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 “offline” or “no connection” returns apps that allow you to download music from the streaming service and then play them back offline.
I simply cannot believe that NOBODY has written a third-party app for directly connecting to local broadcast radio via my smartphone’s FM tuner. Apparently there might be some for specific phone makes such as Motorola; but not for Samsung. I’ve found some sources that suggest that such an app is included in phones destined to be sold overseas, but not available in the United States. It’s ridiculous that I could listen to broadcast radio on my old Nokia flip phone that I gave up as hopelessly outmoded, but on my modern phone I can’t. Are they deliberately trying to make broadcast radio extinct?
I searched for and downloaded the NextRadio.apk at apkpure.com When installed, it found the f.m. chip which worked very well with wired earphones as the antenna and “output to speaker” selected. This magic happened on a 5 yr old Samsung S767VL, aka J7 crown. Same results with a Motorola XT1920DL, aka moto e5. The app failed to find an f.m. receiver on two 5G capable phones that I tried. Likely due to 5G radio technology requirements for different radio components than the older 3G - 4G transceivers have. (simply said; I believe that when 3G compatibility was dropped, f.m. receivers could no longer be included as a design concession )
Nice article. Since Monetization seems to be the key takeaway, and if their is ever a mandate to incorporate f.m. receivers in phones here, then it makes sense for Verizon, Samsung etc. to buy up some of the existing f.m. stations and sell ads. I still don’t like the idea of a 30 inch antenna on the phone so here’s a solution for that, (I could do this). Modulate part of the 700 Mhz 4G LTE band with f.m. audio and the antenna would be 4.28 inches instead of 30inch, fitting nicely inside the phone case. No data required. I’ll put one together for proof of concept and if it’s no good I’ll go back in by cave