It’s not secret that Bluetooth 5.0 is pretty awesome, and as a results the Galaxy S8 can do some pretty neat stuff that other phones just can’t do. Playing Bluetooth audio on two connected devices at once is one of those features—it’s called Dual Audio. Here’s how to use it.
RELATED: What Is Media Volume Sync on the Galaxy S8?
To get started with Dual Audio, give the notification shade a tug, then long-press the Bluetooth icon to jump directly into the Bluetooth menu.
From here, tap the three dots in the top left corner to open the menu, then tap on “Dual Audio.”
There’s a simple toggle here—go ahead and click it to the on position. If you have Media Volume Sync enabled, a popup will show up letting you know that you can’t use both features at the same time so you’ll have to disable it to use Dual Audio. Go ahead and tap “Turn Off” to give it the okay.
You can jump back to the Bluetooth menu now and connect to (or pair) your speakers, one at a time. They should both connect without any issues, and you’re ready to roll. Or rock, even.
The only thing worth noting about Dual Audio is that there’s a slight volume discrepancy between the two speakers, and in many cases there’s lag in the audio on one of the speakers. As a result, this feature doesn’t work so great if both speakers are right on your face. Instead, it’s better for a party environment, when you’ll have each speaker on opposite sides of the room.
Otherwise, if you’re looking for another way to get two Bluetooth speakers to share audio from a single source, you’ll be better off looking into offerings from Ultimate Ears or JBL—both have companion apps that allow you to do this, though you’ll need a pair of speakers from the same company to make it happen. Alas, pairing up Bluetooth audio is an expensive need…unless you can handle the audio being a bit out of sync and have a Galaxy S8, of course.
