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I was pleasantly surprised to see that I can pair & connect my Nexus One with two identical NoiseHush N550 Bluethooth headsets simultaneously.

Unfortunately however, only one of them (always the last to be connected) seems to receive actual audio.

Is this a known limitation in the Android OS (version 2.2.1)? Or is there a setting or workaround that allows sending audio to both devices simultaneously?

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  • Is it possible with any Bluetooth device to stream audio to two devices?
    – endolith
    Jul 24, 2012 at 20:21
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    possible duplicate of Is it possible to be connected to two different bluetooth devices at the same time?
    – Izzy ♦
    Aug 16, 2012 at 16:43
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    I don't think it's an exact dupe: the other question wants music audio to one and phone audio to another a2dp device. This wants both working at the same time (like a Y-cable) seemingly.
    – ce4
    Aug 21, 2012 at 22:09
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    @Izzy Not a possible duplicate. The other question only mentions connecting to multiple devices but not sending output to them all simultaneously . This one is about sending to all connected bluetooth devices at the same time.
    – KhoPhi
    May 4, 2015 at 9:31
  • Good find, @Rexford – didn't notice that back then. So this one is rather asking for a "broadcaster". // Still: the question here is almost 4 years old. Would be interesting whether the OP found a solution meanwhile and simply forgot to answer his/her own question :)
    – Izzy ♦
    May 4, 2015 at 9:35

1 Answer 1

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Update, 2017 Bluetooth 5.0

In summary, Bluetooth 5.0 comes with a lot of bandwidth, which allows the streaming to two speakers at the same time.

Speaking about the 5.0 Bluetooth in the Samsung S8, AndroidPolice writes:

That extra bandwidth is required for the Galaxy S8's "Dual audio" feature. This allows the phone to stream audio to two Bluetooth headsets or speakers at the same time. You can also adjust the volume for each device independently. It's like sharing an earbud with your friend, except with fewer wires and less bacteria.

I think the bandwidth allows for sharing to two speakers at the time. I am yet to find out if any extra speakers could be added.

But there you have it. Bluetooth now evolved to support bigger bandwidth to support multi-streaming, Natively.

Any thanks? Give to the Bluetooth gods!

Old Answer:

Because this resource isn't as old as the current question is, I am sure it is the answer.

The limitation for sending output to multiple connected bluetooth devices is not about a feature. Its about how Bluetooth enabled communicate with each other.

Bluetooth, from day one, was designed for a one-on-one communication over short distances for short periods of times i.e sending an image, short video clip etc.

The use of Bluetooth has evolved and as such support for multicasting is much wanted.

Quoting from this XDA forum post:

The reason why bluetooth doesn't support Multicast is because it doesn't have the bandwith to support High Quality streaming simultaneously no would the chips really having the processing power but that could be fixed, but the main limitation is the lack of available bandwith specified in the 802.11 standard for bluetooth.

... it is clear there's a limitation, and hopefully work is done in that regard to allow support.

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  • It seems like even in 2022 it's only possible with the Samsung S8 and a few other Samsung devices - why is that?
    – mYnDstrEAm
    Mar 30, 2022 at 14:24

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