Using chapters on Apple Podcasts

Discover chapters

Chapters allow listeners to quickly browse and navigate to segments of an episode. When creators support chapters, listeners can find them by:

• Scrubbing the play progress bar to find a chapter on iOS or iPadOS.
• Tapping the Playing Next button on the Now Playing screen. Chapters are available in a list at the top of the screen.
  
• Clicking the Playing Next button located in the top-right corner of Apple Podcasts for macOS.
  

Chapter artwork

Creators can also provide chapter artwork to enrich the listening experience. As listeners progress through an episode with chapter-specific artwork, they will see it displayed on the Now Playing screen and on the Lock Screen on iOS and iPadOS, providing a timely visual supplement to the current interview, conversation, or story.

Support chapters and chapter-specific artwork

Apple Podcasts supports chapters for MP4, MP3, and AAC files. To submit a podcast with chapters, you need to use an RSS feed, which can be done through a hosting provider or by having listeners manually add it to their Library.

RSS hosting Creators, working with a hosting provider with support for this feature, can specify chapters in the header of an MP4 file, or by modifying the ID3 tags of an MP3 or AAC file using third-party tools, such as Ferrite on iOS and iPadOS, Forecast by Overcast, Podcast Chapters on macOS, and Vizzy on the web. If you’re unsure if your hosting provider supports chapters, please reach out to them directly.