Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro debuted earlier this month during the Made by Google event with an impressive mix of premium features. Now, the tech giant is bringing an audio quality upgrade for the latest flagship Pixel lineup. Google has confirmed that lossless USB audio will come to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro in a future update, allowing music fans to experience their favourite tracks without alteration and any loss of quality. Besides the Pixel 8 series, phones from other manufacturers running on Android 14 will also gain this functionality and app developers will have to adopt the new API (application programming interface) for lossless audio to take advantage of the feature.
In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session for Android 14, Dave Burke, Google’s Vice President of Engineering, confirmed that lossless USB audio is coming to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. He notes that this feature will “ensure bit perfect audio” allowing audio to bypass the audio mixer and any processing effects among others. “Pixel 8 and other OEMs are expected to support this mode in their hardware abstraction layer (HAL) implementations in later releases. App developers will need to adopt the new API for lossless audio to take advantage of it.” he said.
The lossless USB audio will be available on the Pixel 8 series and other Android phones in a future release. With this development, music lovers can soon listen to their favourite songs in their purest form with all subtle details, without any processing effects over compatible USB-wired headsets. Music streaming apps like Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Tidal already offer lossless audio.
Google is also expected to support display output over the USB Type-C port and could enable this feature in the future through an update. This would allow the handset to drive an attached monitor. The company is yet to confirm the development, though known tipster MishaalRahman (@MishaalRahman) has reported it works and even suggested a method for enabling DisplayPort Alt Mode aka video output over USB Type-C port on Pixel 8 series smartphones. Now, an X user @mile_freak07 has revealed that he was able to get video output over the USB Type-C port working on a Pixel 8 Pro using this method. He also posted a Magisk module on the Xda-developers forum that can enable this quickly on other rooted Pixel 8 handsets.
Both Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are currently up for sale in India via Flipkart. The vanilla model’s price starts at Rs. 75,999 for the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage model, while the Pixel 8 Pro is priced at Rs. 1,06,999 for the 12GB RAM + 128GB storage model.