How to listen to radio on Android

You can play the radio on nearly every mobile available. The catch? The antenna is in the earphones so you need them plugged in to listen. Also, reception can be quite bad so expect to hear lots of crackling.
Most Android Smartphones are always connected to the internet either through a mobile connection or wifi. Why not take advantage of this and play the radio through the internet on your Android. I have always wanted to do this but have never found an app which will allow me to seamlessly play all of the main channels I listen to. I purchased XiaaLive a while ago but found that it didn’t include many stations such as BBC so it wasn’t much useful to me.
TuneIn Radio is a free but very well designed radio app. The app has many different ways to search radio stations such as a search bar, genre of music, location and language. Once you have found a channel simply click on it and the station will automatically stream. How easy was that? No messing with earphones or spending valuable listening time trying to tune into the correct radio station.
I might have given you the impression that TuneIn Radio is a great basic app which you can use to listen to the radio. The truth is, TuneIn Radio goes above and beyond that. Here are some of the features that I like the most:

• Schedule – The app lets you read the full radio schedule for each station for the day. This will let you see if anything interesting is coming up and if it is worth staying tuned in.
• Recommendations – The app has a “you may like” feature which displays similar channels to the one you are listening to. This may help you discover new great channels.
• Alarm – The TuneIn Radio guys are geniuses. I think we all like the idea of waking up to the radio, with TuneIn Radio it is possible. The app gives you standard alarm options such as Alarm time, Alarm volume, repetition of Alarm etc.

Pros

• Features – TuneIn Radio has many great features such as the Alarm function and recommendations.
• Good quality stream – The quality of the streams are very good and the radio stations sound great.
• Range of channels – TuneIn Radio has over 40,000 radio stations to choose from.
• Background playing – The app will continue to play the music in the background when the app is closed. This means that you can use your phone for other things such as texting or browsing the web.
• UI – The interface of the app is very good. The app is extremely easy to use and looks great.

Cons

• Buffering – When I was connected via 3g I experienced some buffering. This is expected but it would have been nice to experience a buffer free stream. However, the app lets you choose the stream so you can choose a lower quality stream which will eliminate the buffering.

Conclusion

TuneIn Radio is one of the best quality free Android apps I have seen. The app works extremely well and includes some great features. Its a shame about the buffering but that problem is easily eliminated and is far outweighed by the many advantages of this app. If you want to listen to the radio on your Android then download this app.

Either click the image on the left or scan the image with Barcode Scanner on your Android.