Pixel 8a may not have Android 15 audio sharing feature

If you want to privately share what you’re listening to with friends or family members, you’ll usually need complicated cabling with splitters or for everyone to have the same brand of device. That’s because most Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices and wireless headsets don’t also support the standard LE audio broadcasting feature, which standardizes how devices transmit audio to one or more nearby devices over Bluetooth Low Energy.

While the best Android phones on the market already support LE Audio and are theoretically capable of supporting the broadcast function, it’s possible that not every LE Audio-enabled device will gain support for broadcasting. Take Google’s Pixel 8a and Pixel 7 series, for example. While these devices support one-way LE Audio streaming—sending audio over Bluetooth LE to a single headset—they’re poised to lose LE Audio broadcasting support, according to Android Power analysis.

Earlier this year, we shared a first look at one of the most exciting new features in Android 15, called Bluetooth Audio Sharing. Audio Sharing is the user-visible name Google has given to Bluetooth LE Audio streaming, or Auracast, according to Bluetooth SIG marketing. The Audio Sharing page in Android 15 makes it easy for users to start or connect to an Auracast stream, but it’s only available on devices that support LE Audio streaming. To test the feature, I had to manually enable LE Audio streaming support on my Pixel 8 Pro, as well as enable Android 15’s audio sharing feature. Then, I started a stream on my Pixel 8 Pro and connected to it with some of my Auracast-enabled Samsung devices.

Enabling LE Audio streaming support on my Pixel 8 Pro was pretty straightforward, as firmware support was already there. All I really had to do was set two system properties — bluetooth.profile.bap.broadcast.assist.enabled AND bluetooth.profile.bap.broadcast.source.enabled — to true for LE Audio support. These system properties enable the Basic Audio Profile (BAP) transmission helper role and the source role, respectively. The helper role allows devices to discover and connect to Auracast streams, while the source role allows devices to transmit Auracast streams.

None of the system properties are enabled by default on any Pixel device, including the Pixel 8 Pro. However, if you compile an Android build for the Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro using RELEASE_PIXEL_BROADCAST_ENABLED flag, and then these two system properties are automatically added and enabled. Interestingly, the Pixel 8a device make-file is missing a conditional statement that inserts these system properties. That doesn’t mean you can’t add it later, but the interesting thing is that it’s only missing for the Pixel 8a and not the Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro.

To clarify, I asked several sources if they had any additional information to confirm whether this was intentional or something that would be added in the future. One source shared that they’d seen evidence suggesting that Google intends to reserve LE Audio support for “leading phones” in the Pixel lineup, suggesting that it’s being intentionally held back for the Pixel 8a. I’ve reached out to Google to see if they can comment, and I’ll update this article with that statement if I hear back.

The Pixel 8a’s discontinuation of Bluetooth LE Audio support would be disappointing, but ultimately not surprising. After all, it wouldn’t be the first audio-related feature reserved for Google’s premium phones, as spatial audio is noticeably absent from any Pixel A-series devices. Speaking of which, the Pixel 8a’s make file clearly shows that while a spatial audio system library is included, it’s missing a system property that declares that the device supports spatial audio, unlike the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Device make-files are a great way to define which files and properties to include in your Android build, so the fact that the Pixel 8a make-file makes no mention of the required LE Audio properties suggests that the feature won’t be available on the device. We hope that won’t be the case when Android 15’s audio sharing feature finally launches, as it would be a bummer if only the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel 9 series supported the feature. Unfortunately, it’s possible that the Pixel 7 series won’t support the feature either, as their make-files also don’t declare any LE Audio properties. Similarly, the Pixel 6 series definitely won’t support the feature, as it doesn’t even support Bluetooth LE Audio.