iHeartRadio gets Pandora-like playback with latest update for Windows Phone

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

It's been awhile since we looked at iHeartRadio, the popular radio app available across devices and for the web. It was in October that the app went to v3.0 and received Mango support and a few days ago, version 4.1 hit the Marketplace bringing a nice make over with some bonus features on board.

Gone is the grey photo background and instead we have just pure black with red text. The UI now is much more minimalist and Metro, giving the app a fresh new bold look which we really like.

But the biggest feature is the addition of "custom radio" which is very similar to Pandora. You choose a station to create based on a song, artist or genre and iHeartRadio will select tunes based off of that criteria. You can then thumbs up/down songs and from that, refine your musical selection. Likewise you can still pull down lyrics, pin the station to your start screen and purchase/download tracks from the Zune Marketplace.

All in all it has been working great on our end and considering it's free, we see no reason not to try it if you like your music on the go. Grab it here in the Marketplace. Thanks, Ronald V., for the heads up Edit: Turns out this isn't available to those in the UK, for whatever reason.

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

12 Comments
  • Like finally!! I hated radio stations..
  • Still not available in Uk. Suggest you add US only mention to story to avoid disappointing people?
  • Yeah, it's definitely US only. No radio love in Australia :/
  • I do no need for Pandora anymore. This app goes above and beyond Pandora by offering live stations and custom radio. I especially like how you can choose how much of a variety of music you'd like on your custom stations.
  • Yet they STILL haven't fixed the huge Bluetooth problem!  I've sent them countless emails on this problem.  When listening to iHeartRadio over a BT earpiece the program buffers a chunk of audio the shotguns it to the earpiece at highspeed, so that it sounds like chipmunks.  Then it goes silent while it's buffering another  burst and the process is repeated.  iHeartRadio is the only app I have that does this.
  • Great app update. Laps Pandora and last.fm at the same time.
  • I wonder how well it works on 2G or throttled connections, guess ill find that one out during my commute tonight. Slacker works great on 2G/Throttled.
  • Hmmm,
    I just noticed that the UPDATE notification doesn't work for iHeart Radio. I was still on version 3.1 and had to remove it manually in order to be able to get version 4.1 installed.
  • Sometimes it takes a day or so for them to push out for everyone... It's happened to me for dozens of other apps.
  • This is an amazing update. I was using TuneIn for radio and MetroRadio for Pandora. Now both can be replaced by iHeartRadio. I especially like the way it gives choice for custom radio i.e Familiar, Mixed and Discovery.
  • I hate The Cure! :P
  • I had to flash my 920 and now I am no longer able to install it because my device is not supported.... WTF