My understanding is that it is only certain Android phones. Resound’s compatibility list used to get down to the carrier level (so even if you had a potentially compatible phone, if the carrier didn’t support it, you were out of luck) I can’t find that chart anymore. Newer Samsung and Google phones seem pretty safe. OnePlus support seems sporadic. Some other phones “may” support ASHA, but I’d confirm before buying. I don’t know that this is anybody’s “fault.” This stuff is obviously way more complicated than I ever thought. I remember thinking back around 2018 when I got my first phone with BT 5 that some sort of universal BT would “soon” be coming. Here we are almost to 2023 and there’s hints of LE Audio and Auracast coming to phones and earbuds, but it’s pretty much been “crickets” regarding hearing aids (other than Resound saying early on that the Omnia would eventually support LE Audio) Hearing aid companies just don’t have the resources to throw at this stuff that major phone companies do.
ASHA is built into the phone so older Androids don’t have the ASHA protocol and it’s not something you can download to add in. I had that problem with my Moto E when I got new aids. After searching, searching, reviewing, reviewing I opted to buy an iPhone–because It appeared to me it would be the most likely type of phone to work with just about any brand of hearing aid.
which is strange because it was the hearing aid companies approaching the Bluetooth SIG which led to the development of LE Audio. Having said that, you’d feel a bit stupid as an audiologist giving a new set of aids to a client and telling them that there’s no phone available yet that will stream to them. So hurry tf up Google.
no, actually blame Bluetooth SIG
Woah there, Bluetooth SIG haven’t introduced any audio changes in 20 years… you are barkiing up the wrong tree. What happened was the hearing aid manufactures needed to educate the Bluetooth SIG folks to make a low energy audio solution… it is an engineering marvel. Google is just a software provider and they are definitely not in the business of doing what bluetootth sig does…
So it took them a few years to get going because Google had to learn the app prototype HA Mfg built using bluetooth LE in the HA R&D lab that plays a mock stream using an audio clip to HA prototype and implement it in the AOSP codebase…
I wasn’t blaming HA manufacturers!!
Bluetooth SiG is run/funded by member companies so you can blame every company that makes HA,CI , earbud, phone, computer, tv, speaker systems…
My point was do not blame the HA manufacturers because Apple provided their own solution for their products years ago while there was no comparable Android solution.
it takes a lot of effort to bring people to the table and do something together… Apple have a head start like 2-3 years because they can actually profit from it… google business model is different, they can’t control what connects to the phone by a bluetooth vendor, licensing was impossible… nobody could do 2.4 ghz until 2010 on a hearing aid battery, Google didn’t think of this idea first but Apple did. . it takes at least 4, 1 is finding the right people the last 3 is R&D with resound…
I don’t get what’s going on with Google. Android 13 supposedly supports LE Audio. Pixel 7 is not listed on Bluetooth.com All Pixel 6 models are BT 5.2 certified, but without CAP.
As an aside, I find it interesting that Galaxy Z Fold 4 is listed as CAP certified and has the same certification date of Galaxy S22 which is not CAP certified. (10/28/2022) The Fold has a slightly newer chip (Plus version), but both have BT 5.2
It is not Android itself that need to support CAP. it is the bluetooth vendor chipset/firmware that need to run on it
But I assume that older versions of Android would not be capable of running LE Audio (at least without some sort of update)
No, incorrect, the bluetooth vendor can impl a version for older android.
So theoretically any phone with BT 5.2 could receive an update that makes it LE Audio capable? (but no guarantee that they would do it) Other questions: Could a phone with BT 5.2 be updated to BT 5.3 via firmware? How about a phone with BT 5.1 to 5.2 via firmware?
Yes, could be the bluetooth vendor didn’t finish implmenting it in ime …
not likely but it is doable so yes to both question We know Coochlear upgraded from 4.0 to 4.2 in bluetooth stack for N7…
I know Motorola upgraded from 4.2 to 5.0 in their Moto X4, but I presume the Snapdragon 630 chipset they used had the capability all along and they just hadn’t taken advantage of it.
Me neither. You can enable LE Audio in developer options apparently, but I haven’t seen any reports that anyone has used it successfully. Wasn’t Bluetooth SIG expecting a slew of compatible products in the “holiday season”?
I was going to respond that they didn’t mention which decade, but that sounds familiar. Didn’t we have a similar conversation last year? 
And the year before that. As you said earlier, we thought Bluetooth 5 was the dawn of the new era. That was in 2016. 
CEO of some company says this will be out by 2022.
PM asks the R&D folks. is this doable by December 2022 and starts criticizing the CEO for not consulting with R&D folks,.
is probably how it went down.