Moto G Phone Guide

How to use FM radio on Moto G?

FM radio on Moto GUpdate 1: This guide works on Mot0 G, Moto G 2nd generation (Moto G 2014) and Moto E. 

Update 2: Now, you can choose once of the audio put devices: headset, phone speaker and Bluetooth speaker. 

Maybe it is a surprise for you when you noticed you can use FM radio on Moto G. Nowadays, most smartphones do not provide FM radios anymore.  This guide teaches you how to use FM radio on Moto G, and some tips and tricks of using FM radio on Moto G.

How to get FM radio on Moto G?

If you cannot find the FM radio app on your Moto G, you can install the app from Google Play Store here: Motorola FM Radio. Of course, it is free. The version of this app on Google Play store is newer than the stock one. So, even you can find the app on your Moto G, you may try to update it to Google Play one to get all features and achieve the best  performance.

Once Motorola FM Radio app is installed on your Moto G, you can start to use FM radio on Moto G just like any other apps.

Why does FM radio on Moto G require a wired headset plugged in?

To use FM Radio on Moto G, a wired headset plugged in. This is very common for mobile phones.

The wired headset  acts as the antenna and is needed to receive the transmissions from  broadcasting stations. The receiver is for FM broadcasting stations. AM stations are NOT supported.

For  FM Radio on Moto G, any wired headset should work. It is not necessary to use Motorola headsets.

How to play the audio of Moto G FM radio on headset, phone speakers or Bluetooth speakers?

First, you can NOT play audio out of Moto G’s speaker when use the FM radio on Moto G. This is simply not supported, although the speaker in Moto G is quite loud.

However, in addition to  listening to FM Radio on Moto G through the wired headset, you can also listen the audio out of a Bluetooth accessory such as a wireless speaker or wireless headset. Once the BT device is paired with Moto G, the audio of the FM radio on Moto G will be routed to the BT device.

Even when you listen the FM radio on Moto G through a wireless speaker or wireless headset,  the wired headset must always be plugged in because it acts as an antenna for the FM radio.

Recent FM radio app update adds the feature of listening your favorite radios on the phone speaker, Bluetooth speaker or the wired headset. In other words, you have three options for the FM radio audio output.

Once you start the FM radio app on Moto G or Moto E, you will find the headphone icon in the top right corner in stations view.

If you tap the headphone icon, the audio will be transferred to the phone speaker.  The icon is also changed to a speaker.

The casting icon will be shown only after you pair any Bluetooth speaker or Bluetooth headset with the phone.

how_to_use_moto_g_fm_radio_moto_e_fm_radio_headset_usedhow_to_use_moto_g_fm_radio_moto_e_fm_radio_speaker_used

Tap the casting icon (which is for Bluetooth speaker, not for Chromecast). You will then be asked to confirm to listen your radio on the Bluetooth device.

Once the FM radio audio is transferred to the Bluetooth speaker, the headphone or speaker icon will then disappear. The casting symbol now changes to white inside as shown below.

To get the speaker/headphone back, you can tap the casting icon, and disconnect the Bluetooth speaker from FM radio.  Please note, it is not necessary to unpair the Bluetooth speaker to get the headphone/speaker icon back.

 

how_to_use_moto_g_fm_radio_moto_e_fm_radio_connecting_to_bluetoothhow_to_use_moto_g_fm_radio_moto_e_fm_radio_bluetooth_speaker_used

The location of the icons are slightly different when you are in now playing view.

In the now playing view (swipe up), the headphone icon or speaker icon will be in the right side and the casting icon will be in the left side as shown below.

When Bluetooth speaker is being used the headphone or speaker icon will disappear, and the icon will be shown as filled white.

Of course,  you can tap headphone icon to switch to speaker, and vice versa.

how_to_use_moto_g_fm_radio_moto_e_fm_radio_now_playing_headset_speakerhow_to_use_moto_g_fm_radio_moto_e_fm_radio_now_playing_bluetooth_speaker

How to run FM radio on Moto G in background?

FM radio on Moto G (run in background)You can sue other apps while listening to the FM radio on Moto G. The FM radio app can run in background just like the music player.

When the Moto G FM radio runs in background,  you will notice a small icon shown in the top status bar.  You can swipe down the status bar to find the FM Radio control in the notification shade (aka notification area). You can pause/play the FM radio on Moto G.

If you tap the control,  the FM Radio app will be brought  back to the foreground. And you have full control of the app.

