How to search for an episode inside a show in Apple Podcasts on iOS 27, transcripts includedHow to search for an episode inside a show in Apple Podcasts on iOS 27, transcripts included

Apple Podcasts in iOS 27 can search the episodes of a single show, including what is said in them.

The feature sits in the See All Episodes view of any show and searches episode titles, guest names, keywords and words mentioned in an episode's transcript, according to Apple's note for creators on what changed in iOS 27, tvOS 27 and macOS 27. Apple lists it for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro and the Apple Podcasts website. Until now the only way to find an old episode was the app's main search, which looks across every show at once.

How do you search one show's episodes?

• Update to iOS 27, iPadOS 27 or macOS 27.
• Open Podcasts and go to the show's page.
• Tap Episodes at the top of the page, or scroll down and tap See All.
• Type in the search bar at the top of the episode list.
• If you see No results in recent episodes, tap Show All Results to search the whole back catalogue.

Those steps are from iDownloadBlog, which tested the search on The Joe Rogan Experience by typing a guest's name and getting every episode that mentions him, not only those with his name in the title. That is the transcript search at work, and it is the difference between this and a filter on episode titles.

Where the search bar is missing

iDownloadBlog found one limit Apple's note does not mention. A show or season with only a few episodes has no See All link, so there is no list to search. Its example is a show split into 50 short seasons, which can only be searched season by season or from the app's main search. Apple also says some features may not be available in every country or region, without saying which.

What else changed in Podcasts in iOS 27

Apple's note lists four other changes. Video episodes on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro now get read-along transcripts, chapters and links. On the Mac, video episodes are labelled and open straight into video, with full screen and Picture in Picture. The Apple TV app is redesigned around video podcasts and paid subscriptions, with a sidebar and full-screen Now Playing, MacRumors reported from WWDC in June. And text can now be set to the five largest accessibility sizes. Separately, 9to5Mac reports that the iOS 27.2 beta splits Up Next into New Episodes and Continue Playing, a change that is not in the current release.

Our take

Search inside a show sounds like a small fix and is the most useful Podcasts change in iOS 27 for anyone who follows a long-running show. The interesting part is not the search bar but what it searches. Apple has generated transcripts for podcasts since 2024, and until now they were mostly something to read along with. Making them searchable turns every interview show into an index of who said what, which is the thing a listener actually remembers.

It also fits the direction of the rest of the release. Apple is putting real effort into video, chapters and paid subscriptions with video for subscribers, and a back catalogue people can search is what makes old episodes worth paying for.

The weak point is the one iDownloadBlog found. Shows that publish in many short seasons get no list to search, and that is a quirk of how the app builds pages rather than a reason to leave them out. APPDOOK would expect Apple to fix that before it adds anything bigger, because a search that disappears on some shows teaches people not to look for it on any.