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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.

Lucy Rowe

by Lucy Rowe in Tips

Last updated 29.01.2024

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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.

A black background and a white illustration of a transistor radio.. In white text below reads: Radio FM.
The opening screen from the Radio FM app.

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.

A grey background. In the middle of the screen is white buttons to share, play & favourite the station. Beneath is the text
A radio station page on the Radio UK app.

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.

Download from App Store Download from Google Play

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.

A illustrated map of the UK against, with circles depicting clusters of radio stations across the map. At the bottom of the screen is a search bar, some recommended stations and a play button.
The 'TuneIn Explorer': an interactive map for finding radio stations to listen to.

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.

An example of a Radio.co radio app: a phone with the app open, showing the station name, thumbnail, options to request track, message station, play & pause the stream and more.
The Radio.co apps let you message a radio station, connect with them on social media and even catch up on the news.

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.

Discover Radio.co Apps

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.

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