Best Free Radio Apps for UK Listeners
There’s no need to fumble about in your browser, here's the best free radio apps for UK listeners.
Why You Should Use a Radio App
Listening to the radio on a phone? Using a browser is a bit clunky. With so many tabs open, the radio station gets buried. And pausing the stream or getting the song name proves to be tricky.
Whereas a free radio app is a gift for listeners to behold. Typically, web players often just have a play & pause function. But radio apps can do so much more. Like sleep timers, alarms and some (ahem Radio.co apps) take track requests.
Keep the controls to your favourite station front and centre by using one of the best free radio apps.
5 Best Free Radio Apps For UK Listeners
5. Radio FM
Great for: Extra useful functions.
Not so great for: Selection of radio stations.
Radio FM packs in a load of features while having a slick interface. It's probably one of the easiest radio apps to use.
Unlike other radio apps, RadioFM has a chatroom feature if you sign into the app. As well as a sleep timer, alarms, sharing links and the ability to save your favourite radio shows, stations and podcasts all to the app. The downside to RadioFM is its directory is still missing some big stations we would expect to find on it, like Rinse FM and NTS.
Download from App Store Download from Google Play
4. Radio UK
Great for: Simplicity.
Not so great for: Extra controls.
The Radio UK app has 3200 stations to choose from, and what we like most about this app is it's nice and simple. If you're someone that goes overwhelmed by lots of features, the Radio UK app is a good choice.
You can only explore stations through its lists of genre or city and see how many stations there are for each category. Once you've found a station you like, you can save to your favourites. Other than that, the only feature it has is a sleep timer. The stripped back features will be a positive for some listeners. But also a negative to listeners that want more control.
3.TuneIn
Great for: Using car-mode free of charge.
Not great for: The additional ads on top of a radio stations own.
TuneIn is perhaps one of the most recognisable free radio apps, despite no longer accepting radio station submissions. The app is very easy to use and has an interactive map to discover new stations.
What distinguishes it in particular is that the car-mode is available on the free version of the app. Many other radio apps only offer car-mode as part of the paid subscriptions. The downside is TuneIn inserts it's own ads into streams in the free version. This can mean double ads for those listening to commercial stations. And some people complain TuneIn's ad placement is not great.
Download from App Store Download from Google Play
2. myTuner Radio
Great for: Customising the radio app.
Not great for: Listening to radio stations outside the UK.
The myTuner Radio app is super easy to use and has a wide variety of stations. We had no trouble finding internet radio heroes that were missing from other directories.
But how it really stands apart is how it can be customised. Such as adding reminders for certain shows and events. And never missing a big game by integrating a sports calendar. Sadly, car-mode is not available for the free version, only UK radio stations are available to UK listeners and their visual adverts can take over the whole phone screen.
Download from App Store Download from Google Play
1. Radio.co Apps
Great for: Listener experience and interaction.
Not so great for: Listening to multiple different radio stations.
Radio directories-come-radio-apps have some benefits. They are good for discovering radio stations and playing different streams from the same place. But listeners get a much better experience going direct to a station's own app. Here at Radio.co, we create individual radio apps for our clients.
Our apps have everything a listener needs: they take track requests, show the upcoming schedule, pull in a podcast feed & much more! Our radio apps are completely free for listeners, available on iOS & Google Play and best yet: we don't insert ads.
Does your favourite radio station need its own app? We've put all the information here to share with stations.
To Wrap Up...
There are our picks for the best free radio apps for UK listeners. But if you don't like using an app, there are plenty of other ways to listen. How do you tune in? Let us know over on your favourite social media platform.
