Useragents used by apps and services to query RSS data
This is a list of useragents used by apps and services to query RSS data for podcasts.
It can be used to tag audio files to get better statistics from podcast consumption, since some audio useragents are not able to be changed from the default (AppleCoreMedia, I’m looking at you). This data has been used to discover Tunein’s actual download figures, but are usable for correctly identifying podcast apps in more circumstances than using the audio useragent by itself: particularly for browser-based plays.
It can also be used to feed AAC or Opus files to those that accept those formats without issues, thus saving podcast hosts and listeners significant bandwidth.
If you produce your RSS feed dynamically, you could use this list to add ?_from=[rss-ua-slug] at the end of your audio requests.
This enables logfile analysis to not only use the audio useragent, but also the RSS useragent. In many cases, this allows for significantly better statistics.
Here’s an example of some data using this list; and an example set of RSS feed requests. Notice that for podcast downloads, the number of ‘unknown’ clients is less than 1%.
Caution: there is an iTMS and an itms useragent which appear different. You are advised to use case-sensitive comparisons. We use SELECT slug FROM podcasts-rss-ua WHERE 'iTMS' LIKE BINARY CONCAT('%',pattern,'%') LIMIT 1 - the BINARY portion here makes this query case-sensitive.
Apple Podcasts - directory is Apple’s RSS scraper. This leads to any download from Apple Podcasts on iOS v14.6+, or the Apple Podcasts app on macOS v11.5+.
Apple Podcasts - via app is from earlier versions of Apple Podcasts on iOS or macOS. These older versions consumed the RSS feed directly.
Overcast uses this:
Overcast/1.0 Podcast Sync (123 subscribers; feed-id=456789; +http://overcast.fm/
It follows the best practice for useragents and contain a URL for more information. In this case, it also communicates how many subscribers a feed has.
Podnews uses this:
Mozilla/5.0 +https://podnews.net/bot PodnewsBot/1.0
It contains a link to this article and is clear that, in this case, it’s a bot, not listening app. The presence of Mozilla/5.0 appears to calm nervous sysadmins, but in case you’re worried about being blocked, don’t be: Podnews has no evidence that its bot has been blocked from any service.
More details and best practices here.
There’s only one - /src/rss-ua.json
Each entry must contain the following properties:
pattern (string): a simple unique string to search for.name (string): a humanly-readable name of this serviceslug (string): a domain-like short identifier for this serviceacceptsacc (boolean): this is set to 1 if the podcast player definitely accepts AAC files for all users; 0 otherwise.acceptsopus (boolean): this is set to 1 if the podcast player definitely accepts Opus files for all users; 0 otherwise.reportssubs (boolean): this is set to 1 if the podcast player reports your subscriber count in its user agent string; 0 otherwise.Each entry can contain one of the following properties:
url (string): a website to discover more about this particular service.This list is automatically generated from a MySQL database; pull requests will be accepted though.
AAC files are accepted by almost every podcast player, and can offer lower filesize or enhanced quality. The acceptsaac field is an opinionated one, reflecting the major >1% podcast players and their support for AAC files. Spotify and Deezer specifically do not support AAC. We’ve had some compatibility issues with Castro. The field is set to 1 only if it’s a major podcast player that has been tested specifically for AAC playback.
Opus files are accepted by a minority of podcast players, but work flawlessly in (for example) Chrome on every device except iOS/iPadOS; or any KaiOS device. Opus files play well on Android devices, but aren’t always imported by podcast apps. If the acceptsopus flag is set, you can safely default to an Opus file (typically a third of the MP3 filesize).
Some podcast players, such as Overcast, report the number of subscribers your podcast has on their platform in their user agent string each time they request your feed. This may be useful information if you are interested in tracking subscriber growth across networks/players over time.
If you use a service like Podcast Index which does the RSS scraping for you, consider stamping your audio requests by adding a _from variable at the end of the URL.
As an example, if you run a web service and are unable to change the RSS useragent, amend a call for https://example.com/audio/episode5.mp3 to https://example.com/audio/episode5.mp3?_from=podinfra.net where podinfra.net is your domain.
As another example, if the URL is https://example.com/audio/episode5.mp3?format=35 then change it to https://example.com/audio/episode5.mp3?format=35&_from=podinfra.net