Marco.org

In the last few Overcast releases, I’ve been optimizing the sync protocol and decreasing the burden of each sync to both sides (my servers and your iPhones). In 2.5.2, we’ll reap some of the benefits with the first version of what I’ve been informally calling “quicksync”.

In short, syncing Overcast between multiple devices — say, an iPhone and an iPad — is now much faster and more accurate, making multi-device usage much more practical and compelling.

Lots of Overcast customers (including me) often play through their iPhone’s built-in speaker (hence the iPhone-speaker optimization in 2.5). With quicksync, I’m now using an old iPad as a semi-stationary Overcast speaker in the kitchen without any issues,¹ saving a lot of my phone’s battery and producing much higher maximum volumes.

I’m controlling some of the timing server-side, and can increase or decrease the sync frequencies and coalescing delays dynamically without issuing an app update. I’ve started out the parameters somewhat conservatively, and if everyone’s devices and the servers hold up well to it (which I expect), I’ll slowly ramp up the speeds over the next few weeks.

If I did everything right, you shouldn’t even notice quicksync — multi-device use will just work better.