One UI 8.5 makes silent disco parties easier on Galaxy phones

Eagle-eyed One UI 8.5 users may have noticed an addition to the Connected Devices menu on their Galaxy phones: Audio broadcast. It's not an entirely new feature, but Samsung has renamed and pushed it to the forefront with its latest firmware update.

What is it? Audio broadcast lets users stream music or voice from their phones or listen to broadcasts from nearby devices. The system relies on Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast.

The best part about Audio broadcast is that anyone nearby can tune in, and there's no limit to how many people can listen as long as they're close enough to receive the Auracast signal.

In other words, while this feature can have a variety of uses, one obvious example given the specs above is headphone parties / silent disco. If you want to throw one, here's how you can set this up.

To transmit audio or voice from your Galaxy phone running One UI 8.5, open Settings > Connected devices > Audio broadcast.

In this menu, you can choose a name for your device that others will see when joining the broadcast, set a password for the broadcast, and decide whether you want to stream media playing on your phone or your voice.

People who want to listen in can follow the same steps, but instead of the Share tab at the bottom, they need to open the Listen tab. Listeners can also join a broadcast through a QR code generated by the broadcasting device.

Important notes:

One UI 8.5 is now reaching more Galaxy devices worldwide. For more information about One UI 8.5, hit the link for our in-depth overview.