BBC World Service
June 18, 2025
More About BBC World Service
- Listen to your favorite radio programmes free with the audio player, or by using the standard-rate telephone dial-up service.
- You can listen to the most recent editions of:
- The Global News Podcast
- Newshour
- HARDtalk
- Sport Today
- Business Daily
- Focus on Africa, and many more
For EU users only: If you choose to receive customized ads, a unique identifier (Google Advertising ID or Apple’s ID for Advertising) relating to your device will be stored by Zeno Media to provide you with the service and allow customized advertising to be served within the app.
No other Personal Data relating to you (such as a username or email address) is processed. Such information will only be processed in line with Zeno Media’s Privacy Policy, available at https://www.zenomedia.com/wp-content/themes/zeno/privacy_policy.pdf
Find out about your privacy rights and the BBC’s Privacy and Cookies Policy at http://www.bbc.co.uk/privacy
Notifications may include alerts, sounds and icon badges. These can be reconfigured in Settings (notifications). Details of data this app collects, including the unique identifier relating to your device and your location data, is also found under Settings.
Latest Version
4.8.2
June 18, 2025
Zeno News
IT Tools
Android
1,571,282
Free
com.audionowdigital.player.bbcworld
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User Reviews
Glen English
1 week ago
crashes regularly... ads too loud (dynamically compressed audio) ..locks up when connection poor, otherwise ok. also, at startup, app can freeze at splash with no internet connection. suggest a timeout control.
Yemi Michael
3 years ago
Very good App. I like the fact that They get me updated about Things that happen around the World. It works well. But, there are times it malfunctioned. That was not their fault. It was network issue. One of the Things I like about this app is that they speak Queen's English which is the standard English (the ideal English as spoken in England where English originated from). I am a Lover of Queen's/very good English. So, they got me, hopefully forever! I strongly recommend this app.
Ezekiel Jefet Mclean
2 years ago
Thank you, BBC Worldservice. I can listen to your programs, in Good digital sounds, while scrolling through on other stories, to read. Good morning, BBC. It is my companion, on my smart mobile device. It's so good, you can minimize this app, do other Microsoft Office work on your mobile device, as you listen to it playing in the background. It's Super, BBC. Bless UP! Thank you, London UK. Thank you, BBC Worldservice. Thank you, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
s8piral Polly
4 years ago
It works well, but you cannot start and stop the player in 'sleep mode,' with a headphone button, or the top menu on a phone, without having notifications allowed (which I don't want). You also have to close and reopen the app. to reload new content. The ads are tolerable and the rest of the app. works okay. It is definitely not as good as the old BBC iPlayer and you cannot save podcasts for later playing like the old app. So, while this app. is good for streaming, I still use spotify.
Umar YUsman
1 year ago
Ever since I updated the app the performance is annoyingly underwhelming! With the old app, I could go to other apps and perform so many tasks while the live stream kept on going. With this one, once my screen goes to sleep, it shuts off and most times I would need to restart my phone before getting it to work again! Please do something about this. BBC has been a staple in my life since the days of shortwave. Do not make me turn against my favourite news service!!!
Daniel Chilufya
4 months ago
I want to commend the outstanding performance of the BBC WORLD SERVICE news app! Its seamless operation and user-friendly interface make staying updated with the latest news a breeze. Since I have not had hiccups or glitches, it’s clear that the development team has prioritized reliability and user experience. This app not only delivers timely information but does so with impressive efficiency, making it a top choice for news enthusiasts everywhere. Keep up the good work! It's five stars from me
Veronica Henderson
3 weeks ago
Great. Just wish that, if we sign in as normal when on holiday abroad, we could access ALL of BBC Sounds, as before. After all, we have paid a lot for the licence fee, and the BBC should be able to do this by customer ID, rather than by location. Location shouldn't be relevant to whether you can receive the service, when you are registered as a licence fee payer in the UK.
Tracey Stride
2 weeks ago
No settings are available for wired headsets. It seems that you can't stop a session by clicking the stop button on the headset. This is annoying at night. It means you have to pick up the phone, turn on the screen, put in your passcode, find the BBC app, and click stop. Other radio apps allow a headset to control stop start.
