Grades: Qi2 (B), Bluetooth Auracast (C)
Neither Qi2 nor Bluetooth Auracast is a recent innovation, but by the cusp of 2025, neither was mainstream. Last year, I made two prominent predictions for the accessories market, fully expecting 2025 to be the year that major smartphone makers would adopt Qi2 and Auracast would bloom.
The Qi2 rollout had a rocky start, but admirable finish
HMD took us all by surprise when it became the first smartphone manufacturer to add full magnetic Qi2 support in the HMD Skyline. This phone launched back in July 2024, so naturally, I expected that all the major flagships of 2025 would follow suit. Oddly enough, things did not play out that way.
See, phone makers struggled with Qi2 adoption, and what we did end up seeing, at least at the beginning of the year, was the OnePlus 13 and the Galaxy S25 series, which both require magnetic cases to support magnetic charging, and only the latter technically supports the Qi2 spec. My guess is that they couldn’t figure out how to redesign the devices’ internals to accommodate magnets without disrupting other features.
For instance, we discovered that the S Pen does not work well with magnets. This disruption is probably the main reason Samsung skipped Qi2’s magnetic charging with the S25 series.
Meanwhile, Google outdid itself with the marvelous Pixel 10 family, though, redeeming this prediction a little in my eyes. All Pixel 10 models support magnetic Qi2 — dubbed Pixelsnap by Google — natively, including the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Google’s Pixelsnap adoption spurred another wave of Qi2 accessories to hit the shelves, including some really cool first-party offerings from Google itself.
The Qi2 accessory market is bigger than ever, with almost every single name brand adding support for it in their new products. Whether you’re looking for a Qi2 magnetic charger or power bank, phone holder, or mount, there are hundreds of awesome Qi2 accessories available to purchase.
However, it’s not enough that accessory makers bring these features to their offerings. There’s no point in having the feature if your phone doesn’t support it properly. Now that Google has moved towards magnetic Qi2, I’m hoping the S26 series and other Android flagships of 2026 will do the same.
I had such high hopes for Bluetooth Auracast
I truly thought that Auracast would finally become mainstream in 2025. And yet, here we are. Yes, many smartphones support the feature now, but it’s usually buried deep within the phone’s settings and ends up going unused.
Another big issue with Bluetooth Auracast is that audio accessory brands haven’t prioritized it as much in 2025. While bigger, more expensive brands such as Marshall and Sony have added Bluetooth to their latest releases, most of the best wireless earbuds and headphones don’t support it (yet).
I admire smaller companies like EarFun that have gone the extra mile and added Auracast support to their 2025 launches. Unless everyone jumps on the bandwagon, there’s no moving forward.
Last year, I described Auracast as “Spotify Jam but local, without the need to use a specific app or have any sort of subscription or internet connection,” and it’s really disappointing to see that the turnout didn’t match that description. I honestly expected everyone and their grandmother to be making full use of Auracast broadcasts.
Bluetooth Auracast requires users to go deep into their audio device settings and enable Bluetooth LE. Then, you have to set up a password and share your broadcast with the public. It gets even more complicated when your connected Bluetooth accessory does not show you how to switch to the LE mode. Honestly, I couldn’t even figure out how to do it on my Marshall Emberton III.
Smartphone makers and audio accessory makers alike need to simplify the process of audio sharing via Auracast. As it stands, the audio sharing feature is very convoluted. It won’t be popular unless the feature is user-friendly. Not to mention, most people probably don’t even know that their phones have Auracast.
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