Does AirPods Pro spatial audio work with Android?

Spatial audio is an immersive listening experience offered by Apple for certain AirPods models and Beats headphones. It aims to recreate a theater-like sound environment by applying directional audio filters, so sounds are heard as if they are coming from a specific spot around you.

The AirPods Pro and AirPods Max use accelerometers and gyroscopes to detect the position of your head and motion, and adapt the sound field accordingly in real time. This allows for a very convincing surround sound experience. According to Apple, it’s “like movie theater sound that wraps all around you.”1

How Spatial Audio Works

Spatial audio creates a surround sound experience by using directional audio filters to make it seem like the sound is coming from a specific place in 3D space rather than just the left and right channels. According to Apple’s support page, “Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking brings theater-like sound from the movie or video you’re watching, so that sound seems like it surrounds you from everywhere and moves with you” (source).

To achieve this effect, spatial audio relies on directional audio filters applied by the headphones based on the position and motion data from the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope. This allows the audio to adjust in real-time as you turn your head, giving the impression of a surround sound system without the need for multiple speakers placed around the room. The end result is an immersive audio experience that makes it seem like sounds are coming at you from all directions.

Spatial Audio on iOS

AirPods Pro and AirPods Max work seamlessly with Spatial Audio on iPhones and iPads running iOS 14 or later. Spatial audio is enabled automatically when you’re listening to supported content, providing an immersive surround sound experience (1).

On iOS devices, Spatial Audio works with content played in Apple TV and Apple Music apps. It also works with video content from streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, TikTok and more (1).

Spatial audio tracks your head movements and device location, so the sound field stays mapped to the device even as you turn your head or move around. It’s powered by the H1 chip in AirPods Pro and AirPods Max (2).

You can toggle Spatial Audio on or off by long pressing on the volume control in Control Center on your iOS device. The volume control will turn orange when Spatial Audio is enabled (2).

Overall, Spatial Audio provides an effortless, immersive listening experience on iOS. It works automatically with supported content without any setup required.

(1) https://support.apple.com/en-us/102469

(2) https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/airpods/dev00eb7e0a3/web

Limited Support on Android

Spatial audio has limited support on Android devices. According to a Reddit discussion, you can’t fully use spatial audio on Android. If you use Apple Music and have a newer Android phone, you can use spatial audio on select songs, but only if you pay for the service (https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/hzt3vk/airpods_pro_spatial_sound_on_android/).

Spatial audio relies on head tracking and device sensors to simulate surround sound based on your head position. This feature only works with certain newer Android phones that have the required motion sensors and software support. Older Android devices lack the motion tracking capabilities needed for spatial audio.

Overall, spatial audio is designed primarily for Apple’s iOS ecosystem and does not fully translate to Android devices. The experience is limited even on compatible Android phones. Full spatial audio functionality requires Apple’s proprietary head tracking software and integration across their devices and services.

Enabling Spatial Audio on Android

Enabling Spatial Audio on Android requires installing additional third-party apps because it is not natively supported. Two popular options are AndroPods and Assistant Trigger. These apps create a spatial audio effect by applying surround sound profiles and virtualizing the soundscape. The apps can mimic some features of Apple’s Spatial Audio, but the experience ultimately falls short of what you’d get with an iPhone and true head-tracking Spatial Audio.

After installing AndroPods or Assistant Trigger, you can toggle Spatial Audio on or off in the app settings. The effect will apply to most audio played through your AirPods Pro. However, the spatialization is applied on the device side rather than natively via the AirPods Pro firmware. This means the head-tracking and dynamic head positioning of iOS Spatial Audio is not supported.

While Android users can simulate Spatial Audio to an extent with these helper apps, the experience is noticeably inferior and lacks some key features only available through Apple devices. There is no true substitute for firmware-level Spatial Audio.

Spatial Audio Experience on Android

While Spatial Audio does work on Android devices, the experience is not as seamless as it is on iOS. According to a Reddit discussion on r/airpods, Spatial Audio on Android works by taking a stereo audio feed and using head tracking to simulate surround sound (Source). However, it lacks some of the key features that enable the full Spatial Audio experience on iOS.

