those play as part of the show.
How do recommendations work?
boxlore’s servers match episodes to what you’ve listened to recently. Your phone then fine-tunes the order for your playback habits. What we track and why has the details.
Why can’t I find a show that’s exclusive to another app?
boxlore plays public podcasts from the Podcast Index and any RSS feed you add. Platform exclusives aren’t published openly, so they aren’t here.
Can I add a private or paid feed?
Yes, if the feed has its own private link. Go to Settings → Library and add it. Feeds that need a separate username and password aren’t supported yet, and new-episode alerts should stay off for private feeds.
Can I sync between phones?
Yes. Sign in with an optional account to back up your library and keep it in sync across your devices. boxlore works fully without one.
Can I bring my shows from another app?
Yes. Import a subscription file (OPML) when you start, or later from Settings. You can export your subscriptions or a full backup at any time.
Is boxlore open source?
The Android app is source-available under the PolyForm Strict License 1.0.0: you can read the code and run it for personal, noncommercial use, but not redistribute it. The servers behind search and recommendations are private.
- Google Play is the recommended install.
- GitHub Releases has the latest APK for sideloading.
- Obtainium adds boxlore with automatic update tracking.
Android may ask you to allow installation from your browser or file manager when sideloading. boxlore needs Android 12 or later.
Report a bug · Share an idea · View the roadmap · The soul of boxlore · What we track
Ideas from listeners shape the roadmap. If something breaks or feels missing, tell us.
The boxlore Android app is source-available under the PolyForm Strict License 1.0.0. The servers behind search and recommendations are private.