After a short delay, the BBC iPlayer Radio app is now on Android as well as iOS. The free radio player app launched today on Android smartphones and tablets, and will soon be on Amazon’s Kindle Fire devices, too.
The Beeb has designed the app to function in much the same way as the iOS variant that launched first, although it claims there are also improvements that make the Android app better. First and foremost, it’s a free download from the Play Store, and looks to be one that music fans will love.
Fire up the app and you get a slick and simple interface that offers a scroll wheel or horizontal bar that can be swiped to scroll through the Beeb’s many radio stations. As you scroll the wheel, each station displays what’s on with a large image, with what’s coming up next shown just below. It’s a nice and simple way to choose a channel, but there’s more to the app that can be found in the top right corner.
The traditional Android menu button gives access to programming by category, Alarms & Reminders, Podcasts, Favourite Tracks and a Full Programme Guide. If you’re fed up of waking up to a generic beeping noise from your phone, use Alarms & Reminders to set a station to wake up to at any time – something that can be made even better if you dock your phone into a speaker before bed.
The Beeb also offers up its ever-expanding catalogue of Podcasts through the app, which can be listened to on the go. Like on iPlayer though, each Podcast will expire after a set amount of time, and there’s no option to download them to store locally unfortunately.
One feature we really like is Favourite Tracks, which lets you ‘favourite’ a song that’s playing on any station so that you don’t forget to check it out properly later on.
Finally, the Full Programme Guide gives you a full screen TV-style guide that gives you a full 5 days of programming on every BBC Radio station – neat!
BBC iPlayer Radio is available on Android phones and tablets now from the Play Store and will come to Amazon Kindle Fire devices through the Amazon Appstore very soon.