One of the missing features is that Spatial Audio content is not encoded properly for Android. Apps like Apple Music on iOS have songs mixed in Spatial Audio using Dolby Atmos, allowing the AirPods Pro to take advantage of directional audio. This Spatial Audio content does not work the same way on Android. While you can enable Spatial Audio in the settings, it will only apply head-tracking effects to stereo audio rather than playing true surround mixes.

Additionally, Dynamic Head Tracking is limited on Android. On iOS, this feature uses the gyroscope and accelerometer in your iPhone to detect even small head movements, adjusting the Spatial Audio on-the-fly. On Android, head tracking is not as quick or precise, so the illusion of surround sound isn’t as convincing.

In summary, while Spatial Audio does function on Android, it lacks access to encoded Spatial Audio content and robust head tracking features. So the experience is not completely comparable to listening with an iPhone. It may simulate surround sound to an extent, but not with the same level of immersion as on iOS.

Missing Features on Android

One of the biggest missing features when using AirPods Pro with spatial audio on Android is head tracking. Head tracking allows the sound to adjust based on the motion and orientation of your head, creating a truly immersive listening experience. This works seamlessly when using AirPods Pro with an iPhone or iPad, as those devices can communicate directly with the AirPods to track head motion using accelerometers and gyroscopes (Source).

However, this head tracking ability is missing when connecting AirPods Pro to an Android device. The head tracking feature relies on tight integration between the AirPods and the device they are connected to. This integration doesn’t exist between AirPods and Android. As a result, the spatial audio on Android locks into a fixed position instead of dynamically adjusting based on head motion. This significantly reduces the immersiveness of the spatial audio experience on Android.

Alternatives for Android

There are some other headphones options besides AirPods Pro that support spatial audio and work well with Android devices:

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones have excellent spatial audio that creates an immersive surround sound experience. They connect easily to Android phones via Bluetooth and the Sony Headphones app allows you to enable spatial audio and 360 Reality Audio content (Source).

Bose recently released their QuietComfort Earbuds II which also have spatial audio support on Android. The Bose Music app lets you customize spatial audio settings and modes like Walker Mode that simulate sounds coming from different directions as you move (Source).

Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds are another high-end option with spatial audio that works with Android devices. Using the Smart Control app, you can enable spatial audio for immersive listening with head tracking (Source).

So while AirPods Pro’s spatial audio is limited on Android, there are other excellent headphones choices for Android users looking for an immersive listening experience.

The Future of Spatial Audio

There is potential for improved Android support for spatial audio with AirPods Pro in the future. Currently, spatial audio features are limited on Android compared to iOS due to differences in how Apple handles the audio pipeline on each platform. However, this could change as Apple expands support for spatial audio across more services and Android devices.

As noted in discussion on Reddit, future Android versions or cooperation between Apple and Android OEMs like Samsung could enable more robust spatial audio features for Android users (Future of airpods pro spatial audio on android samsung). One user commented that they expect future AirPods Pro firmware updates may improve compatibility with spatial audio on Android (Future of airpods pro spatial audio on android reddit).

While Apple has not commented specifically on plans to expand spatial audio to Android, they have brought other AirPods features like automatic device switching to Android over time. As spatial audio gains traction across Apple’s ecosystem, adding support on Android would improve the experience for non-iOS users. Overall, the potential is there for spatial audio to work better with Android in the future.

Conclusion

In summary, AirPods Pro spatial audio does work on Android to an extent, but the experience is limited compared to iOS. Spatial audio can be enabled in the AirPods settings on Android, which allows you to get a sense of the 3D, directional audio effect. However, key spatial audio features like dynamic head tracking and immersive movie watching are missing on Android. The audio quality is also not as advanced, since spatial audio on Android relies on basic simulated surround sound instead of Apple’s specialized H1 chip. While it’s possible to get a taste of spatial audio on Android, the full experience remains exclusive to Apple devices. For Android users who want more advanced spatial audio, there are some alternative headphones options to consider from Sony and others.

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