Imagine that you and your friends are traveling together and want to listen to music as a group. If the app you're using doesn't have a social listening feature like Spotify, it won't be easy to share music with everyone in the group. Auracast, part of Bluetooth LE Audio, aims to solve this problem. Auracast allows you to share audio with nearby devices using Bluetooth Low Energy, without the need to pair. However, for this to work, both the device playing the music and the devices receiving it must support Auracast.
Sharing audio files in Android 15 
Although Auracast was introduced more than a year ago, not many headsets support this technology. This may change in 2024, as many accessory manufacturers plan to release new products with Auracast support, especially since most new smartphones also support the technology. To prepare for these new devices, Google is going to include a dedicated Audio Sharing page in Android 15. This page will allow users to easily share or connect to nearby LE Audio streams.
When I was researching the Android 14 QPR2 Beta 3 release, I found a lot of phrases in the Settings app about audio sharing. These phrases talk about a page with a "switch" (tomble switch) for sharing audio, a button to scan a QR code and connect to a nearby audio stream, another button to select another Bluetooth device to listen to, and a section that shows a list of nearby audio streams.
The page for future audio streams is located in Settings under “Connected devices” and then “Connection settings”. I was able to manually open this page and see its layout. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test running or connecting to a nearby audio stream because I don't have a device that supports Auracast streaming.
Google is working to include Bluetooth LE Audio in Android starting with Android 13. Currently, it's possible to launch and connect to LE Audio streams using a button on Android's media output switch. What is important about the Android 15 update is that Google has prominently moved this feature to the Settings menu. This suggests that Google is preparing to highlight Auracast support as a key feature of Android 15, similar to how it did with LE Audio support in Android 13.
Audi Sharing is already available on Tensor-enabled devices
Google has yet to release headphones with LE Audio support. However, all devices powered by Google's Tensor chip already support version 5.2 of the Bluetooth Core Specification. This version is the first to support LE Audio. If Google decides to release new Pixel Buds with LE Audio this year, most existing Pixel phones will be able to enjoy the benefits of LE Audio. However, it is not known if Google intends to introduce new Pixel Buds this year. So we can only guess why they are adding this feature now.
