Why iPhones Don't Have A Radio

If you’re switching from Android, you may’ve wondered why its fairly standard FM radio feature isn’t available on Apple's iPhone. And there are a few reasons why, starting with the components.

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[boyo]

It should be considered a safety feature...a radio station may still be able to broadcast when the internet goes down and streaming doesn't work.

[enzmondo]

Interestingly enough, radio tuners were included in iPod as long as you connect EarPods in to act as antenna.

[thebasketballhistorian]

1. Traveling to different cities and experiencing the local stations is half the charm of FM.

2. Everyone already knows and expects FM radio to have lower quality and ads.

In my opinion, Apple just didn't include it because it's free music and they aren't getting a cut on it at all unlike apps or Apple services.

(But personally as an Apple Music user, I would never switch back to FM for any serious music listening.)

[justingalasso]

Fm radio has many benefits too especially when it comes to things like extreme weather and you can't get cell service. In my opinion fm radios should come standard with phones.

[DannyK]

I remember getting an android back in 2012 because FM radio was an important feature to me

[jasond]

Fm tuners are useful. Sadly even newer phones on Android lack it most of the time

[saiprasadbiswal]

This guy is gonna justify each and every unique and absurd decision by Apple 🍎

[X-OR_]

The FCC should require a FM Radio in phone devices. A FM Radio would be necessary in case of a national emergency.

[nemozetbit]

those are some weak reasons for excluding radio from iPhones.
all of them apply to cars as well after all.
may have a tuner and just let the consumer decide if they want to use it or not.
like there were no weather app but it didn't mean people weren't allowed to use other apps to check the weather.

[jonvincentmusic]

The statement that FM is only equivalent to 128Kbit/sec MP3 must be an American thing because it sure isn't the case in the UK, where the FM transmitters have been fed a diet of 14-bit lossless digital audio for about 50 years. Also unlike the US, not all our stations are full of ad breaks because the BBC stations have no ads at all.

[rklanman]

I would never use this EXCEPT I feel like it could be a good safety inclusion somehow to be able to hear emergency/weather alerts. For example, I live in the midwest and turn on our local radio station via internet whenever the tornado sirens go off, but sometimes the internet also goes down in particularly big storms, so ability to access reliable safety information would be nice.

[davcar]

A few years ago I was testing an FM system for a conference, we thought our transmitter was not working properly because there was so much static. I then tried using the FM receiver on my Android phone, and low and behold, all frequencies we where trying came out clean. If it weren't for my Android phone we never would have cought that the problem was the receivers they sent us.

[Jayden-lrmm]

It is quite interesting and astonishing of the fact of where iPhones don’t have a radio as in prior to having it being in the older iPhones before the 7

[devart]

By the signal reception logic, Apple should have removed the carrier network, wifi and Bluetooth features, because above mentioned radios (carrier network, WiFi and Bluetooth) can be out of range many times in a day...😁

[mrtechthisout]

One day, Apple will add FM radio to their phones and release it as a game changing feature. And people will go wild about it. Just like how they just added battery percentage in iOS 16

[nikhiljadhav]

So basically they avoided it to make more users opt for revenue generating apps or sources of music from which they would get a cut than offer them free access to something under the garb of maintaining a certain user experience and standard....Quite Appleish 😎

[theboredprogrammer]

It's a shame because living in a typhoon battered country (Philippines), there was a time where we got weeks of no internet connection nor 5G/LTE signal after a Cat 5 typhoon hit us. TV (analog) and FM/AM radio were the only source of information we got during these kinds of emergencies. Good thing we still have a trusty tabletop radio that runs on hand crank and solar batteries to get our information straight from the disaster zone.

[animealpha]

A calculator didn’t make sense to apple either, so they left it out in the ipad

[ngojo]

"got rid of them completely starting with the iPhone 7"

Well considering most phones uses the audio jack as an fm antenna, it make sense they're gone completely with the iPhone 7, which didn't have an audio jack at all. Same with most Android phones too.

[oaw]

So instead of letting the user decide if the benefits outweigh the reduced quality of radio they just remove it entirely.