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Channel and Podcast Subscriptions

To keep learning from a YouTube channel or podcast, paste a channel, playlist, show, or RSS link into Import from Link on Home. The subscription appears in your library with its episodes. If you already follow many channels on YouTube, you can use the YouTube subscription sync option.

Syncing an episode list does not automatically transcribe every episode. The Updated badge tells you new episodes are available; subtitles are normally generated when you open an episode to study it. For one video or podcast episode, see Import from a Link. To save a transcript as a file, see Subtitle Export.

What This Solves

For many people, learning a language is not a matter of studying one or two episodes — you end up wanting to follow a foreign-language creator, a podcast, or a YouTube channel over the long term. Going back to the original platform to find each update and pasting the link again every time is too much hassle. Aelano’s content sources let you subscribe to a whole channel as a single unit. When new content is published, it appears in your library automatically, with an “Updated” badge to let you know.

Situations where this helps:

  • You are following an English or Japanese podcast and want to study along with it over time
  • You want to keep watching a particular Bilibili creator or YouTube channel
  • You already subscribe to a pile of foreign-language channels on YouTube and want to bring them all over to Aelano at once

What a “Content Source” Is

A content source is how Aelano represents “a channel” in one consistent way. It can be:

  • A YouTube channel or a YouTube playlist
  • A Bilibili collection
  • An Apple Podcasts show
  • A Spotify show
  • An RSS podcast feed
  • A content source featured on Aelano’s Discover page

Once you subscribe, that content source appears in your library as a card, and tapping it shows you every episode under it. When a new episode is published, Aelano pulls it in and the card shows an “Updated” badge.

How to Subscribe to a Content Source

There are four ways — pick the one that matches where your content comes from:

Copy a channel, playlist, collection, or RSS link and paste it into “Import from Link” on the Aelano Home page. If the link is at the channel level (not a single episode), it is subscribed as a content source automatically.

For the details, see Import from a Link.

Option 2: Sync your YouTube subscriptions in one step

If you already subscribe to a good number of foreign-language channels on YouTube, you can sign in with your YouTube account inside Aelano and bring all your subscribed channels over in one step — no pasting links one at a time.

The entry point is the “YouTube Subscriptions” option in the upload panel.

“Paste a link” imports one channel at a time; “sign in and sync” imports all the channels you already subscribe to at once. You can use both.

Option 3: Subscribe from the Discover page

Aelano’s bottom navigation bar has a “Discover” entry with a curated set of content sources, organized by language and topic. When you see something interesting, one tap subscribes it into your library.

This works well for new users who are just getting started and do not know what to study yet.

Option 4: Add an RSS subscription

If you have a standard RSS podcast feed link, you can add it as a subscription directly. RSS is the common format across the podcast industry, and the vast majority of podcast platforms provide one.

How the “Updated” Badge Works

Every content source has two numbers:

  • Total episodes: how many episodes the channel currently has (synced periodically by Aelano)
  • Episodes you have seen: how many it had the last time you opened this content source

When total episodes > episodes you have seen, the card shows an “Updated” badge.

Open the content source and take a look at the list of new episodes (you do not have to actually start studying) and that number is updated, and the badge disappears. The next time there is new content, the badge appears again.

This mechanism only reflects whether there is new content. It does not push you to watch it.

Putting Content Sources in Folders

Content sources can go into your own folders alongside regular transcripts and other folders. For example:

  • Five Japanese podcast subscriptions under a “Japanese podcasts” folder
  • BBC News, BBC Learning English, and other YouTube channels under a “BBC” folder

A content source inside a folder still pulls in new episodes automatically, and the update badge still works as usual.

For how to move things, see Your Library and Folders.

Batch-Transcribe Multiple Episodes from a Content Source

If you have subscribed to a source and want to prepare several episodes at once, select them from the source detail page:

  1. Open the source detail page and go to All Episodes.
  2. Tap the batch-selection button in the top-right corner and select the episodes you want to transcribe.
  3. Tap Start Batch Transcription at the bottom and confirm one subtitle language for the batch.
  4. Watch each episode’s status on the progress page. The queue processes up to three files at the same time.

Batch transcription is a membership feature. Keep the progress page open when possible: returning cancels items that have not been submitted, while items already submitted continue generating subtitles in the background. The progress page shows separate counts for ready, in progress, failed, and cancelled items.

If you want to batch-process audio or video files already on your computer or phone, see the batch-transcription section in Import Local Audio and Video Files.

A Few Practical Tips

  • A new content source does not transcribe its back catalog: after you subscribe, Aelano does not generate subtitles for all of that channel’s past content at once — that would waste your points. When you want to study an episode, open that episode and transcription starts then.
  • Use the YouTube sync to follow many channels at once: if you already subscribe to dozens of foreign-language channels on YouTube, the one-step YouTube sync saves a lot of work compared with pasting links individually.
  • Delete channels you no longer follow: content sources you have not opened in a long time can be deleted to keep your library from getting cluttered. Note that deleting also deletes the transcripts you already downloaded.
  • Use Discover to find new content sources: finding channels yourself can turn into decision paralysis. The content sources under Discover are curated by the platform and organized by language and topic, which makes a good starting point.

Common Questions

Why do I not see an “Updated” badge after subscribing?

For a content source you just subscribed to, Aelano counts all the existing episodes as “already seen”, so there is no badge at first. The badge shows up once the channel actually publishes something new.

Is the number in the “Updated” badge accurate?

There is some delay. Aelano syncs content sources periodically (how often depends on the platform and the source type), so a new item is not necessarily synced the moment it is published on the original platform. Syncing usually happens within a few hours to a day.

My RSS subscription failed to add. Why?

The RSS feed itself may be nonstandard, or the source site may be temporarily unreachable. Try opening the RSS link in a browser first to see whether it works.

Can I subscribe to Spotify exclusives?

No. Spotify exclusive podcasts (content you can only listen to on Spotify) cannot be imported or subscribed to in Aelano for copyright reasons.

Can I rename a channel I subscribed to?

Yes. Long-press the content source card and choose “Rename”. Renaming only affects the title you see; it does not change anything on the original platform.

What happens when I delete a content source?

The content source itself is removed, and the episodes under it that were already transcribed are deleted along with it, including playback history and study records. Aelano asks you to confirm.

Do subscriptions sync across devices?

Yes. Your subscriptions, their folder locations, and their update status all follow your account, so you see the same state whichever device you open.

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