The podcast app on your iPhone will now show a live transcript of the whole episode you’re listening to, just like lyrics do in Apple Music. If I go back and resume this podcast that I’ve been listening to recently, I can now tap the transcript button on the bottom of that ‘Now Playing’ screen—the one in the left-hand corner. Then, you’re going to see real-time text scrolling and lighting up as the speakers are talking. Not only can I see what they’re saying, but I can also hear it. I can actually scroll up and down this text, and if I find a paragraph that I want to jump to, I can simply tap on it, and the podcast will move to that paragraph automatically.

While this is quite cool to have, I find the real value in this feature is being able to search through a transcript to jump to the exact section of the podcast that I want to listen to. For example, this podcast mentions TikTok in America, and I’m interested in hearing more about that. So, I’m going to tap on ‘Search’ and then simply type in the word ‘TikTok.’ It will highlight all the mentions of that phrase or word in the transcript. I can jump between them just like this, and when I find the bit I want to listen to, I can simply tap on it, and it will start playing from that paragraph.

This is a really good way to navigate podcasts, and the ability to search means you can jump to the key part you need to listen to. The only downside I’ve found with this is that it can be quite easy to accidentally lose your place in the podcast and jump to a whole other section by tapping accidentally. However, if you press the three dots on the top of the screen, you can actually select the ‘View Transcript’ button. It will show up as a text file, which you can’t accidentally tap on to jump around. So, it’s a little bit safer, perhaps, if you want to explore what’s being said without losing your place.