P3
Privacy Preserving Playback
When you press play, most apps silently route your request through a chain of third-party tracking servers — companies that log your IP address, what you listen to, when you listen, and how long you stay.
P3 cuts them out.
With P3 enabled, YourPods strips away those hidden middlemen and connects you directly to the audio.
What's happening without P3.
Podcast episode URLs are rarely direct links to audio files. A typical episode URL passes through multiple layers before reaching the actual audio.
What P3 does.
Once you switch it on, P3 runs entirely on your device. Before YourPods plays or downloads an episode, it performs three steps — automatically, in the background.
Strips Tracking Redirects
Recognizes a tracking service by its host, then finds the real audio URL inside the path and strips everything in front of it — so a tracker that changes its URL shape still gets caught.
Removes Attribution Parameters
Cleans UTM query parameters and other attribution tags that identify where traffic comes from and how you found the episode.
Connects Directly
Your device connects straight to the podcast's audio host. The tracking companies never see your request. They don't know you exist.
How it works.
P3 is a tracking blocker, not an ad blocker. It removes the analytics and fingerprinting redirects from episode URLs — your device still connects to the podcast's audio server exactly as intended.
Streaming Proxy.
P3 strips the trackers on your device, free and on every platform. The Streaming Proxy goes one step further in the YourPods Pro web player — it routes your audio through YourPods servers, so the podcast's CDN never sees your IP address, your browser, or your location. Just our server, requesting audio on your behalf.
Proxy Playback
Route audio streams through YourPods servers while you listen in the browser. The podcast CDN sees our server — not your IP address, not your browser, not your location.
Proxy Downloads
Download episodes in the web player through the same relay. The file arrives on your device without the hosting provider ever knowing who requested it.
Per-Podcast Granularity
Set each podcast to Always On, Always Off, or Default. Global settings apply everywhere — per-podcast overrides give you fine-grained control.
Usage & Limits
The Streaming Proxy is part of a YourPods Pro subscription. Each unique episode counts as one use, regardless of how many times you play, pause, or seek within that episode. Your quota resets on the first of each month (UTC).
Track your usage in Settings or at account.yourpods.app. When you reach the limit, playback gracefully falls back to a direct connection — no interruptions, no errors. The proxy is a web-player feature; the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Watch apps always connect directly.
Under the Hood
For the security-minded and the source-code curious.
The proxy relays audio bytes directly to your browser using streaming I/O. Nothing is cached, stored, or written to disk on our servers. The CDN receives requests from our server IP with user agent YourPods.app/1.0 — your real IP, browser, and cookies are never forwarded.
What it blocks.
P3 recognizes and strips known tracking prefixes — a snapshot of the OPAWG public prefix registry plus a curated supplement, bundled with the app and updated with every release.
Download Analytics
Services that log your IP, device, and listening behavior every time you press play or download an episode.
Host-Based Matching
P3 identifies a tracker by its host rather than one hardcoded path pattern, then locates the real audio URL inside the path — so a service that reshapes its URLs doesn't slip through.
Attribution Tracking
UTM parameters and campaign tags appended to any URL — stripped automatically so your listening can't be traced back to a source.
What it doesn't do.
Doesn't block ads
P3 is a tracking blocker, not an ad blocker. Host-read ads are part of the audio file itself, and dynamic ad-insertion hosts serve the episode audio themselves — so P3 passes those URLs through untouched rather than risk playing something that isn't your episode.
Doesn't phone home
The URL stripping logic runs locally using a bundled list of known domains. No network requests are made to check URLs. Ever.
Doesn't log what you listen to
P3 processes URLs entirely on your device. Your listening habits remain yours alone.
You're in control.
P3 is designed to get out of your way — but when you need to adjust it, everything is one tap away.
Global Toggle
One switch in Settings turns P3 on or off for all podcasts. Turn it on once and every episode you play or download goes through the direct route.
Support Your Favorites
Podcast creators rely on download metrics to measure their audience and earn revenue. If you want to support a specific show's data collection, just disable P3 for that podcast — your choice, per show.
Syncs Across Devices
Settings sync — including your P3 preference — is part of YourPods Pro. On every other setup P3 stays device-local: set it once per device and it sticks, with no account required.
Why we built P3.
We believe podcast listeners have the right to choose whether they're tracked. Most podcast apps silently pass your requests through multiple tracking servers before you hear a single second of audio. You never consented to this.
P3 gives you that choice. It's off by default, fully opt-in, and can be controlled per-podcast — because we also respect that creators depend on audience metrics. We're not making a judgment call for you. We're giving you the switch.
P3 processes URLs entirely on your device, with no account and no network lookups. The Streaming Proxy — a YourPods Pro feature in the web player — relays audio through our servers without storing, caching, or logging what you listen to. In both modes, your listening habits remain yours alone.
Take control of your playback.
P3 is free in YourPods — no account, no subscription, on every Apple platform. The Streaming Proxy is a YourPods Pro feature in the web player, in feature preview at 25 episodes per month.