I really think we need a modern replacement to bluetooth, something that doesn't have weird behaviour with headphones, is more secure and doesn't have weird connection issues all the time, and is as ubiquitous as bluetooth is now. I know it will never happen, but I can only hope
I guess that's where Bluetooth LE and LE Audio should come in, but it's coming along very slowly or not at all in Apples case. Or maybe it is, they don't talk about it
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth#Specifications_and_f...
It does solve this by having a different topology. It supports a configurable number of streams in each direction, so at least in theory 5.2 surround with a stereo microphone should be possible, we'll see if it's usable
It also supports what is often called 'true wireless' earbuds by default, as each audio sink can stream only the channel it's interested in.
Finally there's all that broadcasting stuff, which works fine in our tests most of the time but also with a myriad of issues, some of them in the spec, others in the Android implementation, which is currently the de facto target to support