Hello Yoto Community,
We’re currently seeing an issue where some third-party podcasts no longer play reliably on Yoto players.
Thank you to everyone who has reported this, we know these shows are an important part of your family’s listening.
What’s going on?
Many podcast providers now deliver episodes using more complex online links so they can handle things like analytics and dynamically inserted adverts. This is now affecting some of the popular podcasts played through Yoto players.
Phones and modern podcast apps are designed to cope with these delivery methods, but Yoto players are different: they’re dedicated, embedded audio devices, not general-purpose smartphones. They have stricter limits on how complicated a web link can be.
When a podcast now uses a delivery method that exceeds those limits, playback may fail.
For example, you might see the episode cards rapidly switching between chapters.
What we’re doing about it
Investigating longer-term updates to our software so our players can cope better with modern podcast delivery, and
Reaching out to podcast providers where possible to see if they can offer versions that are more compatible with embedded devices like Yoto.
These changes involve substantial coordination, so they won’t be immediate, but we are working on it.
How you can help
If a specific podcast your family loves no longer works, and especially if it still works on the Yoto App, please contact our Customer Happiness Team.
We really appreciate your patience while we work through this, and we’re sorry for the disruption.
Podcasts that have been restored
These podcasts should now work as normal again:
Activity Quest
Armchair Adventures
Bullfrogs and Lizards – A Kids’ Storytelling Podcast
Bust or Trust
Culture Kids Podcast
Everything Under the Sun
Fun Kids Science Weekly
Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories
My First Podcast
Noodle Loaf - Music Education Podcast for Kids
Sleep Tight Science - A Bedtime Science Show
Smash Boom Best
Story Quest
Story Shed
The Way the World Works: A Tuttle Twins Podcast
The Week Junior Show
Who Smarted? - Educational Podcast for Kids
Current list of incompatible podcasts
These podcasts may still work in your Yoto App, but not on your player:
CBeebies Podcasts (fix in progress)