The fight for the headphone jack is long-lost, but Bluetooth continues to add new improvements to its technical standards hoping to make the experience even better with time. One of those improvements is the new Bluetooth LE Audio spec, which was finalized just today. This new technology brings audio streaming to low-energy Bluetooth, improving battery life — one of the banes of Bluetooth existence. On top of that, it adds support for the Auracast broadcast audio standard, so multiple people tune in to the same audio feed, and introduces long-awaited support for Bluetooth hearing aids.

You might be thinking that Bluetooth LE Audio sounds pretty familiar, and you'd be right. The Bluetooth SIG (the organization behind the development of new standards) has been teasing us with details about the new LE Audio since 2020. This also further builds on the existing Bluetooth Low Energy standards that debuted over a decade ago, so there's a long development history.

Fundamentally, Bluetooth LE Audio is as simple as its name suggests once you break it down. It's Bluetooth LE but for audio applications. The benefits are also clear from this deconstruction: Bluetooth LE Audio should deliver some big power savings compared to regular old Bluetooth. LE Audio also expands the bitrate depth of the standard licensed audio codecs it's compatible with, offering potentially improved audio quality in some circumstances. The addition of Auracast means more devices will support sharing audio — you know, like the Bluetooth Audio Sharing standard that was previously announced. This is a feature that other companies have implemented themselves with things like Samsung's Dual Audio, letting multiple audio devices tune in to the same audio feed, but now it will be available to more devices.

Lastly, there's support for Bluetooth hearing aids, which are actually a thing and have been in the works now for years. Android Police's Manuel Vonau did a deep dive into the subject last year, discussing details with representatives from a few different companies and even showing what Google has been doing to help, like bundling in features that companies had implemented themselves into the standard to make sure it has everything it needs to in order to work well. The short version is that Bluetooth LE will offer benefits like adjusting hearing aid settings from connected devices while also enjoying the power efficiency improvements and other customization options.

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Image source: Bluetooth SIG

Bluetooth LE Audio isn't all about just benefits; there are a few costs. For one, the new audio streaming requires a new type of codec to work. This is where that discussion of audio quality improvements gets a little murky. Last year, one of the hearing aid companies that has been working on the technology told us that technically it can't hit as high of a quality as some other Bluetooth audio codecs do. However, compared to Bluetooth's standard SBC codec, the new LC3 codec should offer comparable-to-better perceived sound at a lower bitrate, and it has a higher maximum sampling rate and bitrate than the standard codec did. You can listen to a demonstration of the quality differences over at the Bluetooth site. So far as I can tell, that means Bluetooth Audio LE will deliver a better "base" audio experience, but other codecs that companies sometimes pay extra to include may offer better quality still.

According to today's announcement, the standard for Bluetooth Audio LE has now been finalized, and products using the new standard should debut in the coming months.