[Jimbee (OP)]

Whatever happened to antennae? Everything that transmitted or received a radio signal had to have one. They weren't necessary. But they improved the reception. Now nothing ever has them anymore. I know smartphones.don't. Does anything else today use an antenna?

[Bored chemist]

They shrank.

[Petrochemicals]

The distance between receivers reduced. Satellites in space and receiver masts are common, that receiver has not only got closer( I can see it) it is also very big, about the size of a transit van. Ham radios still have substantial antennae, so do analogue radios.

[alancalverd]

Ferrite loading, the use of higher frequencies, and signal coding, has reduced the required size of most antennae.

[Bored chemist]

Ferrite

Ferrite happened before radio.
Artificial ferrites started in about 1930 and became commercially useful by about 1945.
https://fair-rite.com/history-of-ferrite/

So, most of us don't remember the days before ferrites.

What really happened was fast enough semiconductors to handle signals with high enough frequencies that (for example) a quarter-wave antenna will fit inside the box, rather than having to stick out.
Phones using 900MHz signals can use much smaller aerials than CB sets using 27 MHz.

WiFi at about 2.4 GHz (and up) uses smaller ones still.

[paul cotter]

I agree with the answers already given but you still need some sort of antenna for decent reception. In modern phones it is integrated internally into the phone itself. And we call them "aerials" on this side of the pond.

[alancalverd]

Ferrite happened before radio.

But you don't fine ferrite-loaded antennae in geological strata, nor indeed anywhere (maybe in pigeons' brains?) before the invention of radio.

[Petrochemicals]

They also changed shape, those dishes and whatnot at the top of telephone towers of the 1960s are high powered long distance transmission transmission apparatus, not sure they could be classed as antennas in common parlance.

[vhfpmr]

Artificial ferrites started in about 1930 and became commercially useful by about 1945.

The world's first radio factory opened in Hall Street, Chelmsford in January1899, five years after Oliver Lodge first communicated using radio waves. Radio was used during the Titanic rescue in 1912, and the world's first entertainment broadcast was made in 1920.

[Bored chemist]

Ferrite happened before radio.

But you don't fine ferrite-loaded antennae in geological strata, nor indeed anywhere (maybe in pigeons' brains?) before the invention of radio.

If you look really carefully, you will see that nobody said otherwise.

[evan_au]

An anecdote: When Apple introduced the original iPhone back in 2007, they built the antennae into the slimline case.
- It had to overcome many technical challenges to fit so much computer circuitry in close proximity to a sensitive radio receiver.
- Early users found that it had poor reception, and sued Apple
- Apparently, the way users held the phone "shorted out" the different segments of the built-in antenna
- Steve Jobs said "You shouldn't hold it like that"
- But images from the early ads showed models also holding the phone in the "wrong" way.

To bring it up-to-date: Modern smartphones have become much more sophisticated; they typically have several antennae which can radiate in different directions, and work together to "beamform" the radiation pattern for best reception (and also work around whatever way you are holding the phone).

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey]

Her antenna broke.