# FM radio app for Android **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2025, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832 "2025-08-07T21:58:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/1 "2025-08-07T21:58:38Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/2 "2025-08-07T22:02:12Z")
I don’t believe that a chip capable of receiving those radio waves has existed in phones for years. The app was called NextRadio. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/3 "2025-08-07T22:11:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/4 "2025-08-07T22:12:56Z")
Modern phones are so tightly packed that an am antenna just doesn’t fit. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/5 "2025-08-07T22:19:43Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/6 "2025-08-07T22:20:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I don’t believe that a chip capable of receiving those radio waves has existed in phones for years. 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) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/7 "2025-08-07T22:21:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/8 "2025-08-07T22:21:47Z")
Yeah, that sounds about right for a device that might make use of NextRadio. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/9 "2025-08-07T22:35:14Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Since no phone made in nearly the last decade even has a headset jack If that is meant as hyperbole, fine. But if you mean that as a fact, you are extremely wrong. > **[The Best Phones With an Actual Headphone Jack](https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-headphone-jack-phones/)** > > Headphone jacks are endangered, but they’re not gone. Here are our favorite smartphones that still let you plug and play. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/10 "2025-08-07T22:44:43Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/11 "2025-08-08T00:01:10Z")
Ditch the app and upgrade your phone: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/3b/79/1e3b798f7b6ceb968915b26684a0dd06.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/3b/79/1e3b798f7b6ceb968915b26684a0dd06.jpg) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/12 "2025-08-08T13:43:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/13 "2025-08-08T14:27:58Z")
I’ve got that exact one in the closet. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/14 "2025-08-08T14:40:54Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/15 "2025-08-08T15:00:49Z")
I was bitching about this a couple of years ago: > [@Replacement for NextRadio app?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replacement-for-nextradio-app/982590): > > NextRadio is/was an app for interfacing directly with your smartphone’s FM tuner. Unfortunately Google Play Store says that it will not work with Galaxy phone’s current operating system, only older phones. Every single one of the hundreds of other radio apps that I’ve found are all for connecting to streaming radio via wi-fi or plan data. Some of those may or may not have an option for using my phone’s tuner directly when offline- there’s not way to tell beforehand. Every single search for “offl… ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/16 "2025-08-08T15:06:18Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > 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 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. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/17 "2025-08-08T15:39:43Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/18 "2025-08-08T16:01:22Z")
I had the same problem, but tiny over-the-ear speakers solved that problem. I think mine were made by Philips. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/19 "2025-08-08T16:08:26Z")
this is my “solution” … a 3.5 to 3.5mm cable as FM-antennae and streaming via BT or listening through the onboard speakers. [![](https://i.postimg.cc/L8fWwhRj/image.png) ](https://i.postimg.cc/L8fWwhRj/image.png) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832/20 "2025-08-08T16:38:16Z")
Yeah, just because you need a headphone cable doesn’t mean you have to listen over headphones. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fm-radio-app-for-android/1021832.md?page=2)