Another way to bring back FM radio on Moto G to foreground is  from the recent apps, which can be accessed  from the bottom right of Moto G. Once the apps are listed, you can tap the FM radio app to bring it to foreground.

Is FM radio on Moto G locked to one region?

When you launch the FM radio on Moto G the first time, it will automatically scan based on the location of your Moto G. If you travel to a different region/country, you can change the region  (from the Settings menu)  and perform a scan to find available stations.

There is no way to “lock” the region. But in different regions,  different frequency bands  may be used. So, you need select the region and re-scan the stations when you moves to a new location.

controls of FM radio on Moto G

Turn  on and turn off  FM Radio on Moto G

First, there is no on/off buttons for FM radio app on Moto G.

You can simply mute the radio to turn  it off.  Once the FM radio is muted, the transceiver chip is turned off automatically  to save power.

When you resume the FM radio on Moto G,  the radio is then turned on immediately.

Then, how to mute and resume playing FM radio on Moto G?

In any view of FM radio app, tap the dark square button to mute the FM radio on Moto G.

Once the FM radio is muted, the icon will turn into a triangle (play icon). Tap this triangle (play icon) to resume the FM radio on Moto G..

How to use  full-player view and min-player view  for FM radio on Moto G?

When the FM radio is in the full player view, you can tap anywhere in the top half of the view to shrink it to enter mini-player view. You can also drag it down to enter mini-player view.

When the FM radio is in the mini player view, you may tap anywhere on the mini-player (except for the pause button or favorite star) to expand it to the full-screen player.

How to  seek a station in FM radio on Moto G?

In the full player view, use the left or right seek buttons (double triangles) to find the closest station that Moto G can tune.

You can also manually seek a station for your FM radio on Moto G. When in the full player view, tap and drag your finger on the red indicator in the ‘tuner bar’ – the black band in the middle of the screen that looks like a traditional radio band. The current frequency will be displayed in the top section and you can drag left or right to a specific station.

Sometimes, you may noticed you  cannot select a specific frequency due to possibly different  spacing between station frequencies in different regions. If you are traveling, check via the menu (three vertical dots) that your current region settings are appropriate. If not, change them and re-scan to find all available stations for FM radio on Moto G.

How to add a favorite station in FM radio on Moto G, and delete a station from Favorites list ?

To add a  favorite station in FM radio on Moto G, you can tap on the star symbol next to the frequency. This works in any views as long as you see the grey star symbol in the FM radio app.The star will turn blue and be listed in the favorites tab.

To delete a station from the Favorites list of FM radio on Moto G, you need tap the blue star symbol next to the frequency.  The blue star symbol will turn dark.  However, if you are currently in the “Favorites” tab, the station will not be removed from the Fm radio app until you change the view (swipe into the “All Stations” view, or expand the mini player, or navigate away from the FM Radio application).

FM radio on Moto G fully supports Radio Data System (RDS).

However, sometimes you may not see information about the currently playing song on some stations in the FM radio on Moto G, due to the different usage of RDS systems among stations. Some stations may miss some common elements, e.g., station call signs and the name of the currently playing song.

Do you have any problem with FM radio on Moto G? Share with us in the comment box below.

For more Moto G guides, please check our Moto G How-to Guide page.

Although this guide use Moto G as an example, FM radio app also works on  Moto E, Moto G 2014 (Moto G 2nd Generation).

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Denis says

    Hello, I have the new Moto G7 Plus and the FM radio works well, I would like to change FM stations by double clicking the headphones, same as I do while listening to MP3 music. I know I could change station on the phone, but this is more trouble than just simply double clicking the headset while on the go.

    Reply

  4. T Delahooke says

    my older version of Moto G played FM radio synchronized with the radio in my house or car. Now I have Moto G gen 3 and there’s a delay which is infuriating !
    Can this be adjusted ?

    Reply

  5. AmyInNH says

    Is there something else we can use for radio?
    Default FM radio app
    – doesn’t have any sound by either speaker or headphone
    – wants permissions such as file access, whether or not you plan to record anything

    Reply

  7. neetha says

    How to take backup of photos and videos in Moto g.?? And From where we can see those pics again?? And how long it will b saved?

    Reply

  8. Chris says

    Not sure if you are still monitoring these comments, but just in case….

