MediaggChapters, notes and transcripts
What an episode carries besides its audio, and how to read it while it plays.
Open the player and, under the artwork, there is a row of chips: Chapters, Transcript and Notes. A chip only appears when there is something behind it, so the row tells you what this particular episode carries. Tapping the lit chip again returns you to the cover.
Chapters
Chapters are listed with their start times. Tap one to jump to it. The current chapter is highlighted, and the list scrolls it back into view as the episode moves on — unless you are scrolling it yourself, in which case it leaves you alone.
The current chapter's title also appears under the track name in the player, and tapping that opens the list.
Chapters are gathered from up to three places at once — the feed's own chapter tags, a chapter document the feed links to, and tags inside the media file itself. They are merged rather than ranked, so a fuller account from one source fills the gaps in another.
Transcripts
Three formats are read: WebVTT, SubRip and Podcast Index JSON. Where an episode offers more than one, Mediagg prefers the JSON, because it is the only one that names who is speaking.
A transcript with timings follows the audio. The current line is the only one at full strength and the list keeps it just above the middle of the screen. Touch the list and the following stops until your finger has been still for a moment, so you can read ahead without fighting it. Tap any line to jump to that point.
Where speakers are named, the name is shown only when the speaker changes.
A transcript with no timings is shown as a plain block of text to read at your own pace.
Notes
Notes is the publisher's own episode description, as the feed carried it — links included and working.
The notes themselves are not a web page. There is no browser engine behind them, nothing runs, and nothing is fetched, so opening the notes cannot load anything or call home.
A link in them opens inside Mediagg, on a page of its own with the site's name in the bar, so reading what an episode links to does not take you out of the app. Back steps back through the page's own links first, then returns you to where you were. An email address or a phone number still goes to the app that handles it.
A song or a track from a media server has no notes, so the chip is not there. Its own page shows a table of facts about the track instead, and an episode whose page has neither says so: Nothing was written about this one.
A broken transcript costs you the transcript and nothing else. If one will not parse, the episode plays exactly as it would have.