In the Listeners area of each feed you'll find a field for the grace period. This sets a number of hours a listener can use their subscribe page after they initially subscribe in a podcast app. It is set to 1 hour by default in all feeds.
The listener can continue listening in their podcast app, but their subscribe page is no longer functional after the grace period ends.
Grace Period Timeline
Listener is added to a feed, which generates an individual link for them.
Listener clicks on their link and then clicks on an app.
The app opens, asking if they'd like to subscribe.
The listener clicks "Subscribe" in the app. This is the moment the grace period starts, once they subscribe in an app.
During the grace period, they can go back to their link, and click on another app and subscribe again.
The grace period ends.
If the listener returns to their link, there will be no buttons for them to click on. They're directed to their app since they've already subscribed.
After the grace period ends, the listener's individual link doesn't show the subscribe buttons for apps, and the listener is directed to their podcast app since they've already subscribed.
If they need to subscribe in another app, or they get a new phone, you can reactivate their subscribe page by following these instructions. The app's buttons will appear again when they refresh or reopen the page. After they subscribe, the grace period will start again.
On the left is what the subscribe page looks like before the grace period ends. Listeners can subscribe in an app of their choice.
The right shows the same page after the grace period ends. There are no more buttons to open podcast apps and subscribe.
When Does the Grace Period Start?
Answer: When the listener clicks "Subscribe" inside a podcast app.
It does NOT start when:
You add them to a feed.
They receive an email inviting them to subscribe.
They open the email.
They click "Start Listening"
They click an app's button.
They listen to an episode in an embeddable player.
Why Have a Grace Period?
The grace period is a balance between security and functionality.
Before the grace period existed in Hello Audio, subscribe pages would be disabled the moment a listener subscribes. This was a huge support lift for our users as they had to re-activate subscribe pages for listeners who accidentally subscribed somewhere they didn't mean to, which happens often. Especially for folks who aren't familiar with podcast listening.
If we never disable the subscribe page, listeners could forward invitation emails at any time to share feeds with others who shouldn't have access to the content.
Giving the listeners a grace period to get the feed in the right place has been a happy balance of lower support while keeping the privacy of the content in place.
What if I Don't Want My Feeds to Have a Grace Period?
You can set the grace period to 0 hours if you'd like the listener's links to not have app buttons the moment they initially subscribe. This was how things used to work, but we found it was a large support lift for our users. Set the grace period to 0 at your own risk.
If you want the buttons to exist for listeners indefinitely, set the grace period to an exceptionally long time like 99999999 hours.