Have you guys seen this? Apparently Rexton has said that the Reaches will not get Auracast after all per Rexton. Looks like current Signias won’t get it either (Per their web page FAQ).
[I Called Rexton & Philips About the Auracast Update]
Oh, That’s too bad… By the way, we are releasing C82 LEA, the USB C transmitter. It works with Starkey hearing aids under LE Audio one-to-one pairing. We are also looking for testers with other LE Audio hearing aids, like Philips Hearlink 9050,Phonak Infinio Sphere 90,Oticon Intent,Signia Pure Charge & Go IX, Rexton Reach. We will offer a few free testing units to early requesters.
I’m interested in participating as an early tester. I have Infinio I90s and am very satisfied with them. I am a DIYer who can make any necessary adjustments during the trial.
I have Resound Vivia 9 rechargeables and I’m interested in this. I have already bought a Multimic+ and a TV Streamer +. I’m also a beta tester for Naim audio firmware and software. I use Apple products rather than Android. Can I help at all? I’m in UK though.
Sure thing, Please email to support@avantree.com with your hearing aids model and location so we can arrange. Thanks David. It is confirmed that our transmitters work well with Jabra hearing aids. What we would like you to test is to test the C82 / Unicast compatibility, not the Auracast.
What we need is for some countries to start mandating support in Hearing Aids from a certain date. Even if its 2030, its a target date that manufacturers know they must work towards and then it would be a competition to say they support it prior to the required date.
It wasnt part of their new iOS26. But there is talk of Apple putting Bluetooth 6.0 in its next iPhone. That gives a slither of hope.
The entire 90 minute presentation at WWDC was … painful. Disappointing. Every new feature hyped up to the nines and I was sitting waiting for them to announce . Nope. But here’s five minutes on why the trash can icon has been redesigned to be the best ever…
Fully agree – I stay with Apple because of the ecosystem integration but that’s it.
Trash can, emoticons and now this transparency that is a refried version of Windows Vista.
I do not expect suppor/ to be released in September.
I’ve been playing with the beta (MacOS, IOS) and I haven’t found a single feature that I find interesting (except for the multitasking on the iPad, which I have zero use for – I have no desire to use my iPad as a laptop)
is dependent on the “” audio codec.
– Abandon hope, all ye non-nerds who read below here. –
The LC3 codec is required by 5.2; more technically, “lc3” is both a codec and a file container type.
An LC3 codec is supposed to offer mono&stereo at the following sample rates: 8, 16, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz.
The LC3 code is supposed to support bit rates (per channel) up to 320kbits/second.
I’ve tested the Linux “elc3” software, and it supports all of the above except for 44.1 kHz (Compact Disc) sample rate.
Google’s LC3 sample code software can be found at:
Contribute to google/liblc3 development by creating an account on GitHub.
“Low Complexity Communication Codec (LC3)”
I’ve compiled and run this code on Linux, and it seems to work properly. Note, however, that on some Linux distributions, simply installing “elc3” will install an out-of-date version of this software, so you may have to recompile the Google code in order to get an up-to-date (v1.1.3) version of “elc3”, “dlc3”, and “liblc3.so”.
Once you have the latest “liblc3.so” and the latest header (.h) files compiled and installed, you can then “make” a version of ffmpeg which is liblc3-enabled. A liblc3-enabled version of ffmpeg makes it more convenient to run side-by-side comparison tests of lc3 with other audio codecs.
BT 6.0 doesn’t require, but does enable the “LC3plus” codec.
LC3plus adds support for 96 kHz sample rates, plus higher quality and lower latency at 48 kHz sample rates.
LC3plus supports bit depths of 24 bits, and per-channel bit rates of up to 500 kbits/second, as well as latencies as low as 1.25 msec.
LC3plus supports more than 2 channels – e.g., 5 and 7 channels; indeed, LC3plus supports any number of channels.
Presumably, BT6.0 Auracast will support LC3plus.
Here is an authoritative page about LC3plus: LC3plus
“LC3plus is fully backward compatible with LC3 in Bluetooth Low Energy Audio”
LC3plus will supposedly also offer a “lossless” mode, analogous to other lossless audio codecs such as “FLAC” and “ALAC”: CES: Fraunhofer Demonstrates Dynamic Lossless Audio Codec - ETCentric2
“German research organization Fraunhofer IIS has unveiled LC3plus Lossless”
More nerd stuff:
Android 16 has built in: go to System > Developer options > Bluetooth mode and choose “Unicast and Broadcast” (Auracast IS LE Audio Broadcast). Then choose System > Developer options > Enable Bluetooth LE Audio Broadcast UI preview. You have now enabled Auracast if your Android HW supports it.
Android 16 also has a new built-in Linux capability called “Linux development environment” which can be enabled in the “Developer options” section of the “System” settings.
This Linux development environment is a full Debian Linux system running on your Android phone.
Curiously, if I do “sudo apt install liblc3*” in this Linux development environment, I will install v1.0.1, which is NOT up to date, and probably not even up to date with Android 16’s own LC3 implementation !
Although isn’t enabled in iPhones yet, that isn’t necessary for the phone to be able to act as an Auracast switcher. So for example with my GN Resound Vivias, in the Resound Smart 3D app on an iPhone 12 Pro, you can search for and select Auracast broadcasts so that the Vivias choose the correct broadcast.
I don’t think the lack of anything to do with or Auracast in IOS 26 betas means much. The iPhone 17 series have a different Bluetooth chip from the iPhone 16 and earlier. iPhone 17 has the all new Apple implemented 5G, WiFi and Bluetooth chip and the hope is that Apple will have put LE Audio in that.
Incidentally using the Vivias and the Resound TV Streamer +, you get Low Energy Audio unicast between the streamer and the hearing aids and the huge improvement in sound quality compared with streaming from an iPhone using old-fashioned Bluetooth LE is totally startling. Low Energy Audio is truly a game changer.