    Radio app generally great. I have a Moto E2, recently acquired and radio app starts, scans, plays etc fine, using headphones. But many times while playing the radio it will pause playing and then restart automatically after about 5 seconds or so. Sometimes happens a lot (maybe every minute or so), sometimes never does it. I often use radio while out walking, moving in and out of phone signal coverage (which shouldn’t affect FM) but also possibly in and out of good FM coverage – but when the radio cuts out there is no noise or static, it has good signal, then cuts out, then comes back with good signal. However, it does seem to happen worst when I am walking in the same places – i.e. some areas seem to work well, some not so well.

    I have no idea what is causing this, or how to fix it. I can’t find another FM radio app to compare it with though!

    Reply

  10. Tomas says

    Thank you for making data-less “real fm radio” available. Will this app work on any other Motorola cellphones? Turbo2?

    Reply

  11. jaquimas says

    I am still pretty new to Android and my phone is nagging me to upgrade system software. Anything about an Android system upgrade that could negatively affect my ability to use FM radio in my 1st gen Moto G?

    Reply

    • Allan Kitching says

      There was an initial problem with the FM Radio after I upgraded (currently on Android v5.1 – System version 23.26.3) but this was related to loss of bluetooth playback from the Radio. Once reported, this was soon fixed and I’ve found no other problems. The latest FM Radio app. even allows you to record stations audio (only mp3 64k) and sound surprisingly good played back through bluetooth stereo speakers.

      Reply

  13. James says

    Hi, I installed a working setup of Viper4Android on a Moto G (3rd gen) resulting in about the same time as the Fm Radio app not playing audio although able to log local radio stations. Any ideas on returning use to teh chipset?

    Reply

  14. Ganesh says

    FM Radio auto stops in my new moto g (3rd gen).Tried with clear cache and clear data but it didn’t work.
    I do not have any task manager,antivirus and battery saving apps installed. Anyone have a solution for his problem???

    Reply

  16. Ajakz says

    To record FM Radio you will need to have the latest radio app.(v02.00.0045 which is automatically provided when downloading the Android Lollipop os. You can verify this when running your radio and tapping ‘About’ on the top left drop down menu. When listening to your currently tuned station (singularly displayed by touching the white radio ICON, top left) you will see a red heart, below which is a red vertical tuning line, below which is a red dot. Touch the red dot to record the station, touch it again to stop recording. Playback the recording by touching the triple horizontal bar ICON (top left) and selecting ‘Recording’. Recording quality is limited to on 96Khz bit rate but sounds surprisingly good, even through bluetooth speakers.

    Reply

  19. Lisa Lafferty says

    My old Nokia wired headphones do not work in my new Moto G 2nd gen (they do actually work with my very, very old Sony Walkman, lol). Does anyone have a recommendation of what headphones I should buy?

    Reply

  20. Ajakz says

    I’ve always been happy with the fm radio on my Moto G 4G and was even more pleased when an upgrade allowed me to uniquely broadcast the audio from it to my BT enabled sound bar. That was until another update came soon after I upgraded to lollipop. This useful function was disabled again? Simply corrected by discarding the updates from the app. This leaves you with the annoyance of continuous requests to upgrade the fm radio. Fix the upgrade guys!

    Reply

  21. jaquimas says

    This tutorial says it is for the Moto G and also works for Moto E – Can you tell me if the “now you can play FM radio through phone’s speakers or bluetooth” update to the tutorial also applies to the Moto E as well as the G? Thank you!

    Reply

  23. Vena says

    My Moto G Fm radio does NOT have the headphone or bluetooth icons…in fact it only has the radio and 3 bars that have the scan, change radio region, about. It’s 01.10.0060. no other icons. I have uninstalled the upgrade and than reinstalled it. Still no icons. I want to use bluetooth headphones.

    Reply

  25. estani says

    I haven’t check it out in my moto 1G, but the Moto 2E of my wife runs the app for some minutes and then it just stops. As if it was closed to save batery or something. And that is after 1 to 5 minutes of running with the screen turned off.
    Any idea how to prevent this?

    Reply

  27. Jill says

    I’m using v01.10.0060 of the app with Android 4.4.4, but I do not see ANY icons in the upper right. I only have the “FM Radio” icon/menu in the upper left. How do I get the upper right speaker/output choice icons to appear? My goal is to be able to select the output as phone speakers (rather than headset).

    Reply

  30. Alakh says

    I do not see – Headset / Speaker icon on the radio – on my MotoG 1st Generation. Can anyone please suggest?