Jane Kohner
10 months ago
Up until the change to the 5G Network, this application was flawless. Very few transmission interruptions or dropped broadcast. Unfortunately, with the introduction of 5G, the BBC is having serious difficulties with interrupted transmissions and dropped transmissions. This is not their fault. They're working to resolve the problem and have included a new feature called call to listen where you use a phone number that is exclusive to your country to dial in to their broadcast.
C. H.
4 years ago
Terrible to use compared to BBC's radio iPlayer: no "go dark" feature, no on screen volume control, can't remove distracting, non-stop banners which just repeat titles at top anyway - so annoying! Program descrition includes faint grey text on white background making it illegible. At least you don't have to sign in to listen like you do on BBC Sounds.
Christopher Goddard
1 year ago
The recent update seems to have broken this ap. The ap will stream if the screen is on, but a few minutes after my screen goes to sleep the ap stops streaming. Very annoying. If I'm not mistaken this same symptom occurred the last time there was a major update. I've checked all applicable settings on my device and it all appears correct to allow extended streaming. Pixel 6a running Android 14.
Rich
4 years ago
I am not happy with the new format. While it apparently glitters to some, I have found it totally useless for it to do what it was intended to to do-----present the news in a non distracting format. I have to go left, right, down (oops, not there), just to try to see today's news. BBC, bad choice! No kudos for you. Looking for new news service.
Alfred Kever
4 years ago
Was my main source for daily international news. Advertising popup is borderline bearable. Short slowloading mediocre Videos starting with 30 second advertising is a waste of time. The advertisement is getting more agressive every week, covering up the entire screen. The only way to get past that full page ad is to open it. If you don't value your own time, BBC is a great App for you!
Chris Tomacelli
3 years ago
I've had BBC as one of my go-to apps for years, however this week the app kept crashing upon opening. Today I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and now most news is gone, only videos and podcasts. Worthless. In addition, the app used to be clean and easy to quickly read headlines and choose stories to read Now, it looks like it was designed by a methhead.
C- ILM
2 years ago
Excellent content & very useful On-air SCHEDULE, but I can't understand why there isn't a SEARCH option! I heard about an interesting episode, but missed its podcast name, so unless it's advertised again, I'll miss it. I'd prefer to see many smaller PODCAST ICONS instead of the current few HUGE ICONS, & would really appreciate Podcast descriptions. Transcripts would be great for those of us with hearing issues. Also, BOOKMARKS & the ability to DOWNLOAD for offline listening would be wonderful.
A Google user
5 years ago
Lots of audio issues! If you already have it open and are listening and want to listen to the LATEST live news, you have to close the app and relaunch it. Often even doing that won't work. What results is whatever you had been listening to, continues to play OVER the live audio. So then you have to uninstall the app and reinstall it. But again, if you make the mistake of wanting to switch from the old live news to the latest, it'll all happen all over again. I gave up! Now I just read stories!
Sharareh Shahrokhi
7 months ago
Very good source of world news by reliable sources of BBC. It's fast and easy, but audi podcast only. However, I really miss the previous BBC App for Android which include both videos and audio, plus the text and articles about world news all in one place. I don't know what happened to it, it suddenly disappeared from my phone sometime early this year, 2024?????
Ben BigB Whittier
3 weeks ago
Apart from the latest app version constantly stopping the stream and forcing me to keep pressing the "play" icon, I've been listening to the World Service since the 1970's, from analog to digital the BBC is truly committed to the highest standards of journalism right down to this app on my phone. Bravo!!
TheClamkinator L.
4 months ago
Live player app (red bagde) doesn't work, as of mid January 2025. It always did stop about once per day, but now only the 5 minute news recap works. I have the latest release, I cleared the app cache, and I restarted phone (this used to work). Now, nothing. Help! I want my BBC, to coin a phrase. (I'm listening to video app (black bage), but it plays different shows.) Also, Call to Listen doesn't work (USA 617 number).
Amy Carlson Miesel
3 months ago
I depend on the BBC World Service. Most of the time, this app works flawlessly, providing this worldwide journalism with some left-leaning bias, to be sure, but still unparalleled global coverage in broadcast journalism. The app did stop working for a couple of weeks this winter. I was still able to listen live through the BBC Sounds app (also good for its search feature), but I am grateful to have this World Service app back to depend upon daily.
