5 Of The Best Radio Apps For Apple CarPlay

Using your iPhone and mobile data connection to stream old-school terrestrial radio stations in your vehicle via Apple CarPlay sounds unusual — after all, cars come equipped with built-in radio tuners that make it possible to listen directly with no internet or smartphone necessary. What's the point, then? There are a couple of reasons you may find this capability useful. If you're traveling but want to listen to your local radio stations, these apps make it possible to tune in from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.

In addition, listening to a radio station over the internet provides a better experience if you're driving a long distance, such as while on a road trip. By tuning in directly from your vehicle's radio, you'll need to find a new station every time you travel beyond each station's coverage range. By streaming the radio station over the internet, you'll be able to listen without losing connection, even if you cross state lines. In light of that, it's no surprise several high-quality apps provide free access to radio stations across the U.S., North America, and even the entire world, all of them with CarPlay support.

Audacy is a free audio app that provides access to terrestrial radio stations, as well as collections of music put together by listeners, audio programs from publishers like CNN, and podcasts. The app comes with a full loadout of features, including the ability to pause live radio stations, save the content you like in a personal library, and play various Audacy Originals. The app is notable for including access to Spanish-language content, including radio stations and on-demand collections.

The app is available on the iPhone and includes CarPlay support, meaning users can connect their phone to their vehicle's infotainment system, tune into a radio station in the app, and have it play like any other station directly over the car's radio. For those times you feel like streaming the radio outside of your car, Audacy offers support for Alexa and Google. That means you can use voice commands to play stations via the app on your smart speaker and smart screen. There's also support for Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, LG's smart TV platform, and Comcast's Xfinity X1.

TuneIn Radio is a well-known internet radio app that launched way back in 2002, earning itself a spot in the eventual streaming market by making it possible to listen to sports broadcasts and music stations on a smartphone. At the time of writing, TuneIn serves as a portal to at least 120,000 radio stations, though there are also podcasts and audiobooks. 

The streaming service is also notable due to the wide variety of platforms it supports — in addition to streaming radio stations on CarPlay in your vehicle, you can also play audio over your home's smart speaker via Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. There's also support for Android and Samsung smart TVs, the last-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles, select Sonos, Roku, and Bose speakers, and desktop web browsers. 

Though TuneIn is free to download and use, there is a Premium subscription option for power users who want access to additional features. Whereas the free version of the app provides access to sports talk radio, news, podcasts, and 100,000 radio stations, the Premium version (which is priced at $7.99 per month) adds access to audiobooks, live NHL and MLB games, and college football and basketball game broadcasts. Paying users also get fewer advertisements compared to free users, and some news publishers like CNN can be streamed without commercials.

Simple Radio is a free app that provides access to the same roster of live terrestrial radio stations that can be accessed through its developer Streema's website. According to the company, its library has more than 55,000 radio stations, including ones in international markets. Users get access to a limited number of features commonly found in audio apps, including the ability to save favorite stations and search for content. Simple Radio is relatively barebones compared to some of the other apps available on the market, but it does include support for Apple CarPlay.

Though Simple Radio is free to download and use, there is a Premium plan priced at $14.99 per year. Paying customers get access to a sleep timer that will turn the radio off (in a manner of speaking) after a certain period of time; there's also priority customer support and removal of the visual ads found within the app itself.

iHeartRadio, founded in 2008, is another well-known platform that has managed to survive the passage of time. The company launched the same year as Spotify but is distinct from its competitor in one big way: it provides access to live terrestrial radio stations in addition to podcasts. Users can browse through playlists of content organized by genre and decade in addition to manually searching for content.

Though the app doesn't have the same expansive content library as TuneIn, which includes things like audiobooks, it is a solid choice for drivers who simply want to stream a radio station while driving. The app supports Apple CarPlay in addition to a huge number of other platforms ranging from Android to web browsers, gaming consoles, and smartwatches. The app is free to download and use, but there are also paid Plus ($4.99 per month) and Premium ($9.99 per month) plan options. 

The Plus plan removes commercials, adds the ability to skip an unlimited number of times, and lets users save radio songs to a playlist. The Premium plan builds upon those features by also offering mobile offline listening, on-demand access to songs, instant radio replays, unlimited playlist creation, and unlimited song access.

RadioApp is unlike most terrestrial radio streaming apps — rather than providing something akin to a modern on-demand music streaming experience, RadioApp imitates a physical analog radio. Users find stations by manually swiping their finger along the tuner slider, making it possible to scrub through stations the same way one would by turning a dial on an antenna radio. The app has a very minimalist UI that makes it easy to use, including a play and pause button volume slider and a location button for switching to a different state or country.

Though the app tries to replicate the analog radio experience, it does pack some very modern features, including the ability to "star" your favorite stations, save songs you like to Apple Music, share the app with other people, and toggle between light and dark modes. Most of the app's features are available to free users, including settings for autoplay, timers, and setting alarms — yes, you can set the app to play a radio station as your morning alarm in the same way you would with a physical clock radio.

Some features are paywalled behind the Premium plan, though, including support for Apple CarPlay. That means if you want to use the app in your car, you'll need to pay either $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year. The upside is that the plan comes with some other features, too, including auto-Shazam, unlimited favoriting, and removal of the app's banner ads.