For those who travel with friends or family, sharing audio can be a challenge. Whether it’s a movie or a shared playlist, current Bluetooth limitations restrict streaming to one device at a time. Thankfully, the Bluetooth LE Audio standard and its Auracast feature offer a solution for that. 

Auracast allows broadcasting audio to nearby devices via Bluetooth Low Energy. Unlike traditional Bluetooth, Auracast doesn’t require pairing between source and receiving devices. 

In such cases, you can imagine your phone acting like a mini radio tower, transmitting an audio stream that other devices can pick up.

Image: Android Authority

It’s not that there are no such audio-sharing features on smartphones. But they are often limited to their mini ecosystem. 

For example, there’s a feature in Samsung phones called “Dual Audio” that allows you to send your media audio to two different Bluetooth devices at once. But it requires specific Samsung devices to work. There’s also Apple’s “Share Audio”, but it works only between iPhones. 

Auracast, on the other hand, is available to any device or platform that licenses the technology from the Bluetooth SIG, the governing body for Bluetooth standards.

While announced in 2022, Auracast has been adopted by smartphone manufacturers. However, with Bluetooth LE Audio becoming a standard feature, this is changing. 

Most importantly, Android 15 natively introduces a dedicated “audio sharing” page for managing Auracast streams. The feature allows users to find, connect to, or initiate their own Auracast broadcast. 

Mishal Rahman in a blog on Android Authority says that he has managed to enable the feature on a Pixel 8 Pro running Android 15 Beta 1.1 allowing successful connection with Samsung Galaxy devices running One UI 6.1. 

Notably, these devices required Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro earbuds, which have Auracast support.

Bluetooth Aurcast Android 15
Image: Android Authority

According to the report, to start an Auracast stream on Android 15, the user needs to navigate to Settings > Connected devices > Connection preferences > Audio sharing. There will be a toggle for “share audio” that will initiate the broadcast. 

Mishall notes that for secure connections, users can set a broadcast name and password under “stream settings.” Alternatively, they can also generate a QR code for others to scan and join the stream. 

Once connected, Mishall says both the devices played the same audio through their respective earbuds. However, a thing to note is that Auracast only supports one-way broadcasts. That means connected devices cannot control playback on the source device.

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