Pixel Fold supports Spatial Audio through the built-in speakers

Ben Schoon | Aug 10 2023 - 7:49 am PT

Spatial Audio made its debut last year as a way of making audio from music and videos more immersive, by Google’s description, but it has always required headphones. The Google Pixel Fold, though, supports Spatial Audio through its built-in speakers, and it’s the only Pixel that can do it.

Hidden in the settings of the Google Pixel Fold, there’s a toggle that enables Spatial Audio to be used through the foldable’s built-in speakers. The Fold has two primary speaker drivers, one on the top and one on the bottom, on opposite sides of the device when it’s unfolded. This leads to much greater stereo separation compared to traditional smartphones, which are usually limited to just one primary speaker backed up by the weaker earpiece speaker.

On a support page (highlighted by Mishaal Rahman on Reddit), Google explains that Spatial Audio is available through the Pixel Fold’s speakers, which more closely mimics listening through headphones.

On Pixel Fold, you can enable spatial audio for phone speakers. This feature makes your listening experience closer to the immersive engagement you get with headphones.

Weirdly, Google doesn’t mention this feature anywhere else. On the Pixel Fold’s store listing, the company even says that the feature requires headphones.

In quick testing of this feature on our Pixel Fold, we noticed that Spatial Audio does indeed make a slight difference when listening to supported audio. Streaming content from Max that supports Dolby Atmos leads to a slightly more immersive feel to the audio, as if there’s a little more depth and sense of space. It’s not especially impressive and I also noticed that it seemed a bit quieter, but it’s still nice to have the option.

Apparently, this feature even supports adjustments based on how the hinge is positioned.

As mentioned, Pixel Fold is the only device Google supports Spatial Audio on through the built-in speakers. Presumably, the Pixel Tablet would also be able to support this on a hardware level, but Google’s tablet currently lacks Spatial Audio entirely, even when using headphones.