Bumpers for iOS takes all the hassle out of podcasting on the go

If you’ve ever tried recording a podcast – whether at home, in a studio or on your phone – you know how much work it takes to get it right. Between scripting your episode, recording a clean take and adding music and segues, it can be quite a task to pull off on your own.

That’s why I was excited to try Bumpers. This new iOS app makes it dead-simple to record a podcast with no additional hardware, while allowing you to achieve pretty decent results. Its unique interface makes editing a breeze, so you can publish your work within minutes of completing your recording.

It’s worth noting, though, that Bumpers doesn’t output audio files for traditional podcasts; instead, it uploads your episodes into its own ecosystem, which has a growing community of listeners and creators. You can always share links to your episodes and embed them on webpages, though – so if you’re not particularly concerned about delivering your work podcast the usual way, this is a great tool to quickly get your episodes out there.

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To get started, all you have to do is hit the record button. Bumpers normalizes the audio automatically and displays the entire recording as a series of chunks; you can tap these to mute them. That’s an incredibly easy workflow for cutting out ums and ahs, as well as portions that didn’t go so well.

This means you don’t necessarily need a script for a decent episode: If you speak at a moderate pace and leave gaps in between sentences and sections, you can easily find and ditch any bits that don’t sound good.

The app also lets you add music for segues in between sections, as well as loops to accompany your voice. These are awfully easy to work with too: Simply tap a section to add a loop or segue clip and you’re good to go.

When you’re finished, you can add a title and image to describe your episode, and BAM, you’re done. Here’s an episode I put together, with my thoughts on the Nintendo Switch announcement.
https://bumpers.fm/e/b04v2clrai6000vmfip0

That took me just a couple of minutes to edit and upload. My only gripe with the process is that I’d included an ambient music loop behind my voice using the app, which for some reason didn’t take. Hopefully that’s a minor bug that can be easily ironed out.

It’s also worth noting that Bumpers’ community and library of content is still very much in its infancy. As such, there aren’t a ton of creators and I couldn’t even find one that I liked. Plus, the current search function only lets you look up users by their names; you can’t browse categories or topics to find something to listen to.

I’d happily recommend Bumpers to anyone who wants to try out podcasting for the first time. It’d be great to be able to export audio or publish it to a real podcast feed so you can reach a wider audience. Give the free app a go by grabbing it from the App Store.

Oh, and if you’re looking for an Android-based option, check out Anchor. It also offers easy recording options and has a community you can connect with – but bear in mind that it’s designed for two-minute-long episodes only.