With a future update, Google Pixel 8 Series will support lossless audio

The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro launched earlier this month at the Made by Google event, featuring an amazing blend of premium features. The tech behemoth is now adding an audio quality improvement to its latest flagship Pixel series. Google has announced that lossless USB audio will be available in a future update for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, allowing music aficionados to enjoy their favorite recordings without change or loss of quality. Aside from the Pixel 8 series, phones running Android 14 will receive this capabilities, and app developers will need to use the new API (application programming interface) for lossless audio to take advantage of it.

Google's Vice President of Engineering, Dave Burke, announced lossless USB audio is coming to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session for Android 14. He claims that this feature would "ensure bit perfect audio" by enabling audio to skip the audio mixer and any processing effects, among other things. "Pixel 8 and other OEMs are expected to support this mode in their hardware abstraction layer (HAL) implementations in future releases." To take use of the new API for lossless audio, app developers will need to adopt it," he stated.

In the future, lossless USB audio will be accessible on the Pixel 8 series and other Android phones. With this advancement, music fans will soon be able to listen to their favorite songs in their purest form, with all minor subtleties and no processing effects, using suitable USB-wired headphones. Lossless audio is already available in music streaming apps such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Tidal. 

I WAS RIGHT! THE PIXEL 8 SUPPORTS DISPLAY OUTPUT!

Earlier I shared a method to enable DisplayPort Alt Mode on the Pixel 8. At first I thought it didn't work, but @mile_freak07 tried the same method and it worked for him!

Video proof + full details linked in the reply 👇 pic.twitter.com/YXb59urrrP

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) October 15, 2023

Google is also likely to provide display output via the USB Type-C connector, which might be enabled in the future via an update. This would allow the smartphone to control an external monitor. The company has yet to confirm the news, but well-known tipster MishaalRahman (@MishaalRahman) has revealed that it works and even proposed a means for activating DisplayPort Alt Mode, or video output through USB Type-C interface, on Pixel 8 series devices. Now, an X user named @mile_freak07 has disclosed that he was able to utilize this way to get video output via the USB Type-C connection working on a Pixel 8 Pro. On the Xda-developers forum, he also provided a Magisk module that can rapidly enable this on other rooted Pixel 8 devices.

Flipkart is presently selling the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro in India. The Pixel 8 Pro starts at Rs. 1,06,999 for the 12GB RAM + 128GB storage variant, while the vanilla model starts at Rs. 75,999 for the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage option.