With the app and its creators having gone quiet, rumors that it is shutting down are stronger than ever.
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Longtime iOS podcasts app Castro has been down since Friday and its website no longer exists a month after the team behind Castro denied rumors that the app was shutting down. Users started reporting on Friday that they’re unable to download new episodes or access Castro’s website. When The Verge reached out to the contacts that were listed on Castro’s site, all of our emails were returned as undeliverable because the domain could not be found.
A Friday Reddit post is full of replies from people unable to use significant parts of the app, and recent reviews from its listing on the iOS App Store tell the same story. When we downloaded the app to verify, we were unable to connect to Castro’s servers to find shows to listen to.
The app has been visibly on the ropes since at least November, when the app was down for a few days because of a database problem that turned out to be more complicated than the team first expected. That same month, some outlets and blogs reported that Castro’s shutdown was imminent, but Castro managed to get its service back up and running.
Shortly after that, the team posted on X (formerly Twitter) that any communications pertaining to its imminent demise were “unofficial.” The post linked to a December 1st blog that’s no longer directly accessible as its site is now down.
An archived version of the post denied reports that Castro was shutting down, but admitted the company is “seeking a new home for Castro with new owners” after an unspecified number of employee departures. One such rumor came from a former Castro team member, Mohit Mamoria, who posted on November 27th that the app would be “shut down over the next two months.”
Rumors of Castro’s shutdown come as big parts of the podcast industry have been pruned away. Stitcher shut down last year and Spotify recently cut staff and cut high-profile narrative podcasts to focus on cheaper productions.
The Verge reached out to Castro parent company Tiny, but did not receive a response by press time.
