Spatial audio will be even more immersive in Android 15

Watching a movie or TV show on most Android phones delivers a far less immersive audio experience than most cinemas. That’s because most mobile devices don’t have enough speakers arranged in the right locations to deliver a true surround sound experience. The same goes for most headphones and wireless earbuds, too. Fortunately, there’s a trick that can be used to create a more immersive listening experience when using compatible audio products like the Pixel Buds Pro. It’s called spatial audio, and it’s set to get even better in the upcoming Android 15 update.

Although the audio in many movies and TV shows is recorded with multiple channels, only two stereo channels (left and right) are played back with most headphones and wireless earbuds. This is why most audio from your phone sounds like it’s coming from right in front of you. To make the audio from your phone sound like it’s coming from all around you, your phone would normally need to have multiple speakers surrounding you, which is physically impossible. This is where spatial audio comes in.