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Samsung smartphone owners will now have the benefit of free radio after the company announced they will equip with their phones with unlocked FM chips. 

Yes, people still listen to the radio, believe it or not.

The move by Samsung to link with NextRadio will give US and Canadian owners of their newest phones another option besides streaming music. The bulk of all cell phones (except Apple who doesn’t have functioning FM chips) do come with the FM chips but Samsung’s move to include them is more significant because they will unlock the FM chip most companies do not. They will not be the first company to do so though, LG and Sprint also partnered with NextRadio as well.

Now how will this be beneficial to Samsung smartphone owners? Well, the NextRadio app will connect to local FM radio stations and will be less of stress on your battery by using three times less of it and using 20 percent less of your data.

You can’t be mad at that all.

FM radio is also more reliable to share important information especially in the case of an emergency than other services. Hopefully, in the near future, Apple will decide to get on board with the FM chip being that there are a lot iPhone owners in the world. FCC chairman Ajit Pai asked the tech giant to activate their FM chips in their phones but Apple revealed that their phones don’t even have FM chips as pointed out above.

We like this move by Samsung, and won’t be shocked if other phone companies will follow suit.

Photo: Jason Kempin- Getty