Eter: how I created universal radio app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV

A few years ago I described here on Medium how I switched the career path from the tech blogger to a junior Swift developer, and how I created and released my first app, a free PDF reader for Mac with color inversion, called Negative (that is doing great in App Store btw).

Today I am back with another story. My new universal radio app for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and tvOS, called Eter.

Eter is free (freemium with one little IAP) and it is available in the App Store.

From New World to all over the world

Work on the Eter app started in June last year, when new internet radio station, called Radio Nowy Świat (Radio New World) was launched in Poland. On the day that this station started broadcasting on the network, or actually the first few days of broadcasting, it did not have a dedicated application for listening to it on an iPhone or Mac. So I decided to write a simple program for myself and a few friends to pick it up. The name came to my mind right away — Eter (English aether). Its first, very primitive version was uploaded to Test Flight a few hours after Radio Nowy Świat started broadcasting.

The launch of the new internet radio was also a good excuse for me to write an application from scratch using the new Apple framework, presented for the first time two years ago at the WWDC conference. I am talking about SwiftUI, of course. It was supposed to be a universal program for almost all platforms, i.e. for iOS / iPadOS, macOS and tvOS.

I was sure that the official application of Radio Nowy Świat was already underway and I did not intend to race with its creators. So my simple program quickly became an application that offered access to my favorite radio stations (including French radio stations: RFI and France Culture), and over time I also added those suggested by my friends. There were so many suggestions about the next stations that came from beta users, that after some time I decided to use the publicly available base of radio stations offering their stream on the Internet to the public — Radio Browser. So the application now features a search engine and the ability to add your own stations.

27,000 stations in 490 languages

Eventually, Eter hit the store last week. In addition to the list of recommended stations (which include Polish stations like: Radio Nowy Świat, Radio 357, TOK FM, HTM Eco Radio, Rockserwis FM, French stations: RFI, France Culture, and English language stations: BBC World Service and Chilltrax), the program offers the possibility of searching and listening to about 27,000 stations available in the mentioned Radio Browser database. Of course, the iOS version of the program supports CarPlay. There is also AirPlay support for iOS and macOS versions.

In the version of the application for iOS / iPadOS and macOS, users can save their favorite stations on their own list, which is synchronized via iCloud between all versions of the program (iOS / iPadOS, macOS and tvOS). It is also the only feature that is not enabled by default. Adding (and removing) stations to your favorites list (“My Stations”) requires unlocking the program with a one-time In App Purchase payment.

I’m not a huge fan of subscriptions at every turn. I believe that a one-time payment of $2.99 to unlock both the iOS and macOS versions is a reasonable and fair price. Let me also remind you that the ability to listen to all stations in the Radio Browser database is free in the application. Without unlocking the possibility of adding stations to your own list, you simply have to use the built-in search engine each time.

Plans for the coming weeks and months

In the coming weeks, I plan to add support for Siri shortcuts in the iOS version, a widget with a recently played station. An app for Apple Watch is also planned. I am also thinking about a few lists of recommended stations to choose from (e.g. for individual countries or language versions of the system).

Ether for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and tvOS in the App Store for free.