Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android 16 Developer Preview 1 introduces a new Audio Sharing feature that lets other people listen to your phone’s media along with you.
- This feature is based on Auracast, which is the marketing term for Bluetooth LE Audio broadcasting.
- Of Google’s Pixel phones, only the Pixel 8 and later (excluding the Pixel 8a) support Auracast, however.
Google released the first developer preview of Android 16 earlier today, giving us a sneak peek at what to expect in next year’s big update. As usual, the company didn’t highlight any user-facing changes in its blog post announcing the update, which is understandable since it’s a developer preview. However, after installing the update on one of my own Pixels, I started digging into the update to find out what’s new. To my surprise, a feature that I’ve been tracking for nearly 10 months has finally gone live in DP1: Audio Sharing.
Bluetooth audio sharing is a feature that I first spotted in early previews of Android 15, but the feature didn’t go live in the Android 15 stable release. However, it’s here in Android 16 DP1 on my Pixel 9 Pro, suggesting that Google plans to roll out audio sharing as part of the Android 16 update. Once you load up Android 16 DP1 on a supported Pixel, you can find the audio sharing feature under Settings > Connected devices > Audio sharing.
On this page, you can enable Audio Sharing by toggling the “Share audio” button. You can customize the name of the audio stream as well as the password needed to access it (or remove the password requirement entirely). You can also toggle “improve compatibility” to make it easier for some devices, like hearing aids, to connect to the session, although this comes at the cost of audio quality.
Once you’ve started an audio sharing session, you’ll see a notification that tells you you’re sharing audio. A button that says you’re sharing audio will also appear in the Bluetooth Quick Setting dialog.
Be warned, though, that the Audio Sharing feature is only available for the Pixel 8 and later (excluding the Pixel 8a). The reason for this is that Android’s Audio Sharing feature only works on devices that support Bluetooth LE Audio broadcasting, i.e. Auracast. Auracast is a feature of the Bluetooth LE Audio standard that lets devices broadcast audio to nearby devices over Bluetooth Low Energy. What makes it neat is that the device that’s doing the broadcasting doesn’t need to pair with the devices receiving the broadcast, sort of like how car radios work.
Basically, with Auracast, you can share your phone’s audio to one or more nearby devices, so long as they all also support Auracast. In order for those nearby devices to actually listen in on the broadcast, though, they need to be connected to a Bluetooth headset that supports Auracast, such as the Pixel Buds Pro 2 or the Galaxy Buds Pro 3.
With Google introducing Audio Sharing in Android 16, hopefully this leads to more Android devices enabling Auracast support. Currently, select Samsung, Xiaomi, and Sony devices also support Auracast, so if you’re in a mixed device household with multiple devices that support Auracast, you can try out the Bluetooth audio sharing feature even if the people on the receiving end of the broadcast don’t have a Pixel 8 or later.