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When Will Auracast Actually Be Enabled for Phonak, Oticon, Signia, etc.? (From a Device Maker’s Perspective)

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The info I get from copilot is that the Pixel 8a and 9a are NOT -capable. I get the same answer from a web search and Gemini. Alas, I can’t find Google documentation on this, but there are forum Q &As on 8a/9a and auracast.

The big deal about auracast to me is that it unshackles from the HA manufacturer’s accessories. For example, I like ReSound’s Multi-mic. It really helps me in many meetings, but a better microphone would help more. If the mic and my HAs were auracast capable, I could use the mic, no matter who made it. If one had an auracast TV and auracast HAs, the HA manufacturer’s TV streamer would be unnecessary. With an auracast system at a movie theater and auracast HAs, one could hear better - and turn down the horrendous loudness of movie theater sound systems. Etc., etc., etc.

At least that’s the vision.

In reply to @philbob57

I think you are correct. The Pixel’s only have LE audio. but they don’t need to have . They can get it with an FMA 120 or Avantree C82 Aura, Voyager, or Audikast 4. there may be a way to get Auracast to Spheres. I have just created a new thread to explore this. Here:

FMA 120 Auracast as receiver (not transmitter) for any phone for audio out to Spheres
Out of the box the FMA 120 can transmit received audio as Auracasts directly to Auracast enabled hearing aids such as ReSound, Jabra, Signia, Starkey, and Oticon (with 1.3.0 firmware). But I have read that the MFA 120 firmware can be flashed to turn from being a transmitter into being a receiver that will capture Auracasts received from other devices or inputs and input that audio into ANY smartphone’s USB port. Once in the phone I think the phone should output that audio to whatever audio out…

This is very confusing. LEA is different from . The chart cited above says the Pixel 8a and 9a are HAP compliant, and that implies BT LEA and that implies auracast is possible, but this article from less than 2 weeks ago, How to use Bluetooth audio sharing on a Google Pixel phone | Android Central1 , states:

You will need a Google Pixel 8 series or newer phone to access this feature, as it requires Auracast. Notably, the Pixel 8a and Pixel 9a are excluded, but all other Pixel 8, Pixel 9, or Pixel 10 series phones are supported.

I haven’t been able to find a statement by Goggle that is the source of the Android Central article. Anybody with sense would place the 8a and 9a into the set ‘newer than the 8,’ but apparently Google doesn’t.

If I wanted to use auracast with my phone and , I wouldn’t buy an 8a or 9a without a believable promise of getting my money back if it doesn’t in fact support auracast.

This is an experimental question, as B. F. Skinner reportedly liked to say. Eventually a 9a or 8a owner will post about auracast working or not with their phones. The sooner, the better….

I asked Google support if the 9a comes with , and I was told it did not come with that ability.

I think we need some clarity on what “having ” means in a mobile phone. From my understanding it can mean

a) the ability to share audio with users of other phones via an Auracast transmission
b) the ability to facilitate the reception of Auracast broadcasts by connected audio devices.

(a) could be a fun thing to have in a social setting but doesn’t do much for accessibility. (b) doesn’t require any special hardware beyond Bluetooth LE. I’d expect any phone that gets the Android 16 update to be able to do this (but I don’t know for sure). I suspect that the statement that Pixel 9a doesn’t support Auracast is referring to (a).

In reply to @TambourineMan

Yes, Type C receiver is on our roadmap, but unfortunately not yet ready. It will be 2026Q2.

HDMI Auracast support - I assume that you refer to Auracast transmitter with HDMI Audio input, correct? I suggest you try our latest launched Crescendo Me / 3D model with also support HDMI passthrough. That should fit your needs. https://avantree.com/products/crescendo-me-tv-wireless-headphones-for-seniors8

In reply to @philbob57

I have Pixel 8 and 9’s (without the “a”) so I can’t help regarding the a’s capability. But I’m curious. Initially I was impressed by LEA, but not so much for but now I see it as very desirable for use in large venues, including airports, halls, theaters, churches, etc. and hope it becomes ubiquitous. But why would you want to broadcast other than to your hearing aids. Isn’t a Bluetooth connection (even non-LEA) adequate for hearing aids? If you need to share a movie or video to a group, in most cases can’t you just cast it to a TV?

