Apple is making a minor change to its Apple Podcasts app with iOS 14.5, ditching the “Subscribe” label to one that says “Follow.”
This change reflects language used commonly on social media platforms. Moreover, “Follow” suggests that the podcast is free, while “Subscribe” implies a paid subscription. Especially as Apple moves increasingly into paid subscriptions, this wording alteration is intended to avoid confusion.
The change was noted by Podnews. Its report observes that:
“Tom Webster from Edison Research says 47% of people who don’t currently listen to podcasts think that ‘subscribing’ to a podcast will cost money, describing it as a stone in the shoe of podcasting’s growth run. He tells Podnews: ‘Today, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube are the three most widely used services to play podcasts, and now the word Subscribe means ‘automatically download for free’ in exactly none of them. Podcasters will have no choice but to adapt their language accordingly or risk confusing listeners.'”
Apple isn’t exactly breaking ground here. Spotify, Audible, Stitcher, and Amazon Music all already use “Follow” as a descriptor. Meanwhile, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Castro, and Castbox still use “Subscribe.”
Paid podcasts in Apple’s future?
As an added wrinkle, Apple is currently reported to be considering paid podcasts as an option. A January report suggested that Apple is weighing up a possible for-pay podcast subscription service. This service, which could be thought of as Apple Podcasts+, would be a bit like Apple TV+ or Apple News+. While things are just in the ideas stage right now, this isn’t the first time it has been mooted. In July 2019, Apple was said to be in discussions with podcasters about buying the rights to their shows.
If Apple does launch such a service, it makes it much more straightforward to change this wording now — so that people aren’t confused when “Subscribe” means paid podcasts in one context and free podcasts in another.
Changing the wording of tabs to make things more straightforward to users is something Apple does from time to time. Back in 2014, Apple changed the wording on freemium apps from “Free” to “Get” in the App Store. This was likely done to avoid confusion. There may also have been a legal reason to do it, avoiding possible litigation from users who downloaded ostensibly free apps and then had to shell out for in-app purchases (or, potentially, had their kids make them without their knowledge).
