Every so often, I recommend an app that I think belongs on anyone’s iPhone or Apple Watch. Today I’m recommending Overcast, the hands-down best podcast player I’ve ever seen or used. For years, I had used Apple’s podcast player and was relatively happy with it. But as I listened to more podcasts and the syncing got increasingly worse, I looked for another player–and I am so glad I did because of how good it is.

What made me consider Overcast was two of it’s premium features: Smart Speed & Voice Boost. Smart Speed is absolutely amazing, as it dynamically analyzes the audio to determine where there are pauses or periods of silence, then it shortens that space. The result is that, even without adjusting the playback speed, you can speed up a podcast dramatically, literally saving you time but without messing with the voices at all. The effects are amazing and certainly add up. In the 37 weeks since I bought Overcast, it has saved me 29 HOURS of time. That’s nearly one hour a week of saved time. If time is money, even at the minimum wage in my state, that’s worth over $270. The most amazing thing about Smart Speed, though? It saved me that much time…and I never even noticed. It’s that good.

Voice Boost, another of the premium features, is likewise amazing. I’m not an audiophile, but I’ve listened to many podcasts produced somewhat, shall we say, unprofessionally. They are hard to listen to–but Voice Boost cleans up the audio not only so that you can hear it more clearly but, in my experience, you can also accelerate the audio more than you could otherwise. I run most podcasts at 1.6x+ (some at 2x) without losing intelligibility because the audio is simply so clear.

If Apple’s podcast app frustrates you in any way–and even if you’re perfectly happy with it, actually!–you really ought to check out Overcast. It is a beautiful, well-designed universal app for iPhone, iPad, and has been frequently mentioned in my watchscreen series as one of the best Apple Watch apps created. Overcast is free to download and you can unlock Smart Speed and Voice Boost via a $4.99 in-app purchase. It is worth every penny. Check it out in the App Store today!

The Overcast logo, Smart Speed and Voice Boost are trademarks of Overcast Radio, LLC. MarkDMill.com is not affiliated with Overcast in any way nor was paid for this recommendation. See full disclosures.