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AirPods

Two years ago, Apple yanked the headphone jack off its mobile devices and called itself courageous. The Kool-Aid theory was that by getting rid of this ancient analog port, we'd all be costless to pay for new devices that offered the same functionality over a different connector or to buy Apple tree'south new AirPods. Oh — and supposedly information technology would simplify and streamline the consumer experience by removing capabilities no one wanted to get rid of in favor of a less-constructive solution with a dongle. The dongle is very important. Where Apple tree went, the Android market has followed — and the current state of USB-C audio in the Android ecosystem is a disaster.

A contempo commodity in PCWorld makes articulate just how bad an idea this fundamentally was. Despite the fact that USB-C sound should be well-established and working flawlessly by now, instead, it'due south made things much worse. And the trouble goes back to what may well be a fundamental flaw in the USB-C standard — information technology'southward besides complicated. In attempting to carve out myriad use cases, cable support levels, and feature sets, the USB Implementer'due south Forum (USB-IF) may have built a standard that consumers will never be able to actually rely on to function as a standard.

One of the most cardinal assumptions we make about standards is that cables and devices that suit to them will operate when plugged into compatible hardware. While it'south true that in that location are exceptions to this dominion, you don't have to mostly worry about whether your HDMI or DisplayPort cable volition support certain resolutions or features unless y'all're working with much older cables. Y'all can typically assume that a micro USB cable is a micro USB cable and that a USB device will work in a USB port. The state of affairs with USB-C audio is far more fraught, thank you to the difference between dongles that include a digital-to-analog converter and those that do not. The starting time type are digital, the 2nd are analog. Ung writes:

The first trouble is lack of basic compatibility. For example, if yous take the USB-C dongle that came with a Motorola Z2 Strength or Sony Xperia XZ2, it won't work with a Google Pixel two Forty, Samsung Galaxy S8, or OnePlus 6. The USB-C dongle that comes with the Pixel two Forty though, will work across all of those phones, as does the USB-C headset that Huawei includes with its P20 Pro. Merely take the USB-C dongle that's also in the box with the Huawei P20 Pro and try it on your partner's Pixel 2 40, and it's a no-become.

Information technology gets even stranger. As Ung points out, the Libratone Q ADAPT headphones will work for music with a broad range of devices, but just supports phone calls when paired with the Pixel and Pixel 2. Google sells a USB-C dongle with a DAC in it and the Pixel two XL ships with i — only if you try to plug an analog USB-C dongle (no DAC) into a Pixel 2 XL, the device won't play audio even though the phone SoC contains an integrated DAC. Why not? Because Google didn't enable the feature. Hilariously, on some phones, yous have to plow USB storage on to become the digital USB-C dongle to work properly. At that place's no explanation for why this is.

The restrictions are device-specific and aren't e'er well-communicated. The Razer Telephone, for example, simply won't push audio through an analog dongle and doesn't bother telling you why y'all aren't getting any audio.

But the long and brusk of it is this: The experiment hasn't worked. If you own a device with a 3.5mm headphone jack on the end of it, you can almost certainly count on sound coming out when y'all make the proper connection. With USB-C audio, the unabridged situation is a complicated mess. Third-party back up and utility is on a device-specific basis, which is exactly the opposite of what a standard is supposed to deliver. Companies similar Apple will never see this is a negative, considering its solution is for you lot to buy more than branded hardware at whatever price signal it sees fit to charge. Simply for everyone else, this foray into the brave new world of USB-C audio solutions comes at a usability price.

It's time to do something courageous and bring back the headphone jack. Apple may never take this pace, just the Android manufacturers should.

Now Read: Apple Kills the Headphone Jack and Calls it Backbone, Apple tree Preparing Rush of New iPhones, and Is USB-C Chasing an Unachievable Goal?