There are many audio codecs supported on Android smart devices. The most popular are SBC, AAC and LDAC. Qualcomm has long offered aptX and aptX HD codecs that it says can offer good wireless audio streaming. But to use it, device manufacturers have to pay a license to Qualcomm which causes the codec support to be very limited.
According to Mishaal Rahman, he found the code for aptX and aptX HD codecs in Android AOSP recently. After contacting Qualcomm, they confirmed both codecs can be used for free by Android device manufacturers. Previously a fee for each device was charged. The step taken by Qualcomm is the same as Sony which also provides the use of LDAC for free through Android AOSP since 2017.
Codecs are already free to use but licenses on audio accessories to decode aptX and aptX HD still need to be paid to Qualcomm. Typically only TWS and headphones with Qualcomm chips support aptX.
Tags
GADGET
