I have an old motorola celular that I mostly use as FM radio (→ airwaves, not WIFI supported).
the app is not very good. When trying to find a FM radio (airwaves!) app in the google play store, it seems that all are “radio through internet” apps disguised as FM radio apps.
Does anybody have any pointers to an AIRWAVE FM radio? … or is that a type of app too close/deep to the system of the celular to be found in the app stores?
thx for sharing any thoughts!
I don’t believe that a chip capable of receiving those radio waves has existed in phones for years. The app was called NextRadio.
One of the things that killed the FM app was the development of ear buds. The FM app needed some sort of antenna, and the headphone cord worked reasonably well. But wireless buds and headphones eliminated the only practical way to pick up an FM signal.
Theoretically you might be able to cram an AM antenna into a cell phone, but who would care.
Modern phones are so tightly packed that an am antenna just doesn’t fit.
Pre-modern phones didn’t include an internal FM antenna, even when their software-controlled radios could tune the terrestrial FM band. They always required a wired headset be plugged into the headset jack for its leads to function as the FM antenna.
Since no phone made in nearly the last decade even has a headset jack, this can be considered a totally lost capability.
well, you ain’t ‘xactly wrong … IIRC its a 2016ish phone …
(which will also limit what I can install from the app store, I am afraid)
What version of Android are we talking about in this 9-year-old phone?
FWIW, my recollection is that almost every FM tuner app was included with the phone, not installed from the store.
Yeah, that sounds about right for a device that might make use of NextRadio.
If that is meant as hyperbole, fine. But if you mean that as a fact, you are extremely wrong.
My phone is a Motorola Stylus 2022 edition. I just now tried the built-in FM app for the first time. It picked up 37 stations. (I don’t even listen to radio on radios anymore. Several more religious stations than there used to be.) The app seems decent enough. Bare-boned, but it has a record function, which the last app I used didn’t.
Local radio has really changed in the years that I havent been listening. Back then, the only religious stations were on the left of the dial, below around 90 MHz. Now eight of the local stations were Christian music or preaching, spread across the dial.
Ditch the app and upgrade your phone:
Stranger
Back when I was in cell phone design and such, we were taught that FM radio was a must-have feature in some large countries (I believe India was one of them), but a novelty here in the states. I haven’t worked for a cell phone company for almost 15 years, so that may have changed. Back in the day we were using a combined wifi/bt/fm chip, although we may not have tested (and thus not enabled) the fm path on US targeted phones.
None of which particularly helps the OP, of course.
I’ve got that exact one in the closet.
Well, break it out, my good man, and start sporting it on a belt pouch, or better on a sling strap. If you wear an iridescent blue short-sleeved shirt with a crew collar, someone might even think you are cosplaying Dr. McCoy from Star Trek!
Stranger
I was bitching about this a couple of years ago:
It’s still the case in some regions like India and LATAM. We still make some Moto G’s with a headset jack and an FM tuner for this reason. Lots of regions still have spotty coverage or expensive data rates.
Yeah, I used to have a phone with an FM radio built in, but I don’t wear ear buds (I find them hideously uncomfortable, probably due to having to wear ear plugs swimming after getting ear infections as a kid – so lots of pressure in an already-sore ear) and so it never worked.
I had the same problem, but tiny over-the-ear speakers solved that problem. I think mine were made by Philips.
this is my “solution” … a 3.5 to 3.5mm cable as FM-antennae and streaming via BT or listening through the onboard speakers.
Yeah, just because you need a headphone cable doesn’t mean you have to listen over headphones.