Although it may sound old to you, the truth is that FM Radio has always been one of the main additions to mobile phones. Formerly, believe it or not, small transistors were sold to carry in your pocket whose sole purpose was to be able to tune in to all those stations arranged around us. And, for years, we can do this with the mobile.
However, the advancement of technology and the passing of time has made it increasingly difficult to find this application on our smartphones. In many models the tool is available, in others, on the other hand, it is completely invisible, since it is ‘capped’. And, finally, in some, there isn’t even one. So … How can we know if a phone has it or not?
Do you usually have FM Radio?
Today there are a large number of phones with capabilities, like the one we are looking for, but the limited information from the manufacturer means that many do not know it. This feature in a phone is not a very requested function since users generally use Internet broadcasts, but being able to listen to it implies less battery and data consumption.
So even though it’s not announced by default, almost all phones released before 2021 can run FM Radio out of the box. Since 2008, almost all mobile phones can use this function using a pair of headphones, since their plug acts as an antenna for the signal from this.
Curiously, one of the manufacturers that has always opted not to eliminate this function is LG, the company that is now closing its telephony division. All the ranges of the brand have the possibility of listening to it without the need for the Internet, as is the case with other smartphones such as Samsung or Huawei.
There is bad news
Unfortunately, a new regulation has been approved, Law 205/2017 that eliminates FM Radio from all devices sold in some regions such as Italy as of January 1, 2021. All smartphones prior to this date will be able to continue using it without problems .
This decision is due to the development of other laws that detail the use of other technological advances such as DAB + technology (digital audio transmission) which improves the results in tunnels, houses and places with poor signal. The downside of this technology is that the thickness of the devices would be increased and, in the end, manufacturers will choose to go ‘the middle way’, eliminate it from their phones.
Although this law is not imposed in Spain, the truth is that manufacturers will keep this new reform in mind for their next models. So if it is already difficult to find mobiles with an integrated station, now the decision not to add FM Radio to the mobile may be easier to make in the manufacture of the devices. More than anything, because instead of having to assemble totally different mobiles for Italy and Spain, they could choose to eliminate it from all smartphones and save space at the same time as spending on the necessary hardware.
Do you or don’t you have a radio?
To find out if your mobile has an FM radio there are a few things we can do, although we will not get the same result with all of them. Therefore, you should try the following alternatives to find out whether or not you have this software built in.
Use the mobile search engine
The fastest thing is to use the application browser that all the customization layers have integrated into their systems. Open the application drawer, slide your finger from the home screen down or up and you will locate all the applications installed on the smartphone. Then write the text ‘radio’ and cross your fingers. If your smartphone supports this technology, you will see the app. If it does not appear, do not despair.
Use NextRadio
If you pretend to listen to the radio with your cell phone , but you can’t find it, you can do one thing. Download the app , place a headset in the context dedicated to it and launch it. If you start listening to any type of broadcast, you will already have it activated through this software. It’s that simple to get using this software. However, for it to work on an Android phone, our device must have the FM receiver chip activated.
Try our site search engine
As we have said before, not all manufacturers report that their smartphone has FM Radio or not . This is where we come into play, who dive through the full specifications of the devices to bring to life the most complete technical sheets of the current landscape.
Among them, in addition to knowing the different types of lenses that a mobile has, the download speed of its modem, the type of screen it has or an indeterminate telephone, we can easily discover if it has or not.
To do this, you just have to go to our Smartphone Comparator. Then, look for your mobile device and go down to its specifications and see whether or not it has this feature among its specifications. To find out if it has the capacity, you just have to look for its LTE modem .
If you don’t have it, maybe you can activate it
Even if you can’t find it, your smartphone probably has a signal receiver built into it. You just need to activate it and so you will have an FM tuner on your mobile. The ability to access this feature comes from the Qualcomm LTE modem in our phones and when a manufacturer prefers not to use it, it is easier to disable the chip than to use completely different modems for their smartphones.
For this reason, it usually depends on the owners of the mobile to unlock the FM radio in some phones that are usually very different or are free or operator. In terms of operators, many of the main ones already provide the opportunity, but if it is free, there are more difficulties.
Unlock the FM tuner
As we have advanced a few lines ago, if you have a compatible mobile device and provider, accessing it on the device is as simple as downloading NextRadio and connecting the wired headphones or a speaker to act as an antenna.
If the app cannot find a compatible chip, the download would be worthless, but if it detects an activated FM chip, you can now start enjoying your favorite stations on your phone.
Download an app
If you do not have the necessary hardware to listen to a current FM station, nor do you have the software integrated into your mobile phone. The truth is that you can always choose to download a tool from Google Play to be able to listen to your favorite stations online. Instead of having to search for them directly in Google to be able to play your favorite station, we recommend you download this totally free application in which you will have a station over the Internet . You just have to install it, and you will not need any additional registration to start using it. So here we leave your link to the Google store:
