Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Universal I built a lightweight, 100% native radio app for the entire Apple ecosystem. No subscriptions.

sfnemis

sfnemis

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi MacRumors community,

After years working in the IT sector, I got tired of radio apps that were bloated with trackers, ads, and expensive monthly subscriptions. I wanted an app that felt like a natural, lightweight part of the Apple OS, not a third-party burden.

So, I built Macdio.

Macdio is a fully native (built with SwiftUI) radio app designed from the ground up for iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and CarPlay.

Here are a few reasons why I think you'll appreciate it:

  • Buy Once, Own Forever: No subscriptions. A one-time purchase covers all your Apple devices for life.
  • Zero Ads, Zero Tracking: Your data and your battery life stay yours.
  • Native & Lightweight: Just 26MB. It's fast, fluid, and memory-efficient.
  • True Ecosystem Integration: Features a standalone Apple Watch app (leave your phone behind) and flawless iCloud sync for your stations and saved songs across all devices.
  • Built-in Song ID: Integrated ShazamKit automatically identifies tracks and updates your Dynamic Island, Widget, and Lock Screen instantly—even if the radio station doesn’t broadcast metadata.
  • CarPlay & Auto-Play: Features custom CarPlay presets that feel like old-school car radio buttons. You can also enable auto-play to pick up exactly where you left off the moment you launch the app or start your car.
  • Custom Stations: Add and edit your own custom stream URLs, names, and artwork.
  • Fair Global Pricing: I recently overhauled the pricing to support Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), manually lowering the price in 160+ countries so the app is fairly accessible worldwide.
I've also set up a dedicated community space for feedback, bug reports, and station requests at hub.macdio.app (uses Sign in with Apple for one-click access).

I would love for you to try it out and hear your thoughts. I’m an indie developer, and a lot of the features in the app right now came directly from user feedback. I’m here to answer any questions!

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/app/macdio/id6761737888
 
  • Like
Reactions: pacorob, Snørrbjørg, Arran and 1 other person
Congrats I love the UI and model (pay once, privacy friendly, no ads, family sharing, supporting tons of iDevices).

I'm also curious to try it first and also wondered about these things:
- Apple Shortcuts Automation support to connect with a bluetooth device (e.g. headphones) with touching the phone automatically and listen to your favorite station
- Is there a landscape mode on iOS?
- are controllers supported to control play/pause, previous/next station? (I know it's niche but I play games with external audio apps: e.g. music, podcast as there a tons of games that support this)

Sidenote: I've also added your app earlier to a few of my collections in the AppRaven app community.
 
  • Like
Reactions: max2
pacorob said:
Congrats I love the UI and model (pay once, privacy friendly, no ads, family sharing, supporting tons of iDevices).

I'm also curious to try it first and also wondered about these things:
- Apple Shortcuts Automation support to connect with a bluetooth device (e.g. headphones) with touching the phone automatically and listen to your favorite station
- Is there a landscape mode on iOS?
- are controllers supported to control play/pause, previous/next station? (I know it's niche but I play games with external audio apps: e.g. music, podcast as there a tons of games that support this)

Sidenote: I've also added your app earlier to a few of my collections in the AppRaven app community.
Click to expand...
To answer your questions directly; yes to all of them! I wanted Macdio to be the ultimate native experience, so all of these features are fully supported:

Shortcuts / Automation: Fully supported. You can absolutely use Apple Shortcuts and App Intents to create automations (like automatically playing your favorite station when your Bluetooth headphones connect).

Landscape Mode: Yes, there is full landscape mode support on iOS, fully responsive and optimized for the screen.
Controller Support: Absolutely. Because Macdio is built 100% natively, any external game controller, Bluetooth headset, or keyboard that sends standard iOS system media commands (Play, Pause, Next, Previous) will control the stations flawlessly in the background while you are gaming.

Thanks again for the great questions and for supporting the app. I'm really excited for you to try it out. If you have any other ideas or feedback, please let me know!

Cheers!
 
sfnemis said:
To answer your questions directly; yes to all of them! I wanted Macdio to be the ultimate native experience, so all of these features are fully supported:

Shortcuts / Automation: Fully supported. You can absolutely use Apple Shortcuts and App Intents to create automations (like automatically playing your favorite station when your Bluetooth headphones connect).

Landscape Mode: Yes, there is full landscape mode support on iOS, fully responsive and optimized for the screen.
Controller Support: Absolutely. Because Macdio is built 100% natively, any external game controller, Bluetooth headset, or keyboard that sends standard iOS system media commands (Play, Pause, Next, Previous) will control the stations flawlessly in the background while you are gaming.

Thanks again for the great questions and for supporting the app. I'm really excited for you to try it out. If you have any other ideas or feedback, please let me know!

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Thanks so much great to read Shortcuts, Automation, Landscape on iOS and Controller support is already there. I also noticed VoiceOver and Family Sharing support is there as well 🙂

As far as the things below it might be good to add in the App Store description and in the dedicated places there that such things are supported which could definitely pursued new buyers for the app. Maybe even add a try before you buy model. As I already have a few radio apps I would love to try first as well. I also send you a DM.

- controller support (currently this isn't shown in the dedicated places or in the description, see example another app) this isn't yet supported according to e-mail correspondence with the developer (25-June update)
- landscape support on iOS
- Apple Shortcuts (Automation) support to e.g. listen easily via bluetooth (headphones) without pressing a button
- what is the URL scheme to directly open the app (without Shortcuts delay) easily from e.g. Launcher widget, LudiHub game launcher?

macdio:// open app
macdio://play |opens the app and starts your last station
macdio://toggle |play or pause
macdio://next | next favourite station
macdio://prev | previous favourite station
 
Last edited:
Snørrbjørg said:
Does it show bitrates and sample.freq. and such info about the streams?
Click to expand...
Yes, absolutely! Macdio provides detailed technical information about the audio streams you are listening to.

While playing a stream, you can easily view real-time data, including:

  • Bitrate: The exact data transfer rate (e.g., 128 kbps, 320 kbps) so you can monitor stream quality.
  • Sample Frequency: The audio sample rate (e.g., 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz).
  • Format / Codec: The specific encoding of the stream (such as MP3, AAC, or FLAC).
We designed Macdio to give you full transparency over your audio experience, ensuring you always know the exact quality of the station or stream you are tuned into.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Snørrbjørg and BSDnostalgia
Macdio 2.1 is here, the biggest release I have ever built, and I built every part of it for you. Robin, Melmaleh, Yaron, Konstantin, and so many more of you who wrote in and kept believing in this little radio: thank you.

-Save a song and it is now loved in your Apple Music library too, if you turn it on

-Tuck the mini player away with a single tap, and bring it back just as easily

-Saved Tracks now shows which device you saved each song on

-Song ID, rebuilt from scratch: it now hears exactly what you hear and keeps listening like a dedicated app, so stations that never worked finally get recognized

-Add your own station and watch its logo appear the moment you paste the link, with web pages and awkward links sorted out for you

-Your station logo now looks right everywhere: the list, the full player, the mini bar and the bedside clock

-Game controller support, solid at last: buttons stay instant right after a station starts, pause and skip respond right away, and Clock Mode shows Connecting, Buffering, Live or Paused as you go

-A bedside Clock Mode with an alarm, with X for the alarm panel and Y for the sleep timer straight from a controller

-Discover never falls silent again, and tells you when a lookup fails instead of pretending a country has no stations

-Your lists, folder colors and section order now follow you across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV

-Smoother and lighter: no stutter while iCloud syncs, almost no processor use when idle, steady memory all evening

-A brand new icon, plus 13 icon themes to make Macdio truly yours

-Performance improvements and bug fixes throughout

Thank you for building this radio with me. Keep the ideas coming.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jespero and pacorob
Works great and so good to see a developer listening to feedback and implementing them. I can really recommend this radio player.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jespero
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back