Echo vs ZuckOff

Echo is the ultimate, natively-built iOS client for tuning into remote radio servers. Listen to anything, from anywhere. Dive into international shortwave broadcasts from Asia, monitor aviation communications over the Atlantic, discover mysterious numbers stations, or tune into distant FM stations across the globe, all from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Apple silicon. Featured in Radio World, on RTL-SDR.com, and in the SWLing Post. Radio World's Nick Langan praised Echo's "thoughtfully designed interface," said he has "loved using" the app, and later described Echo Pro's transcription as "very responsive." Designed for radio enthusiasts and curious listeners alike, Echo is a powerful aggregator that connects you to nearly 3,000 community-hosted Software Defined Radio (SDR) receivers. By integrating these reliable streams into a dedicated native environment, Echo delivers true background audio, high-performance mapping, and features that are difficult to achieve in a standard web browser. KEY FEATURES Global Interactive Map & Search Visually browse thousands of remote SDR servers worldwide using our smooth, native MapKit clustering engine, or instantly search nearly 3,000+ receivers by name or location. Unmatched SDR Compatibility Seamless support for KiwiSDR, OpenWebRX, WebSDR, and FM-DX Webserver architectures. Want to listen to a private node? Add your own unlisted servers with custom URL entry. Scanner Mode Automatically cycle through station lists at set intervals. Advanced Tuning & Analytics • Smart Manual Tuner: Instantly tune by entering kHz or MHz; Echo intelligently detects the band format. • Audio Engine Passthrough: Interfaces directly with server-side signal processors for broad compatibility with waterfall rendering, plugins, and decoding extensions. • Intelligent Profile Switching: Automatically switches to the correct server band profile as you tune on supported networks. Offline Frequency Library & Logging Search an offline, built-in EIBI database of over 9,000 global shortwave and utility frequencies. Save and log your favorite stations to your local device. Uninterrupted Background Audio Keep listening when your screen is locked or while using other apps. Our custom audio bridge intercepts complex SDR streams to provide true iOS background playback and lock-screen controls. ECHO PRO Take Echo further with recording, live transcription, translation, and iCloud sync. • Record the Airwaves: Record live radio and revisit important moments anytime. • Live Transcription: Turn live radio into on-screen text as you listen. • Translation: Transcribe foreign-language broadcasts and translate them into readable English. • iCloud Sync: Sync recordings, transcripts, translations, notes, favorites, saved servers, and supported settings across your Apple devices. Echo Pro requires a monthly or annual subscription. Privacy First Zero tracking. No analytics, no proprietary tracking servers, and no ad IDs. Your listening activity is not tracked. Echo Pro syncs supported data through your private iCloud account. Built with speed, aesthetics, and privacy in mind, Echo ensures a fast, premium listening experience. Start exploring the airwaves today! VoiceOver & Accessibility Support • Station cards, player, recording, and scanner controls announce meaningful context to VoiceOver • Scanner controls (play/pause/skip/favorite) are fully labeled and navigable • Station changes, server connections, and scanner state are announced in real-time • Reduce Transparency support: glass effects swap to solid backgrounds when enabled • Reduce Motion support: animations are simplified when enabled in iOS settings • Decorative elements hidden from assistive technology for a cleaner navigation experience Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Camera glasses announce themselves over Bluetooth. ZuckOff listens for those announcements and tells you when a lens is in the room. ■ What it spots • Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta, by the manufacturer signature in their Bluetooth advertisement • Snap Spectacles • Display glasses and headsets, including Quest and Vision Pro, are named in the log but never flagged: a headset is a camera you can see coming • The full list, and how each one is recognised, is in the app ■ The evidence, shown • Every flag lists what matched, whether that was a manufacturer ID, a service UUID or an advertised name • Confidence is rated low, medium or high, and the app says which • You can disagree with it, because the reasoning is never hidden ■ Every device, logged • History keeps a record of every Bluetooth device heard nearby, glasses or not • A signal timeline for each device • Own a pair yourself? Mark them once and they stop raising alerts ■ Reports from people nearby • Spot a pair? Tap Report, and ZuckOff users within 500 m are told for the next 30 minutes • Turn on Alerts from people nearby in Settings to hear about reports around you. Reporting and alerts are free • Pro adds a map of reports around you and a reach of 250 m or 1 km ■ On Apple Watch • Check around me scans from your wrist for fifteen seconds and shows the same evidence as the iPhone • Meeting mode, part of Pro, keeps scanning until you tap Stop and buzzes when a pair turns up • The watch listens only while ZuckOff is open on its screen • With Pro, a watch face can show the last verdict from your iPhone ■ Shortcuts and Siri • Start scan, Stop scan, Get scan status and Get suspect count work in the Shortcuts app, in automations and with Siri • An automation can stop the scan when you get home, even with ZuckOff closed, and start it again when you leave ■ How close, not which way • Signal strength gives a rough distance and no direction at all • ZuckOff shows proximity bands rather than an arrow, because an arrow would be invented ■ What it cannot do • Glasses advertise loudest while powering on, pairing, or leaving the case. Once paired to their owner's phone they can go quiet, so silence here does not mean nobody is recording • A detection does not mean anyone is recording either. ZuckOff sees that a device is nearby and nothing about what its owner is doing with it ■ Your data • No account, no analytics • The log never leaves unless you export it yourself, or choose to send a hardware report for a device ZuckOff does not recognise • A report shows you exactly what it contains before anything is sent • Reports from people nearby are the one feature that uses your location. It is rounded to about 100 m and leaves the phone only when you send a report or turn on their alerts • Your iPhone shares its last verdict with your paired Apple Watch and nothing else ■ ZuckOff Pro Scanning is free and always will be. Pro is for the times you are not looking at the screen: background monitoring, alerts, the Live Activity, the Home Screen widget, meeting mode and the watch face on Apple Watch, history beyond 24 hours, and CSV export. $9.99 per year, with the first week free. The subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and renewals are managed in Settings on your device. A lifetime option is also available: one payment, no subscription, Family Sharing on. One purchase covers iPhone, Apple Watch and ZuckOff for Mac, which is on the Mac App Store. ZuckOff is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Meta Platforms, Luxottica, Ray-Ban, Oakley or Snap. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/