Apple AirPods' spatial audio feature coming to Google Pixel 7, Pixel 6 series soon

Last year, Apple brought support for Spatial Audio to AirPods Pro. Now, it looks like Google is gearing up to bring the feature to Android devices.

Notably, the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 series smartphones could be the first Android devices to get Spatial Audio support. According to a report by Android Police, the American tech giant will roll out the feature via its software update later this month.

However, it is still unclear whether the Pixel 6a is one of the phones that will get support for Spatial Audio this month. With the feature heading to Android devices, leading headphone makers might introduce Spatial Audio to their upcoming audio products.

To recap, Apple's AirPods Pro helped Spatial audio to achieve popularity. The feature imitates a multi-speaker surround sound system on earphones and other smaller audio devices.

Google has been sparing no effort to bring a similar feature to Android devices. In line with this, the search engine giant introduced a code with the Android 13 QPR1 beta in September.

However, the company disabled it ahead of the stable release. Now, it is slated to release for mainstream Android devices through the January security patch.

The security patch will roll out to the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones. Regrettably, the Pixel 6a will reportedly not receive the January security patch.

This change was originally spotted by Senior Technical Editor for Esper.io Mishaal Rahman. The feature brings a newfangled Spatializer API to Android devices.

Headphones will be able to take advantage of this Spatializer API to deliver a superior sound stage. Although several earbuds and headphones will support Spatial Audio, Google's Pixel Buds Pro will unsurprisingly deliver the best experience.

According to Rahman, Google is prepping to introduce a head-tracking feature on the Pixel Buds Pro via an upcoming firmware update. To those unaware, head-tracking is one of the most notable features of spatial audio.

The head tracking feature allows the earbuds to monitor the user's head movements and adjust spatial audio accordingly. The update hasn't reached all eligible phones yet.