Shortwave is a free and open-source application for listening to Internet radio. It is named after shortwave signals which, ironically, have long-range and reflection properties that enable them to be received anywhere in the world. It features a modern user interface built using the libhandy library and a community database, radio-browser.info which is open to everybody to modify.
Have you come across Gradio before? It’s an open-source GTK3 Radio app for listening to online radio stations and it was loved for its GNOME desktop look and Ubuntu+Roboto fonts until it was discontinued. The good news is that Gradio’s developer has joined the Shortwave team to recreate the app in Rust and that enables Gradio users to migrate with their library.
Shortwave has now released its latest stable version and while it has a handful of features to include, there isn’t a better time than now to check it out.
Features in Shortwave
- Free and open-source.
- A modern, responsive user interface compatible with small and large screens.
- Search and discover radio stations.
- Create libraries and manage favorite stations.
- Automatic song recognition.
- Light & dark display modes.
- Powered by
radio-browser.infodatabase. - Supports playing audio on network devices e.g. Chromecast.
- Support for imports from Gradio.
How to Install Shortwave on Linux
Installing Shortwave is as easy as installing any Flatpak application. After having setup Flatpak on your machine, run the following command to install Shortwave:
$ flatpak install flathub de.haeckerfelix.Shortwave
If you fancy, you can download Shortwave’s nightly builds using the command.
$ flatpak install https://haeckerfelix.de/~repo/shortwave.flatpakref
The nightly repository is automatically updated every day and you can update to the latest build by simply running Flatpak update.
Got a question you want to ask? Or a suggestion that you want to make? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
