Mobile App Android Public Beta

Your internet radio, now on the go.

We built a dedicated Android version so you can take BearWave with you. Fast, simple, and optimized for touch.

Development paused

Active development of the Android version is currently paused. The app remains fully functional and available to download in its current, stable state, but will not receive new features for now.

Install Options

GitHub GitLab

APK Latest Release

Download

Looking for the desktop app?

BearWave for Linux desktops lives on the main site.

Go to desktop site

Features

Built for mobile listening, not feature checklists.

Core capabilities for on-the-go radio with Android Auto, Cast, and fast station access.

Android Auto

Full dashboard integration. Browse stations, favorites, and control playback directly from your car.

Google Cast

Stream your favorite stations losslessly to any Chromecast-enabled smart speaker.

Built with Flutter

A beautiful, reactive UI that seamlessly adapts to modern dark themes.

Screenshots

Technologies

Mobile platform & integrations

BearWave Mobile uses Flutter, Android Auto, and Google Cast for a seamless mobile experience.

Flutter

Android Auto

Google Cast

Radio Browser API

Background Audio

Material Design

Install

Installation

BearWave for Android is now conveniently available on the Amazon Appstore! Alternatively, you can download the APK from the official repository or install it via Obtainium.

New / Easy

Amazon Appstore

Download BearWave comfortably and securely directly from the Amazon Appstore. Ideal for Android smartphones and Fire OS tablets.

Get it on Amazon Appstore

Manual

APK Installation

Download the latest BearWave APK directly from the official BearWave repository and install it in a few simple steps on your smartphone.

APK Latest Release

Download

Download the APK

Tap the 'Download APK' button above to get the installation file directly on your device. It's easiest to do this right from your smartphone's browser.
Allow installation from this source

On first install, Android asks whether your browser or file manager may install apps — confirm that. If needed: Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps → enable the app you used.
Install the APK

Open the downloaded file from your Downloads folder or notification shade and tap Install. Confirm when Android prompts you.
Launch the app

After installation, find BearWave in your app drawer. On first launch, Android may request media player permissions — these are required for streams and background playback.

Recommended: Android 8.0 (Oreo) or newer. The app is not on the Play Store — download new updates manually or use Obtainium for automatic updates.

FOSS App

Obtainium

Obtainium installs BearWave directly from the official BearWave repository and keeps the app up to date automatically. Open Obtainium, tap on Add App, paste the repository link, and confirm the process.

💡 Set it up once. Obtainium will detect new versions automatically after that.

Obtainium Source

https://github.com/spalencsar/bearwave-android

Download Obtainium

Source code

Flutter Build

Clone the repository and build the app locally with the Flutter SDK.

Open repository

git clone https://github.com/spalencsar/bearwave-android.git
cd bearwave-android
flutter pub get
flutter run

100% Free & Open Source Software

BearWave Mobile is licensed under the GPLv3. No ads, no tracking, no mandatory accounts. The entire source code is available on GitHub and GitLab.

GitHub GitLab

Go to Install View Desktop Version

Frequently Asked Questions

Does BearWave support Android Auto?

Yes! BearWave fully integrates with Android Auto. You can browse your favorite stations, explore Top stations or genres, and control playback directly from your car's dashboard.

Can I cast music to my smart speakers?

Absolutely. BearWave includes Google Cast support so you can seamlessly stream any internet radio station to your Chromecast or Google Home devices.

Will this be available on the Google Play Store?

BearWave is currently distributed via GitLab and GitHub Releases as a sideloadable APK. A Play Store release might happen in the future, but for now you can always download the latest version directly from our repositories.

Where is my data stored on the device?

The app stores your personal settings (such as volume and last station) as well as favorites and listening history locally on the device using Android's SharedPreferences.

Temporary files like station logos or cached album art are stored in Android's standard cache directory, which the system may clean up automatically when needed.

There is no tracking, no analytics services (such as Firebase Analytics), and no ad SDKs. All data stays 100% local on your device.

What permissions does the app require?

BearWave only requests the permissions a media player actually needs — nothing more.

INTERNET

Fetches radio streams and station logos, and powers search via the Radio Browser API.
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE ACCESS_WIFI_STATE

Checks whether an internet connection is available and discovers Chromecast/Google Cast devices on the same Wi-Fi network.
CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE

Required for Google Cast discovery to find devices on your network.
FOREGROUND_SERVICE FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK

Allows stable background audio playback when the screen is locked or you switch to another app.
WAKE_LOCK

Prevents the CPU from entering deep sleep during playback and dropping the stream.

Does it sync with the desktop app?

No. To maximize your privacy and keep the app fully server- and account-free, there is no synchronization between the desktop and Android versions. Both apps work completely independently and locally.

Updates

Release Notes

Version 1.1.1

2026-07-24

Fixed

Prevented Android's release resource shrinker from removing the dynamically referenced Android Auto category and favorite-action icons.
Fixed the empty Android Auto browse screen in optimized release APKs while preserving the existing smartphone and Android Auto behavior.

Version 1.1.0

2026-07-24

Added

Added Android Auto category icons for Top Stations, Worldwide, Favorites, and Recent.
Added favorite controls directly to the Android Auto player, including live updates of the Favorites and Recent folders.
Added Android Auto station preparation, search playback, and queue navigation support.
Added deterministic KDE-style initial logos for stations with missing, broken, or very low-resolution artwork.
Added automatic discovery of higher-resolution station artwork from official homepages, including touch icons, large favicons, web app manifests, and suitable Open Graph images.
Added DNS-based Radio Browser server discovery and automatic failover across available API nodes.
Added a persistent last-known-good country cache for the Flutter catalog and Android Auto.
Added local German and Dutch country names based on ISO country codes, with English API names retained for the English UI and as a fallback.

Changed

Improved Android Auto loading, buffering, retry, queue, and playback-state reporting.
Android Auto now keeps the media session available after Stop, while normal smartphone stop behavior remains unchanged.
Station logos are now rendered consistently across station cards and player views, with images below 64 pixels replaced by the initials fallback.
Homepage artwork discovery uses bounded requests, safe redirects, limited concurrency, and a per-session cache before falling back to Google favicons or generated initials.
Radio Browser requests now retry transient network failures and HTTP 429/502/503/504 responses up to three times, temporarily avoiding failed nodes.
Country lists are sorted and searchable by their localized names in the Flutter catalog; Android Auto Worldwide uses the selected BearWave language as well.

Fixed

Fixed Android Auto Play, Pause, Stop, Next, Previous, station switching, and active media-app behavior.
Fixed stale ICY titles and artist artwork remaining visible after switching stations.
Prevented delayed cover-art results from a previous station from replacing the current station artwork.
Stations without current ICY metadata now show the fallback title and station artwork instead of metadata retained from the previous stream.
Fixed catalog and Android Auto Worldwide failures caused by transient Radio Browser HTTP 503 responses when another node or cached country data is available.

Version 1.0.1

2026-07-21

Added

Data & network preferences to sort station lists by low bitrate (saving mobile data) and filter out offline stations.

Changed

Improved playback buffer settings slider behavior (re-applies only on release instead of dragging).

Fixed

Fixed Android Auto media playback controls to correctly support pause and stop actions.
Fixed an issue where the media player notification and Android Auto screen unexpectedly closed when pausing live streams.
Reset playback retry attempts on manual play command, fixing issues with resuming after a network error or pause.

Contact & Legal Notice

Provider Information (Section 5 DDG)

Sebastian Palencsar

Senior Infrastructure Architect

c/o Block Services

Stuttgarter Str. 106

70736 Fellbach

Germany

Contact

Email: dev@bearwave.app

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