Also "classics" is just the subscribed podcasts without any order and name (it's just a picture and some podcasts don't include any or any meaningful picture at all).

TLDR: Podcast App added a feature as useful as the home screen of an Samsung TV :/

Hi @gom, thanks for the extensive feedback. Let's look at each of your points.

> the KPI of "time of active interaction by customer" is targeted

That was most certainly not the reason our volunteer team initiated this work. The motivation was a) results from user tests indicating it was confusing not to have a central start screen & b) interest of active contributors to navigate the app without any menu. Have a look here to see the discussions: github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaP… & forum.antennapod.org/t/home-sc…

Home screen proposal

To quote @ByteHamster: In my usability studies, users were sometimes confused by the lack of a “home” screen. The home screen would be a sidebar entry like the existing ones (and can therefore be hidden by long-pressing).

^{AntennaPod Forum}

@gom
> Queue shows 2.6 items unless scrolled sideways. 2.6 is too much for just returning to the last episodes played

Why is it too much? (We could display just 1 episode and leave whitespace, but that's not really helpful either.)
The purpose, as explained in our blog post (antennapod.org/blog/2023/05/in…), is to allow users to continue listening to episodes they started but didn't finish yet. These episodes may be spread over the queue, making this compact overview handy for this specific purpose.

Welcome Home! 🏠 Introducing AntennaPod’s new default screen – AntennaPod

Let's show you your new home — one of the main new features in AntennaPod 3.0.

^AntennaPod

@gom
> the last active episode is available at the bottom player overlay. Therefore one item of the 2.6 displayed Queue is redundant.

We have been struggling with this also. The problem: when you press play on an item it would disappear from that row, because it's already in the mini-player. This can lead to unexpected behaviour with episodes dis-/reappearing. See also enhancement request and discussion here: github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaP… (feel free to suggest other solutions).

Don't show currently playing episode under "Continue listening" in home screen · Issue #6445 · AntennaPod/AntennaPod

Checklist I have used the search function for open and closed issues to see if someone else has already submitted the same feature request. I will describe the problem with as much detail as possib...

^GitHub

@gom
> Next is "what's new", 2 items shown, which most of the times is way less than items available

Including the full list would go against the purpose of the Home screen (providing an overview & quick entry points to several screens). Including many very long lists would make the Home screen hard to use. It's a balance we have to strike. Concrete suggestions for tweaking the balance welcome!

@gom
> new downloads should be automated any ways

Remember that this is not the case for everyone: it's a user setting, so it depends on your context.

> If one side scrolls on "what's new" like on Queue, Download items become dismissed.

That can happen indeed. The different patterns stem from their 'parent' screens: inbox has swipe actions that we want to maintain. In other blocks we wanted to give more visual visibility to the episode covers. We trust it's a matter of getting used to.

@gom
> On "Get surprised" it looks like the "Queue" block, but is not scrollable at all, but "classics" is.

It actually is scrollable like the Queue block. Maybe you don't have a large backlog of episodes, and only the few qualifying ones are shown.

@gom
> Also "classics" is just the subscribed podcasts without any order and name (it's just a picture and some podcasts don't include any or any meaningful picture at all).

There is an order actually, based on hours of listening. While some podcasts might not include a meaningful image, that really is a minority. In a large majority of cases displaying a title would be superfluous.

@gom
> TLDR: Podcast App added a feature as useful as the home screen of an Samsung TV :/

This feature has been under active discussion & development for over two years. Many people were involved and gave feedback. But of course it's possible it's not for you. In that case you can, as with many other things in AntennaPod, adjust it to your liking and turn off the Home screen. Simply long-press the side-menu and disable the Home screen. Via the settings you can also change your 'Default page'.

Thanks a lot for the answers!

TIL: Long pressing to change default start screen. This App is love! :)