Dynamic Type

The v2.9.51 update for iOS brings with it full Dynamic Type support 1. Dynamic Type is a feature of iOS that allows you to control the system wide font size by going to Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Larger Text and choosing a size. The largest sizes are unlocked by enabling the Larger Accessibility Sizes.

Downcast supports all of the available sizes up to, and including, the smallest two accessibility sizes. The largest of the accessibility sizes have no additional effect on text in Downcast. This is a compromise that ensures a reasonable visual experience while still allowing for a large range of font sizes.

A new setting was added to Downcast that allows you to choose to match iOS' setting for font size or to select a specific Dynamic Type size category to use in Downcast. The setting is called "Font Size" and is found in Downcast's global settings in the Miscellaneous section.

Playback Speed

Added the 1.75x playback speed that has been mysteriously missing from Downcast for so long. Unfortunately, given the way Downcast currently synchronizes playback speeds, adding this options means that versions of Downcast prior to v2.9.51 will no longer synchronize playback speeds with v2.9.51+. As long as all your devices are running the latest version of Downcast, syncing of playback speeds should remain unaffected.

Images in Show Notes

Downcast has been overly strict about sanitizing show notes. Now, if show notes contain img tags, those images are hidden by default and replaced with a button you can tap to reveal any other images from the same domain.

Similarly, if an episode contained lyrics in its metadata, those lyrics would get appended to the show notes. Usually, these 'lyrics' are just an unstyled version of the show notes and redundant. Now, if lyrics metadata is present, they are hidden by default and a button will be present to allow you to toggle its visibility.

Minimum Required OS

The minimum requirements for Downcast are now iOS 12.4 and macOS 10.13. The minimum watchOS version is unchanged.

  1. Downcast limits the effects of Dynamic Type where necessary. The player view, for example, only applies Dynamic Type to the episode description and show notes at this time. ↩