Make your podcast and news app with BDK

Turn occasional listeners and readers into paying subscribers. Your publication and podcasts become an iOS and Android app where episodes keep playing with the screen off, new releases arrive as notifications, stories travel through the share sheet and subscriptions sell through store billing. Your audience stays in your app, not in a podcast directory or a social feed.

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Notification permission

Ask listeners about release alerts once they have followed a show, not on first launch.

  • Explain how notifications announce new episodes and stories.
  • Skip the prompt for people who only came to read a story.
  • Link to notification settings from your listening preferences.
Try it in the demo app

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Native audio player

Play episodes in the native player instead of a web player.

  • Play the latest episode from the show page.
  • Offer a narrated version of a story to readers.
  • Show the episode title, show name and artwork in the player.
  • Let listeners pause or stop from your own listening screen.
Try it in the demo app

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Background audio

Keep the episode playing when the listener locks the phone or switches apps.

  • Let a listener answer a message without losing their place.
  • Let listeners follow an interview while walking or driving.
  • Play a narrated story while the phone stays in a pocket.
Try it in the demo app

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Share sheet

Let listeners pass an episode or story to the people they talk to.

  • Share an episode link with the show title.
  • Send a story to a group chat with its headline.
  • Quote a line from a story with a link back to it.
  • Pass a whole show to a friend, not just an episode.
Try it in the demo app

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Push notifications

Bring your audience back when you publish.

  • Announce a new episode to listeners who follow the show.
  • Send a breaking story to every reader at once.
  • Tell readers when a story they follow gets an update.
  • Open the episode or story when the notification is tapped.
Try it in the demo app

Five of 71 native capabilities

The five above are the ones this kind of app leans on most. Every build ships with the whole set. Scroll the strip for the rest.

  • In-app purchases
  • Native transitions
  • Modal sheetsNew
  • Face ID login
  • QR scannerNew
  • Sign in with AppleNew
  • Live locationNew
  • Photo pickerNew
  • Deep linksNew
  • App badgeNew
  • Incoming sharesNew
  • Saved loginNew
  • ContactsNew
  • Health dataNew
  • Voice recorderNew
  • Date-time pickerNew
  • Rating promptNew
  • Tracking promptNew
  • NFC scanNew
  • Push notificationsNew
  • Audio playerNew
  • Share sheetNew

All features are included when you request a build with BDK. See pricing

What you set up

  • Your Apple Developer and Google Play accounts.
  • Your own Firebase project's service-account key and a OneSignal app, for push.
  • Branch or Chottulink, if you want links that open the app.
  • Store products and purchase verification for digital subscriptions.

Where your web app stays in charge

  • Publishing system, catalog, reader logins and access rules stay yours.
  • Web subscriptions stay where allowed; in-app digital sales use store billing where required.
  • Web updates go live without a rebuild when they use capabilities already in the app.
Can audio continue with the screen off?

Yes, through the native player.

Can listeners share an episode?

Yes. Its URL goes to the native share sheet; the listener picks the destination.

Can subscribers restore access on a new phone?

Offer purchase restoration and verify the entitlement in your backend.

Explore next

Create your project, or open the demo app and run the features yourself.

Create your app See the demos View pricing

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