Android 13 Could Improve Audio Quality with Full Support for Bluetooth LE Audio

Last Updated on December 27, 2021 by Anu Joy

Android 12 brought with it a major UI refresh with its ‘Material You’ theme, security improvements with its Privacy Dashboard, improved notifications, and more. Besides these changes, it also laid the groundwork for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio with its Bluetooth LE Audio API. Now, according to recent commits spotted on the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP), it looks like Android 13 could fully support Bluetooth LE Audio.

First spotted by eagle-eyed Mishaal Rahman, Google has merged the LE Audio codec (a Low Complexity Communications Codec encoder called LC3). This codec will now be available in settings with the highest priority A2DP source codec. The LC3 is a new low-power audio codec in Bluetooth LE Audio that aims to provide high-quality audio even at low data rates. Rahman isn’t sure if these patches will finally add full support for Bluetooth LE Audio. However, we can expect the codec to be ready when Android 13 finally launches.

Bluetooth LE Audio is touted to improve battery life greatly and also provide a stable connection. It is reported to come with Multi-Stream Audio support meant to improve audio experience on truly wireless earphones. Moreover, it could also broadcast one or more audio streams to more than one pair of headphones. Its benefits are not limited to consumer devices alone; the new standard will also help with accessibility by supporting hearing aids.

It is speculated that Bluetooth LE Audio could only be available in high-end headphones, earbuds, and hearing aids, as well as phones. To get the system to function on current hardware, smartphones will need to pack the Snapdragon 888 and 865+ and newer.

Besides full support for Bluetooth LE Audio, Android 13 is rumoured to bring many other features such as NFC payments for secondary user profiles, language customisation on app-by-app basis, as well as a new energy management feature called The Android Resource Economy (TARE).