ARD Sounds: Podcast & Radio

ARD Online

About this app

ARD Sounds. Your play button for the day. The free podcast app for Germany: exclusive ARD podcasts, exciting radio plays, free audiobooks, live radio, and reliable news – all in one audio app. For on the go, at home, or while traveling. Here you're connected to the voices you love – from your region and from across the ARD network and Deutschlandradio.

Discover a new way of listening: emotional, informative, inspiring. Whether it's a crime thriller for the car ride, a true crime podcast, live football commentary, or a children's podcast to help you fall asleep – the ARD Sounds app brings you top-quality audio, whenever and wherever you want.

🌟Your free podcast & radio app

• 🎙️Podcasts in German: politics, culture, science, true crime, documentaries, comedy, sports, and more – all the important ARD podcasts in one app.

• 📚 Audiobooks & Radio Plays: Fantasy, classics, novels, and children's audio dramas – you can stream many titles for free and save them to listen to later.

• 📻 Live Radio: Listen to your favorite stations like NDR 1 Niedersachsen, WDR 2, SWR3, BR programs, or Deutschlandradio live anytime – digital radio in the best quality.

• 📰 News & Live Sports: From NDR Info and BR24 to major sporting events – stay up-to-date with the latest news, background information, and reports.

⚙️ More Convenience When Listening to Podcasts

• 💾 Listen to podcasts offline: Download episodes and use the app as a podcast player – perfect for trains, planes, or when you're out and about without reception.

• 💽 Personal Playlists & Watchlists: Create personal playlists with your favorite podcasts, audiobooks, and radio shows.

• 🔁 Continue listening on all devices: With your ARD account, you can sync your favorites and history between your smartphone, web, and other devices.

• 🔍 Intuitive operation: Quickly find new podcasts in German for free – by topic, station, or mood.

📡 Radio & Podcasts in one app
ARD Sounds brings together the best of podcasts, radio plays, audiobooks, and radio: the programs from BR, HR, MDR, NDR, RBB, Radio Bremen, SR, SWR, WDR, and Deutschlandradio in one modern radio app.

❤️ For everyone who loves audio
ARD Sounds is your app for podcasts, audiobooks, radio plays, live radio, news, and knowledge – with depth, heart, and perspective. For everyone who appreciates quality. For everyone who loves to listen. For everyone who wants to stay connected – with the voices they love. Download now for free and immerse yourself.

Ratings and reviews

As a non-native speaker of German, I use the app to listen to interesting content but above all to practise my hearing and understanding. Often the spoken language is too fast and I need to slow it down. The speed options in the app have clearly been designed by someone who has never needed to use this feature themselves: 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, ... If 1x is sometimes too fast for me, 0.75x is much too slow! More helpful would be options like this: 0.8x, 0.85x, 0.9x. 0.95x, 1x, ...

This rating is about the AAOS version of the app. Using it in my Polestar 2 streaming can be started but not stopped. Pressing the Play/Pause button results in a bussy signal overlying the Play/Pause and that's it. An other audio app can be started but just overlying the ARD audiostream.... Only possiblity to get rid of it is resetting the System

The app was working nicely until the Jan 2025 Android update. After that, functionality has deteriorated significantly, particularly the podcast queueing (Wartenschlange), which is absolutely terrible now. Also, no ability to skip forward/back in the media output while phone is in lock mode, which you could do before. I'm having to look towards other apps for german podcasts, as this app is just unusable now.

What’s new

Nach dem großen Neustart in ARD Sounds ziehen wir mit dieser Version ein paar Dinge glatt: Die Datums- und Längenangaben sind zurück und das Abspielen von heruntergeladenen Inhalten funktioniert wieder ohne Internetverbindung. Außerdem haben wir praktische Hinweise zum Entdecken des Radiobereichs eingebaut und schaffen die Grundlage für Push-Nachrichten aus den Redaktionen der Radiowellen.