    Reply

  31. Vin says

    Can we change Radio stations through headset button. i tried in Moto 2G which is not happening but i enjoyed this facility in Samsung S Duos

    Reply

  34. neetha says

    Hi
    Some of my apps got updated yesterday..
    Now my gallery is not showing crop option and rotate options in menu of my gallary.previously this was not the issue with my phone.

    Reply

  40. thoughtmaze says

    I am using MOTOG and I also have the FM Radio app version: 01.10.0060. Once I open to the app. I do not see the speaker icon on the top right. can you help me on this? my android version is 4.4.4. What do you suggest? I live in India.

    Reply

  41. Angela says

    I have 1st generation Moto G 16gb and I too don’t have 3 verticle dots nor an icon for speaker/headset. Also I cannot use the radio from the locked screen, there are no radio buttons? All I have on top left is an icon of a radio. I have version 01.10.0060. All I can do is Scan, Change radio region and About.

    Reply

  42. Deepu Augustin says

    Hello, Iam having moto g 1033, my fm radio version is 01.10.0060, iam not able to receive fm stereo(only mono) is it a hardware problem (no hardware capability?) or software and there is no option to play through speaker only three item in the menu (scan,change radio region and about)

    Reply

  43. Venkata Manikanta Kolluru says

    Hello All,
    I am Using Moto G 2nd gen i am using Fm radio Application Some times when listening to radio the sound decreases rapidly and increases slowly so whats the problem can you please guess

    Reply

  45. Tanveer says

    Have checked the options, only three options displayed, the option to switch to Bluetooth is not coming and moroeover the ICON to switch to BT not appearing in the main Radio module after due upgrading the same from Playstore
    Kindly help any way to enable the music thru BT

    Reply

  48. Serge says

    Everytime I play the FM radio, after a while (1-5 minutes) phone freeze then reboot. I have two identical phone (me and the lady) and both are acting the same way. Any suggextion ?

    Reply

    • Wedson says

      you need the headset connected, because it works as antenna for receiving radio signal, only radio app that works with the internet is able to hear by bluetooth

      Reply

  50. pazosi says

    Hi, My Moto G is updated but the FM radio keeps in MONO, no stereo sound at all. I know that this subjet is already mentioned but I insist because is important. I think is a bug of the app. Do you know that is going to be resolved in future updates?
    Tahnks

    Reply

  53. maicart says

    Moto G does not have a sleep timer, so I use a different program (Music Sleep, etc). I set the sleep timer to 20 or 30 minutes and then the radio stops. However, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night because for some reason the radio turned itself on. Why would this happen? Thanks

    Reply

  54. mrachini says

    OK, so i know that Google Play Edition doesn’t have the radio app and if you get it you cant even start it because of incompatibility, so what I’m asking is, can someone provide me with the “/system/build.prop” file for 4.4.4 from a non GPE Moto G that has a working Motorola FM Radio app, Thank you

    Reply

  57. sammii says

    My phone is stuck in “speaker mode” I can’t hear anything not even phone calls. If im asking a phone call I have to put the phone on speaker to hear what’s being said on the other side. But like if I want to watch a video or play music on my phone its not working any idea how to fix this?

    Reply

  60. Utkarsh Verma says

    Does anyone know that the FM Radio of moto g doesn’t play frequencies having even number (For example: it can play 93.5 but not 104.8).

    Reply

  62. Ramsurkar says

    Do u suggest any other app for radio other than the default moto g fm app. It troubled a lot while adding channels manually as well as there is no option to record a song/show from the playing stn.

    Reply

  66. harshit says

    Does this app uses cellular data or it works as normal radio app in other phones by using headest as antennae

    Reply

  67. Kems says

    My Moto G have a problem with FMRadioService. Everytime i plug in my headpones, FM Radio suddenly stopped. Can u help me?

    Reply

  70. Dinesh Gore says

    Hi I bought new Moto G 16 GB. After playing FM radio for some time, i am getting pop up with weird message “FM is used by another app. Please close the app first” and I am not able to start it again. It takes about half an hour to start FM.
    Please provide me the solution.

    Reply

  74. Joe says

    I have a Moto G 16Gb version but it seems like it may not be a Moto G sometimes. I am running Android 4.4.2 (I didn’t do the update it came from google running this version)
    There is no stock FM radio app. When I attempt to install the app listed here it says it is not compatable with my device. I attempted to use another FM app and get the following error “Sorry, your phone is not supported for FM Radio”

    Reply

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