The new version of Android released this year by Google has brought many changes such as a new Material You interface, new functions dedicated to accessibility and the new privacy dashboard. Other than these, there are a few presents under the hood. These include the introduction of the new Bluetooth LE Audio API dedicated to low-power audio transmission via Bluetooth.
This is a new standard that allows you to transmit high-quality audio even at low power, thus reducing consumption and saving battery. It also adds the Multi-Stream Audio support for enhanced audio experience of true wireless headset, the ability to transmit one or more audio streams to an unlimited number of audio devices and more. This new standard was introduced by Bluetooth SIG at CES last year, integrating it into the specifications related to Bluetooth 5.2.
However, the implementation of this standard on Android 12 is not yet perfect and needs further work but, according to the recent commits in the AOSP, it seems that full support will arrive with Android 13.
A new audio codec for Android 13
As noted by Mishaal Rahman, Google has merged commits that add an LC3 (LE Audio) codec type for Bluetooth A2DP within Developer Options. This is a high-quality, low-power codec capable of delivering high-quality audio even at low data rates.
As Mishaal notes, it’s unclear whether these patches are enough to enable full support for Bluetooth LE Audio, but either way, we can expect the codec to be ready for the next version of Android.
Android 13 may be the first release to add full support for Bluetooth LE Audio.
Google recently merged an LC3 (the LE Audio codec) encoder and is adding the codec as an option in settings. It’ll be the highest priority A2DP source codec.
Commits: https://t.co/tXicKLMZbq pic.twitter.com/ZHcd22grEs
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) December 21, 2021