This American Life app now available for Android

The folks behind the This American Life radio show have launched a new Android app which offers most of the same features as the iPhone app, but which has a new layout.

Probably the most useful portion of the app is the Radio Shows tab, which lets you stream any of the more than 400 TAL episodes that have aired since the show first went on the air in 1996. You can also click the “By Contributor” tab to find a list of stories sorted by This American Life contributors.

There’s a “favorites” tab that lets you get to your favorites quickly, or listen to “staff picks.” If you can’t wait until the next episode is ready to go, you can check out the Live Stream tab, which gives you a countdown until the next episode goes out live from WBEZ.

There’s also an Extras section where you can see audio and video clips and a More section where you can find local public radio stations, read the blog, and find other information.

Probably the most disappointing portion of the app is the TV Shows section, which basically consists of a list of episodes, links to promos for those episodes on YouTube, and links to purchase the episodes on DVD. There are a few video extras from some of the episodes, but they’re scattered about and tough to find.

Most of the content available in the This American Life app is accessible from the TAL web site, but the mobile apps for Android and iOS make it much easier to listen to shows on the go without going through the trouble of subscribing to the podcast and downloading and saving each episode one at a time. On the other hand, you need an internet connection to use the app, so ther’es something to be said for just subscribing to the podcast.

This American Life for Android is available from the Android Market for $2.99. That’s the same price as the iPhone app.

You can find more screenshots after the break.

via reddit