Android 15 may soon let you share audio wirelessly with nearby devices via Auracast

Android 14 has been around for about four months now. If all goes to plan though, we should see Android 15 being rolled out to supported smartphones globally in the next few months. Social media handles and online forums are already buzzing with rumours regarding features on Google’s next major update to its smartphone operating system. One such feature happens to be wireless audio sharing. Read on to find out more.

What is the new audio-sharing feature on Android 15 all about?

As per a report by Mishaal Rahman from Android Authority, several strings were found within the settings app related to audio sharing in the Android 14 PR2 Beta 3 release. They describe a page that contains a switch to share audio, a button to scan a QR code to connect to an audio stream, and a button to change the Bluetooth device you’d like to listen to said stream with, as well as a section which lists all audio streams nearby. The new settings can be found under the “Connection preferences” sub-menu under “Connected devices” in the settings app. The feature is called Auracast.

Aurcast: What it is and how it works

Auracast, for the unaware, is a feature of the Bluetooth LE Audio standard, which enables audio broadcasting to nearby devices using Bluetooth Low Energy, without actually having to pair with them. Now, one may argue that this isn’t necessarily a new feature, with streaming services such as Spotify already allowing for the same via their social listening feature. However, to do this, the streaming service you are using has to support the same. Auracast however, makes it possible to stream audio across devices from any streaming service/app.

The issue, however, is that both- the device broadcasting and receiving the audio, must support Auracast for the feature to work. Now, another issue is that although the feature was first unveiled a little over a year and a half ago, there are hardly any smartphones, headphones or speakers that actually support it. This, however, could change in 2024, as many manufacturers are gearing up to release offerings that support the feature.

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Google has been working on Bluetooth LE Audio integration for smartphones since Android 13. However, it appears that the company is now looking to make it a key feature on smartphones, by putting it under a dedicated menu under the settings app.