Samsung unlocks the use of the integrated FM radio receiver

Even the owners of the latest flagship Samsung’s smartphone range can now listen to music on the go without burdening their data volume. According to the German news website Winfuture, Samsung has also made a change to the code with the latest security updates, which unlocks the use of the integrated FM radio receiver.

Officially, the manufacturer has said nothing about it. However, Samsung has already unlocked the VHF receivers in a number of its devices over the past few months. The radio reception in the US and Canada was officially supported by the NextRadio app. Basically, this works in other countries and also with alternative software.

Now, a user on Reddit reported that the feature was also unlocked on the Galaxy S9 after installing the latest updates. That is at least true of the systems that Samsung sold in the US and some other markets. This is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor.

Somewhat unclear is currently the situation in, inter alia, Europe. Because Samsung distributes the S9 series with its own Exynos processors here. Also in this SoC, a radio module is installed, to which actually a VHF receiver belongs. Whether this has been unlocked, was currently not verified. However, there’s probably no reason for Samsung to treat customers with the in-house chip worse than the others. In addition to a suitable radio app, a headphone must be connected by cable to the smartphone, as this is then used as an antenna.

Basically, FM receivers have long been – or even still – in the mobile modems. In order to activate and utilize them, a corresponding release in the firmware suffices. Users have long been calling for all manufacturers to give this opportunity, as the classic FM radio, which is still in use in almost every country in the world, enables the use of musical entertainment without the often limited data quota of streaming apps being used up , In addition, FM stations are usually available even when the coverage with broadband data connections is not given.