It’s weird that the FM radio — a basic feature found in most smartphones for years now — has slowly dropped off the map. It’s not because these devices don’t have the necessary hardware, in fact, most do. It actually has more to do with carriers who need to give manufacturers the green light to activate the dormant feature inside devices running on their networks. Somehow, we’re not surprised.
Thanks to the “Free Radio On My Phone” campaign, carriers like T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T have agreed unlock this functionality for devices on their network. This explains the recent software update for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on T-Mobile that added an FM radio seemingly out of nowhere. Last August — in response to a tweet from NextRadio — T-Mobile CEO John Le