Do you listen to free, over-the-airwaves, no internet required, FM radio, with your smartphone?
Asked by
LuckyGuy (
43867
)
November 26th, 2018
I have a Motorola Moto X4 and an older Moto G and they both came with an FM Radio app. It is great! You plug in your headphones and the wire acts as an antenna.
Almost all phones have an FM receiver built into their chip set, but it is not enabled in many phones.
I like that I can listen to the radio without using data or bandwidth, or telling Google, Verizon, or my cable company my listening habits.
Also if there were ever a disaster a working, over the air waves, FM radio would enable communication when networks were down.
Do you use this feature?
Does anyone know of an internal AM receiver or an app that will enable it? Can any phone receive National Weather Service radio broadcasts (162.xxx MHz) directly?
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11 Answers
No, I don’t. I understand that they use your headphones (and more specifically the wire to the headphones) as an antenna, and I don’t use headphones.
And I am never far from and FM radio; either in my house or my car.
I never listen to FM radio anymore!!! I’m a HUGE fan of the Blues (sometimes Jazz) & it’s difficult at best to find an FM Blues station. I’ve installed radios in both my cars that have a USB port & I have several Flash Drives filled with my favorite songs that I play when in my car. I also have a special drive for my Android that’s filled with music so I can play what I want to hear…NOT what some DJ has programmed. At home, I have all my music on my hard drive & I listen from my laptop. I can’t remember the last time I even listened to an OTA radio station.
I found that the tuner on the phone is better than the one in my radio sitting on top of my refrigerator. I can connect the two via Bluetooth and play through big radio’s speakers.
No. I have an mp3 player for that.
No. I don’t have a smartphone and didn’t know they could do that. I listen to FM radio on an actual radio.
I would if my phone had an FM receiver. My first Android phone did, but that was years ago.
Before that I used to carry a pocket radio. Today I don’t want carr an extra thing. I have a still-in-the-package Sony SRF-39. I should put it on eBay, I see they go for $40–50.
Yeah. I just got a Moto G6 and the FM radio app was installed. I get better reception on that than on my car.
No, I use my iPod. All my favorite songs, no commercials.
@seawulf575 i agree. The FM tuner in the phone is fantastic. I did a scan for channels and it found 56 stations!!!
@LuckyGuy and they don’t fade in and out nearly as much! It seems to be a strong, steady signal.
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