How do I skip podcast ads and intros?

The popularity of podcasts has inevitably led to slicker production with credits, adverts and theme music. These get repetitive when you binge on episodes of a favourite show, so here’s how to skip podcast ads and intros and get straight to the good stuff.

Why use Pocket Casts to skip podcast ads and intros?

Pocket Casts is my pod-wrangler of choice as its feature list is extremely impressive. Apps are available for Android and iOS and it plays nicely with Alexa, Sonos, Apple Watch, CarPlay and a bunch of other popular platforms. Why am I boring you with this? Because Pocket Casts will sync between different platforms, meaning that we can skip podcast ads and intros across all devices.

How to skip podcast ads and intros with Pocket Casts

We’ll do this on Android, but the process is identical on Apple. Open the Pocket Casts app and click the magnifying glass to search for your favourite shows. Select one and click the settings cog next to the subscribed tick.

Screenshot of Pocket Casts settings cog — Pocket Casts Settings Cog

Pocket Casts boast a fabulous array of options here, including playback speed changes and trimming silence. To skip podcast ads and intros, select Skip first.

Screengrab of Pocket Casts Skip First settings. — Pocket Casts: Setup the skip duration.

Enter a duration in seconds, and click OK. In our example, we’ve trimmed the first nine seconds off BBC’s The Archers (not enough, some may say!), which covers the continuity announcer’s intros. If your favourite show begins with the same 15 seconds of theme-music, then skip first can save a lot of time.

Screenshot of Pocket Casts stats screen — Pocket Casts Stats

Pocket Casts’ stats (gotta love stats) reports that since 2016, its skipping feature has saved me over 40 hours of listening to ads and intros. This really is worth doing.

Pocket Casts can save you more time

This feature is podcast-specific, meaning different limits can be set for all your shows. If you want to save even more time, Pocket Casts allows you to Skip last, and avoid those lengthy standard outros.

Pocket Casts is a versatile podcast player which offers more features, including desktop apps (for Windows and Mac) and cloud storage via its competitively priced Pocket Casts Plus plan. Do give it a whirl.