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gadget weekly
Each week, Namera Saud Fatmi explores the cool, quirky, and sometimes downright weird world of smartphone accessories, gadgets, and other geeky toys.
Android 15 is coming to an Android smartphone near you. Google continues to release early builds for developers, but his latest Android 15 preview reveals promising features for music lovers like me. It looks like Bluetooth audio sharing between devices will be available natively once the new platform update rolls out, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Listening to music on a Bluetooth speaker is fun, but it’s not always ideal. In some cases, you may want to hear the same audio as your friend or partner, but still have some privacy. In the days before TWS Bluetooth earbuds, such scenarios typically involved sharing a pair of wired earbuds or using an AUX splitter.
Unfortunately, the 3.5mm audio port is in serious jeopardy at the moment. This means that if you want to watch the same movie or YouTube video with someone on your phone or tablet, you’ll need to use the device’s speakers or give each person his own pair of wireless earbuds. And if you’re wearing over-ear headphones, that’s just not possible.
I don’t know about you, but I find this annoying many times. Sometimes my husband and I argue about who gets which earphones when watching something or listening to music. This often happens when traveling.
Samsung rolled out a nifty solution to this years ago. This feature is called dual audio and is included in most brands of mobile phones. Via Bluetooth he can connect two audio devices to his phone and stream the same audio to both at the same time. As long as your Samsung smartphone and audio gadget have Bluetooth 5.0 or later, you can use headphones, earbuds, or speakers. Despite the two-device limit, it’s still a great way to watch or listen to something with someone.
Non-Samsung Android smartphones do not have this feature. This got me thinking, but since multipoint connections have been around for a few years, it felt odd that they weren’t. Since you can already connect multiple devices to his one phone at the same time via Bluetooth, why not also add the ability to push audio playback at once?
I was curious, so I did a little research. Turns out, things are a little more complicated than that. Multipoint revolves around the ability to receive audio from multiple sources. Connecting and outputting to multiple devices at the same time requires different technical specifications. This may explain why only Samsung phones have dual audio. The details of exactly how this works are still vague, and I asked Samsung for details on how dual audio could work on its devices, but no response was received by the time of publication. did not. However, we will update the article when we receive more information. However, compatibility clearly plays an important role here.
Samsung’s Dual Audio is an algorithm optimization that allows Bluetooth 5.0 and later devices to stream audio output to two devices simultaneously. This feature has been around since the days of the Galaxy S8, but Samsung has refined it and emphasized it even more since the Galaxy S21 series.
However, Samsung isn’t the only one with this feature. Apple’s phones have a similar audio sharing feature, and like Samsung, the device must support Bluetooth 5.0 or higher. iPhone can share audio with multiple audio devices via Bluetooth.
As revealed in the Android 15 developer preview, more Android users will be able to share their phone’s audio playback across multiple devices. The feature wasn’t working in preview at the time of this writing, but the option to share the audio with “everyone” gave me more reason to believe that the mere two-device limit doesn’t exist. This is very interesting. .
Based on everything shown, the feature appears to be based on Bluetooth Auracast technology. Auracast was formerly known as Audio Sharing and has just recently been revamped.
Bluetooth SIG released a new and improved version of this feature in June 2022, but thanks to Samsung and One UI 6.1, no devices were released with this feature until recently. One UI 6.1 was recently rolled out to select Galaxy flagship models. Auracast was also shown off at his CES 2024, after which several Samsung devices such as the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro were updated to support it.
The best part about Bluetooth Auracast is that there are no device limitations. It allows you to broadcast your audio output to as many devices as you like. It also requires Bluetooth LE audio and Bluetooth 5.2 to work, so it’s safe to assume it won’t use as much power as Bluetooth Classic.
As we approach the release of Android 15, scheduled for July, my expectations are growing. Google often picks up Samsung’s most in-demand features and integrates them into Android. Quick Share is one example, followed by audio sharing over Bluetooth.
I’m counting on Google to popularize this feature and make it available to all Android users. If the audio sharing feature was indeed powered by Bluetooth Auracast, it would be even more useful and versatile.
All the signs are there. I just hope it plays out as seamlessly as it did in my head. This could revolutionize the way you use your wireless audio gadgets, so it would be a shame if incompatibilities and other issues got in the way.
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