Android 12 already partially supports Bluetooth LE Audio. Full support for the new standard should however be available in the next iteration of the operating system, Android 13. We take stock of the latest information on this subject.
Android 12 is gradually being deployed on compatible smartphones. Still, its Android 13 successor, aka Tiramisu, is already starting to show up. In addition to the possibility of deactivating the PhantomProcessKiller functionality, the future OS could indeed fully support Bluetooth LE Audio. If the standard has already been introduced in Android 12 via the API Bluetooth LE Audio, there is still some way to go to implement its full support.
Journalist Mishaal Rahman spotted a commit in the Android Open Source Project. This one shows that Google recently merged the LC3 (LE Audio) codec in order to add it to the system settings as a new option. And the codec will take priority. In other words, compatible devices will try to establish an LE Audio connection first.
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Bluetooth LE Audio: better sound quality and energy savings
It remains to be seen when full support for Bluetooth LE Audio will be available. “I’m not sure if the LE Audio patches that were recently submitted to the Android Open Source Project are sufficient to make it work, but in any case, I think it will be ready for the release of Android 13 “, underlines Mishaal Rahman.
Concretely, this new standard appears as the future of audio streaming as True Wireless wireless headphones and Bluetooth audio headsets have established themselves on the market. But what is its added value? The LC3 codec makes it possible to distill highly qualitative sound. And this even when the bandwidth is reduced. Bluetooth LE Audio also reduces energy consumption. But also of support multiple streams by streaming audio to multiple devices simultaneously. In addition, hearing aids should also benefit from this new standard.
Source: XDA Developers
