How to play podcasts on Apple Watch

Tuesday October 13, 2026 9:54 am EAT by Stacey Butler

Use the Podcasts app to play content from Apple Podcasts. You can play episodes stored locally on your Apple Watch or stream them from your iPhone.

If your watch is near your iPhone or connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, you can stream podcasts, and several Podcasts settings can be changed right on your watch. From the Home screen, you can see the latest episodes of shows you follow.

Here’s how to play podcasts on Apple Watch.

Play a podcast

When your Apple Watch is near your iPhone or connected to a Wi-Fi network, you can stream podcasts to your Apple Watch, and a cellular network works too on Apple Watch models with cellular. Otherwise, Apple Watch can play only downloaded episodes.

Start the Podcasts app on your Apple Watch.
Do any of the following:
- See what’s up next: Turn the Digital Crown to scroll through the Home screen and see the latest episodes of shows you follow.
- Browse your library: Tap the Back button and then tap Library to see shows you follow, saved, or downloaded.
- Search: Tap the Back button, tap Search, and then enter what you’re looking for.
Tap an episode to play it.
Use the playback controls to play, pause, skip forward and backward, adjust the speed, or change the audio destination.

Change Podcasts settings

Right on your Apple Watch, you can change a number of Podcasts settings.

Start the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Tap Podcasts, where you can adjust these settings:
- Up Next: Choose the number of episodes downloaded to your Apple Watch from Up Next when your Apple Watch is syncing.
- Saved: Choose the number of episodes not downloaded from Saved when your Apple Watch is syncing.
- Cellular Downloads: On an Apple Watch with cellular service, choose to allow downloads on a cellular network.
- Continuous Playback: Turn on to play another episode after the current episode ends.
- Skip Buttons: Choose the time interval used when tapping the Skip Forward or Skip Back buttons.
- External Controls: Tap Next/Previous or Forward/Back to choose the behavior of headphone controls.
- Reset Identifier: Reset the identifier used to report aggregate app usage statistics to Apple.