@user990 said:

I asked Google support if the 9a comes with Auracast, and I was told it did not come with that ability.

My hat is off to you. Great reminder to work smarter, not harder, and to query real intelligence instead of . What concepts!

In reply to @d_Wooluf

Pixel 9a (or 8a) doesn’t support a) or b) as you define.

Also, for a) and b) to work, you must also have a LE hearing device which supports - the specific Bluetooth profile is called Broadcast Audio Scan Service (BASS), which must be exposed for access.

Generally, we refer the b) function as Broadcast Assistant (BA) in the industry or some people call it Auracast Assistant.

In reply to @TambourineMan

You can try out the new BA308 Recast Dongle from HomeSpot. It can receive audio and re-route it to your Sphere via the smartphone phone. You will also need the QK Recast app for audio routing and Broadcast Assistant BA functions (i.e. find and join broadcasts). One thing to note though, the latency is up to 0.4 seconds for Phonaks.

https://www.amazon.com/HomeSpot-BA308-Recast-Nano-Dongle/dp/B0FKT1P397/21

QK Recast1

Universal Auracast Enable...

QK Recast App - App Store4

Download QK Recast by GT-tronics on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like QK Recast.

In reply to @Deenovan

THANKS! I expect the to prescribe the Sphees tomorrow and am not doing anything until they do. I am just prepping. Who knows maybe Phonak will implement LE audio and before I even get them. You says there my be an UP TO .4 second lag. Would this mean there’s a strong echo between the original audio and the Auracast transmission? If this is the usual amount of delay that might make BA308 / Recast less usable. There are no Amazon reviews yet. It’s nice that it has a Type C connection. Some others have a USB A and A to C adapters are clunky.

iPhone + aids can get latency down to ~0.15s. Android + Bluetooth aids/headphones are typically higher. You may notice delay in church services, but TV watching is usually fine if you mute the TV speakers.

There are still plenty of exciting use cases even with higher audio latency. At a test site last month, we fed audio into a customer’s app for live transcription/translation, and accuracy was much higher than when capturing sound with microphones. That’s just one example.

In reply to @QKSP

@QKSP said:

Pixel 9a (or 8a) doesn’t support a) or b) as you define

Curious. Why would Google not include the assistant role with the ‘A’ series phones when a user can download the app that goes with their hearing device and that app includes the Auracast assistant role? Doesn’t the app use the same services as the OS would?

The companion app of a hearing device doesn’t use the BASS profile for BA access, because they have their own propriertary profile to do the same. In fact, such access of the profile through the generic api (that any app can use) has been removed since Android 13 - that access became restricted and is reserved for OS’s BA. Google is supposed to provide a higher level API - something that the app and OS can share the access of the OS BA. But such API still does not exist today. That’s why you don’t see any generic Android BA app which can work with any capable devices.

@QKSP said:

That’s why you don’t see any generic Android BA app which can work with any Auracast capable devices.

That’s something I’d been wondering about and now I know (kind of). Thanks for the explanation.

In reply to @QKSP

I have a pixel 9 pro and Jabra . The phone has a BA and the Jabra app has a BA. If I understand correctly, these are two separate BAs. Do you know if they interfere with one another?

Sometimes when I try to connect to an I get a message saying the stream is paused. I fiddle about with both BAs and eventually the stream starts again, but I am never sure why.

Indeed, they are seperate. They can interwork but sometimes there are kinks which have weird behavior.

Generally, if you are streaming , neither BA would voluntarily interrupt the stream. The interruptions usually come from an activation of voice call, music (Spotify/YouTube/etc), or notifications which generate sound. If you experience frequent interruption, check your notification settings to avoid sound generation.

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