Alongside my VFX work, I’ve been building FluidCast — an iOS and macOS podcast app with a feature I haven’t seen done well anywhere else: AI-powered ad detection and skipping.
Most podcast apps let you set a skip interval. You tap a button, jump forward 30 seconds, and hope you’ve cleared the ad. It’s clunky, and you often skip content you actually wanted to hear. I wanted something smarter.
How the AI Ad Detection Works
FluidCast uses on-device AI — powered by Apple Intelligence — to analyse the audio in real time and detect when an ad segment begins. When it identifies one, it skips forward automatically. No manual tapping, no guessing.
The processing happens entirely on your device, which means no audio is ever sent to a server. It’s fast, private, and works offline.
The main technical constraint is pre-roll ads — segments that play right at the start of an episode, before the AI has enough audio context to act on. Mid-episode ads, which make up the vast majority of podcast advertising, are handled well. It’s a genuine limitation of how on-device audio AI works, and I’ve been transparent about it in the app rather than overpromising.
Other Features Worth Knowing About
- Episode transcripts — Powered by Whisper and Apple’s SpeechTranscriber engine. You can search within any episode.
- Cloud sync — Your queue, playback position, and bookmarks stay in sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
- Apple Watch app — Full playback controls on your wrist, no phone needed if you’re listening on AirPods.
- Advanced queue editing — Drag, reorder, and manage your listening queue the way you actually want to.
Available Now
FluidCast is free to download on iOS and macOS, with a Pro subscription (£2.49/month or £16.99/year) that unlocks the AI features, transcripts, and cloud sync. There’s a one-month free trial.
It’s also available in alpha on Android and Windows if you want to follow along as those platforms mature.
You can find it at fluidcastapp.com or search FluidCast on the App Store.