Farwave, an iPhone and iPad app, lets people find world radio stations by spinning a 3D globe to a region and tapping on a station, according to a 9to5Mac report published September 12 as part of the outlet's weekly Indie App Spotlight series. The Farwave app is free to download, with a subscription tier that adds podcasts, imported music, and other features.
That's the core of what's confirmed so far: a free geographic radio app with a paid layer on top. The rest of this piece breaks down availability, how the globe interface works, what the Pro subscription is reported to include, and what anyone considering the app should know before downloading it.
Farwave app availability and Pro pricing on iPhone and iPad
Farwave requires iOS 18 or later on iPhone and iPadOS 18 or later on iPad. The current App Store listing also lists compatibility with Macs running macOS 15 or later on an M1 chip or newer and Apple Vision devices running visionOS 2 or later, although the app is described as designed for iPad and not verified for macOS.
Anyone unsure which software version they're running can check under Settings > General > Software Update before searching the App Store for it.
The base app is free. Farwave Pro costs $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year in the US pricing reported by 9to5Mac and unlocks, in the report's words, "the full experience, including podcasts, music imports, and more."
The report names podcasts and music imports specifically but doesn't spell out everything covered by "and more," so the complete free-versus-paid split isn't fully documented in the reporting.
One detail is clear regardless: Farwave's music feature doesn't currently integrate with Apple Music. The developer instead supports manual audio imports as the alternative.
How the Farwave radio app's globe interface works
The interaction described in the report is geographic rather than purely search-based. Users spin and zoom the globe, find a region, and tap on a station.
A "Take me anywhere" button picks something at random for listeners who don't want to hunt for a specific place, and the app saves listening history so people can return to a station later.
Farwave also supports browsing stations by country, searching for a specific station or genre, and viewing curated picks. The 3D globe serves as the app's main visual navigation tool rather than a supplementary feature.
The report describes Farwave as letting users listen to radio stations around the world. The developer has since identified Radio Browser as the directory behind radio discovery, with bundled station data, caching, and alternate directory hosts.
That provides more detail about where station listings come from, but it still doesn't guarantee complete or identical coverage in every country. Station availability can vary, and the App Store listing warns that individual broadcasts may contain advertising.
What Farwave Pro includes for podcasts and music
Beyond radio, the app also organizes podcasts and music using the same planetary metaphor, with each category appearing in its own separate world.
On the podcast side, Pro subscribers can search for shows or manually add an RSS feed. The app supports saved playback progress, playback queues, adjustable playback speed, saved episodes, offline downloads, and sleep timers.
Those are the specific tools documented in the current listing. How they compare with dedicated podcast apps is a separate question.
Music works differently. Since the music feature doesn't currently connect to Apple Music, users instead bring in their own audio files from the Files app or transfer them from a computer on the same Wi-Fi network.
Each artist appears as its own signal, and imported tracks stay on the device for offline playback. The current App Store listing specifies support for MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, AIFF, CAF, and FLAC files.
Users can tap an artist to shuffle that artist's songs or play the entire imported collection as a personal radio station. The music planet can also be given its own name and color.
The listing describes manual file imports and does not identify a built-in music streaming catalog. Apple Music integration is not currently supported.
What the current listing establishes
Several practical questions left open by the original 9to5Mac report are answered by Farwave's current App Store listing.
Cross-device behavior isn't identical for every part of the app. Radio favorites can sync through iCloud, while podcast libraries and imported music remain stored separately on each device. That means someone moving between an iPhone and iPad shouldn't assume downloaded podcasts, podcast progress, or a local music collection automatically move with them.
Live radio and streaming podcasts require an internet connection. Downloaded podcast episodes and imported music can be played offline.
The App Store privacy label currently says purchase history may be collected and linked to a user's identity for analytics and app functionality. Apple notes that this privacy information is supplied by the developer and hasn't been independently verified by Apple.
The listing does not clearly establish that users must create a separate Farwave account to use the app.
Some gaps remain. The current materials don't provide a country-by-country station count or guarantee that a particular station will always be available. They also don't fully itemize every feature included in Farwave Pro versus the free tier.
What's confirmed, and what to check first
Farwave is a free download built primarily for iPhone and iPad running iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 or later, with Farwave Pro priced at $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year in the US pricing reported by 9to5Mac.
The available material confirms the globe-based radio interface, the random-discovery button, station search and browsing, listening history, podcasts, RSS feeds, offline podcast downloads, and local music imports.
It also now confirms support for MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, AIFF, CAF, and FLAC files. Radio favorites can sync through iCloud, while podcasts and imported music remain local to each device.
Station depth in a particular country and the complete free-versus-paid feature split are still worth checking before subscribing. The free download gives users a way to test the globe-based radio experience first, while anyone considering Farwave Pro should check the current in-app subscription screen for the exact price and features offered in their App Store region.
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