Pixels could soon catch up to Galaxy phones with a new Voicecast feature

Google just launched the second Android 17 QPR2 beta, giving us a taste of things to come later this year. The company didn’t reveal any specific changes or fixes, but we’ve just discovered that Pixels could get an audio-sharing feature currently seen on Samsung phones.

Recent Galaxy phones running the One UI 8.5 software support Auracast functionality, which Samsung brands as Audio broadcast. This allows you to wirelessly transmit your media audio or voice via Bluetooth to an unlimited number of nearby people. Listeners need a device that supports Bluetooth LE Audio, though. Check out the screenshots below.

Google Pixels also support Auracast functionality, which is branded as Audio sharing. Unfortunately, Google only lets you share your media audio and doesn’t let you wirelessly transmit your voice. Thankfully, there’s good news in this regard.

We just dug into the second Android 17 QPR2 beta and found that Google is working on a feature called Voicecast, which will indeed let you transmit your voice to others via Bluetooth. The feature can be enabled via developer options. Check out our screens below.

Enabling the feature also results in a Voicecast tile appearing in your quick settings. Once you’ve tapped this tile, you’ll be greeted by a Voicecast pop-up window, allowing you to specify a public or private Voicecast channel. You’ll need to enter a broadcast name either way, but only private channels require a password. In a neat touch, you can add an image to your Voicecast session. I’m guessing this is handy for quickly identifying the proper audio sharing session in some scenarios (e.g., guided tours).

Once you’ve hit the “start” button to begin a Voicecast session, the window will gain “mute” and “end” buttons. The “mute” button is supposed to let you (surprise) mute your mic audio, but all it currently does is end the session. This is a work-in-progress feature after all, so we can’t expect a polished experience right away.

You can also tap anywhere outside the Voicecast pop-up window to hide it and keep using your phone. However, you can still access the ongoing Voicecast session via quick settings. The quick settings panel will display a notification to let you quickly stop the session or access Voicecast settings, but you’ll also see an associated media player widget.

Either way, we’re glad Google is catching up to Samsung and offering this Voicecast functionality. This should make life much easier for sightseeing tours, conventions, and other occasions where one person might be speaking to many others in a busy or noisy setting. This means the speaker can simply use their Pixel phone instead of relying on a Galaxy phone or a different device altogether.