[Mihai Ceuca]

Hello,
I'm starting this thread for all the people, who, like me, have looked and never found a real FM radio Player. Let me explain : I'm looking for app that is a pure FM radio player, that it uses over the air transmission, with the phone's headsets, it is able to fine-tunning, noise-clearing the radio you want to listen, better than the pre-installed one. No paid-, or Spirit1 app-like ( that requiers you to be a fan of android software), no streaming via internet radio ( they are a few millions apps like that on google-store). I have a Samsung GT-I8160.
Thank you for your thoughts,

[DevilInPgh]

I think your phone has to have a built-in tuner. Otherwise, you might have to buy equipment that plugs into the MicroUSB slot.

[Rukbat]

No app can play all the stations in your location (and all the stations in everyone else's location) without having a tunable receiver in each location for each person connected to the app's server. The concept just isn't practically possible. (It would need tens of thousands of receivers, minimum, maybe even into the millions. Bill Gates would probably have trouble finding enough money to fund a project like that. The receivers would have to be located locally to the area [FM signals don't travel far], so renting office space about every 25 miles, completely across the country, would cost a large fortune, before even buying receivers, setting up servers, etc.)

Any "live from where you are" app, FM radio, TV, police scanners, etc., can't work for the same reason - not enough money. Even your cable company can't carry every single TV station in the US live.

[Mihai Ceuca]

Hello, thank for your answer. Yes, it has a built-in tuner. But it is a basic outdated one. I mean, the length of the headsets is bigger then my normal radio's antenna, so should have better reception. But while my house radio plays the local radio ok, on the phone I still get buzzes and no clear reception. So, there are no apps that use the built-in fm receiver to give you quality radio?

[Mihai Ceuca]

Hello, thank you for replying. It has built-in fm receiver and a standard app. But for greater quality, I'm looking for an app that gives the same quality on listening to the local radio as your normal radio in the house that you tune in manually.

[gtcherer]

Of course you should get all or many of the stations in your area if your fm radio is made for the fm freq band in your country. There are different bands in different countries, so expect that your fm band in America won't be the same in Africa or Japan. The headset cord is an antenna roughly equal to the length of a quarter of a wave-length - not optimum, but close enough. The antenna is the most common cause of poor reception, so try a few different headsets. I think the odds are that a new app is not going to improve your reception. Your phone will not likely be as good a radio as one made specifically for that purpose. Just sayin,..

[Gisela Valaria]

In a moment of haste when trying to make room for another app download, I uninstalled the over the air radio app I was quite happy with.

Now I cant find it to re install and I have been searching Google Play for it and I am disgusted by the lack of distinction between REAL RADIO tuners and the apps which feature preselected online radio station frequencies.

Ugh.

I am kicking myself for uninstalling the app I had which worked.

There ARE radio stations which do not webcast, ya know???

And if you have no way of accessing what might be the supposed built-in local FM radio chip which is supposedly in most every cell phone, then you are stuck with carrying an extra electronic device to tune in local broadcasts.

An Am/Fm Radio AND a cell phone.

This stinks.

[belodion]

In a moment of haste when trying to make room for another app download, I uninstalled the over the air radio app I was quite happy with.

Now I cant find it to re install and I have been searching Google Play for it and I am disgusted by the lack of distinction between REAL RADIO tuners and the apps which feature preselected online radio station frequencies.

Ugh.

I am kicking myself for uninstalling the app I had which worked.

There ARE radio stations which do not webcast, ya know???

And if you have no way of accessing what might be the supposed built-in local FM radio chip which is supposedly in most every cell phone, then you are stuck with carrying an extra electronic device to tune in local broadcasts.

An Am/Fm Radio AND a cell phone.

This stinks.

🙋

Worse than that, some carriers disable the FM radio so that you have to use a third-party app and listen using mobile data.

Have you tried looking for the app in the manufacturer's app store, if they have one, rather than the Play Store?

[Phil Newsome]

Just discovered this mobile phone FM topic. Have the AT&T Cameox 5044R that came with FM circuitry and 'radio' app. Worked flawlessly for a week... Last time the app would not launch. Phone has never been dropped or damaged. Hoping for guidance on how to troubleshoot this. Looking for error logs and anything that would help to determine what failed. Any guidance in this regard is appreciated.

[Rukbat]

I'd stop worrying about that app and install NextRadio Free Live FM Radio. It plays the FM radio chip in the phone and, if you're out of range of a station you want to listen to, that streams, it will play live streams.