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how do I enable the FM receiver on my iPhone 6

how do I enable the FM receiver on my iPhone 6

Posted on Apr 27, 2015 7:35 AM

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129 replies

Apr 9, 2017 9:03 AM in response to warrens50

warrens50 wrote:

Second, who wants to or can pay for audio entertainment all of the time that is disconnected

My iPhone (and my old Touch) is quite capable of providing me with entertainment that is far more in accord with my taste than FM radio even when I'm disconnected from a data source. I have no trouble loading music from my own vast collection onto them with iTunes.


If you have issues with iTunes and Music, submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback


Meanwhile, I'll go back to enjoying music that I paid for (either up front or by subscription) with no ad, station breaks or annoying dj's.


Best of luck.

Feb 2, 2017 10:28 AM in response to Chasebe

False? What is false? That there is no FM radio in an iPhone?


FACT: There is no FM radio in an iPhone

FACT: There is a chip that can receive signals in the FM band in the iPhone; that is not a radio in itself


HOWEVER: An FM radio has many components. One of them is a means of decoding FM signals in the FM band. The iPhone has that. However, it DOES NOT have:

  • A connection to the chip to control the FM decoder
  • A circuit for tuning the FM decoder
  • A connection to get audio out of the chip
  • A connection for an antenna (FM radios REQUIRE an antenna; they don't work without one)

There are over 1 billion iPhones that have been sold. If there was a way to make an iPhone receive FM radio signals surely some skilled hacker would have succeeded in making it happen in the almost 10 years that iPhones have been available.


And what would be the point? You can get a headset that has a built in FM radio for $5 from Amazon. You can listen to FM with it, and use it to listen to your iPhone's audio.

Feb 2, 2017 10:36 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Lawrence Finch wrote:


False? What is false? That there is no FM radio in an iPhone?


FACT: There is no FM radio in an iPhone

FACT: There is a chip that can receive signals in the FM band in the iPhone; that is not a radio in itself


HOWEVER: An FM radio has many components. One of them is a means of decoding FM signals in the FM band. The iPhone has that. However, it DOES NOT have:

  • A connection to the chip to control the FM decoder
  • A circuit for tuning the FM decoder
  • A connection to get audio out of the chip
  • A connection for an antenna (FM radios REQUIRE an antenna; they don't work without one)


All those silly facts! They are so much less fun than a good conspiracy theory! 😉

Feb 2, 2017 11:40 AM in response to Chasebe

Chasebe wrote:


Haha! INTENSE! From what I understand, it's missing the circuitry to connect the fm chip to the antenna (yes, phones have antennas). But, broadly speaking, you are correct. The rest is fixable with software.

You can't fix missing circuitry with software. And no, cell phones don't have FM antennas. You're really way out of your weight class in this argument.

Feb 10, 2017 4:29 PM in response to Dworkd97

Dworkd97 wrote:


My galaxy s7 has 20th radio and uses the headphones as the antenna. It works REALLY well... Just saying you are wrong about this. Maybe phone can't do this... But not all phones are crippled like you are implying (yes I am in the USA and no my phone is not rooted)

What your Samsung phone can or cannot do is irrelevant to the topic discussion. There is no way to enable any FM radio on an iPhone. So, if that's important to you, you've obviously made the right choice in buying a phone that does have that ability. Good job.

Feb 12, 2017 9:19 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

No no, it was just to point out that Samsung enabled the FM radio with a software patch and used the headphones wire as an antenna. You said that no phones had the ability and that the other person was out of their weight class (if I remember correctly). I just wanted to chime in and let you know that it has been done before... In other modern phones... that's all. Because the statement you made was incorrect. Now if you said it has not been done on any iPhone... Then I wouldn't have said anything as that is a true statement (to my understanding).

Feb 13, 2017 6:29 AM in response to Dworkd97

Dworkd97 wrote:


No no, it was just to point out that Samsung enabled the FM radio with a software patch and used the headphones wire as an antenna. You said that no phones had the ability and that the other person was out of their weight class (if I remember correctly). I just wanted to chime in and let you know that it has been done before... In other modern phones... that's all. Because the statement you made was incorrect. Now if you said it has not been done on any iPhone... Then I wouldn't have said anything as that is a true statement (to my understanding).

I'm well aware of the fact that other phones have FM radio capabilities. Again, that fact is not relevant to the fact that iPhones don't. In order to enable the FM radio with a software patch, the hardware already had to be in place, including the ability to use the headphone wire as an antenna. However, as has been repeatedly pointed out, all that hardware is NOT installed in the iPhone.

Feb 16, 2017 12:03 PM in response to warrens50

The FACT is most smartphones have FM chips in them. I have designed and worked on many of the LTE Modem chips that the iPhone and Samsung phones currently use and most of the LTE Modem chips used today do have FM receivers built into them. Most decide not to list the FM receive on the spec list because they do not choose to activate that feature due to battery drain issues or connectivity interference. But being that these chips are mainstream it is up to the phone maker and cellular provider to activate this feature. A small percentage of phone makers do choose to activate this feature and I'm sure if you did a search you can locate a few of those being used here in the US. But the fact of the matter is the iPhone DOES have a FM chip and Apple just doesn't want to activate it for what I'm sure is a good reason, and there is no way a third party can activate it without causing harm to your mobile device.

Feb 16, 2017 9:28 PM in response to Courcoul

Article taken from 9to5 Mac.

"It’s part of the wireless chip that provides the phone with WiFi and Bluetooth (the Murata 339S0228 chip, in the case of the

iPhone 6). Apple has this functionality switched off, and the National Association of Broadcasters would like the company to switch it on, arguing that there are a number of benefits over streamed radio content."

Feb 16, 2017 10:40 PM in response to Dworkd97

Dworkd97 wrote:


Once again, that isn't what you said. You didn't specify iPhone. Now that you have I couldn't care less about your comments.

I didn't say cell phones don't have FM chips. I said they don't have FM antennas. As you yourself have explained, they use the wire for from a headset for the antenna. Apparently, there was a reading comprehension issue here.

how do I enable the FM receiver on my iPhone 6

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