For those traveling with friends or family, sharing audio can be difficult. Whether it’s a movie or a shared playlist, current Bluetooth limitations limit streaming to a single device at a time. Fortunately, the Bluetooth LE Audio standard and Auracast feature provide a solution to this.

Auracast lets you stream audio to nearby devices via Bluetooth Low Energy. Unlike traditional Bluetooth, Auracast does not require pairing between source and receiving devices. In such cases, you can imagine your phone acting like a mini radio tower, transmitting an audio stream that can be received by other devices. It cannot be said that smartphones do not have such audio sharing features. But they are often limited to their own mini-ecosystems.

Samsung phones, for example, have a feature called “Dual Audio” that allows you to send media audio to two different Bluetooth devices at the same time. But you need special Samsung devices to work. There’s also Apple’s “Share Audio” feature, but it only works between iPhones.

Auracast, on the other hand, can be used on any device or platform that licenses the technology from the Bluetooth SIG, the body that governs Bluetooth standards. Announced in 2022, Auracast was adopted by smartphone manufacturers. However, this is changing as Bluetooth LE Audio becomes a standard feature.

Most importantly, Android 15 includes a dedicated “voice replacement” page for managing Auracast streams. This feature allows users to find, connect or start their own Auracast broadcasts.

Mishal Rahman from the Android Authority blog says that he managed to enable this feature on the Pixel 8 Pro running Android 15 Beta 1.1, allowing it to successfully connect to Samsung Galaxy devices running One UI 6.1. It’s worth noting that these devices require Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro headphones that support Auracast.

According to the report, to start Auracast streaming on Android 15, the user needs to go to Settings > Connected Devices > Connection Options > Audio Sharing. There will be a “share audio” switch that will start the broadcast.

For secure connections, Mishall notes that users can set a stream name and password in their “stream settings.” They can also create a QR code for others to scan and join the stream.

Once connected, both devices play the same audio through their respective headphones, says Mishall. However, we should point out that Auracast only supports one-way streaming. This means connected devices cannot control playback on the source device.