The PocketCaster App
A very brief history of the now-defunct Pocketcasts desktop app.
Back in October of 2017, I started and successfully built out a now-defunct Chrome standalone app for PocketCasts called PocketCaster. At that time they didn't have a desktop app for Mac, Windows, or Linux. In an effort to build something that I would personally use, I set to learning about how to build a Chrome extension that would provide a desktop-like experience for their web app cross-platform.
The PocketCaster app was born. Shortly before Google removed standalone apps from its App Store it had 4.8 stars and nearly 5,000 downloads. I considered this a great success, but it's end was near.
I had a small glimmer of hope because for a short time in early 2018, they did have a desktop app, but that was quickly discontinued.
With some prompting from a fellow GitHub user, I looked into Electron as an alternative to Chrome for a cross-platform standalone app-like experience.
Now anyone can enjoy the PocketCasts web app fee of their browser and free of charge.