I have many complaints about the current state of Samsung phones, but I still have no plans to switch to another brand. That’s because I’m dependent on certain Samsung features that I don’t get anywhere else.
I also get motivated to stay when my partner, who owns a Motorola phone, couldn’t believe her eyes after seeing specific features on my Samsung phone. It has happened multiple times, and it happened again on our last trip a couple of weeks ago.
The last one was something special, as I finally tried a Samsung feature I had wanted to use for a long time but kept ignoring. She was visibly stunned when I showed her the feature working on my Galaxy phone.
However, that’s not the actual reason I marked it indispensable. It’s become one of my favorite One UI features because it solved a genuine problem.
That day, I found a Samsung feature that ended our biggest travel frustration: Dual Audio.
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It made our long train journey far more enjoyable
I was listening to a horror audio story that one of our mutual friends recommended a long time back on a seven-hour-long train journey. But we wanted to enjoy it together, so we connected our earbuds to our phones and started playing it.
However, keeping playback synchronized was difficult, as we both had to pause the audio at different times. I would react without saying a word, and she wouldn’t understand the reason behind it. That’s how far I’d gotten in the story.
It wasn’t pleasant. But I’m glad it happened, as it finally necessitated using Dual Audio, a Galaxy feature I never tried until that moment.
Instead of playing the audio story on both of our phones, I asked her to connect her earbuds to my Galaxy handset. This is the mandatory first step to setting up Dual Audio.
After connecting both of our earbuds to my Galaxy phone, only the primary earbuds played the audio. It took me some time to get it working on both pairs because Samsung made it hard to enable the feature.
There is no such thing as Dual Audio in the Settings app. Instead, you’ll need the Quick Panel to play audio on both pairs of earbuds.
After enabling it from the Quick Panel, both our earbuds played the same horror audio story, and the playback was in perfect sync. Similarly, you can watch a movie or anything else together on the same phone.
That’s our plan for our next long trip, because your favorite show can make even the longest train journey shorter. Still, we’d play something that we both enjoy.
I can’t wait to experience this.
Dual Audio isn’t available on all Galaxy handsets. To stream audio on both Bluetooth devices simultaneously, the Galaxy handset must have Bluetooth version 5.0.
Dual Audio shouldn’t be this confusing
Dual Audio feels unnecessarily complicated
Samsung officially calls it Dual Audio, but it shows no results when you type that in the Settings app. So, for anyone new to Samsung Galaxy, it’s almost impossible to find it without asking the internet.
It should be a lot simpler and easier to activate. Instead of enabling a simple setting, you’ll need to activate the Media output button in the Quick Settings.
After the Media output button shows up on your phone, tap it to display the Bluetooth speakers your phone is currently connected to. All you do is select the other Bluetooth device you want to share audio with.
Audio will play on both Bluetooth devices simultaneously after you select them from the Media output page. Not only that, but it allows users to set different volume levels on each pair of earbuds.
While these steps sound simple, I feel Samsung buried the feature deeper than needed. Maybe it wanted users to feel like they earned it after they’ve finally found it.
This isn’t a bad idea, but I feel Samsung chose the wrong feature to bury. It should’ve chosen a more niche feature, and certainly not Dual Audio.
I hope Samsung will fix this in future One UI updates.
I won’t travel without Samsung’s Dual Audio
When you are far away from home, the goal should be to save as much battery as possible. Dual Audio can come in handy here, as it eliminates the need to use another phone to watch or listen to the same music or TV shows.
You effectively save battery on another phone. However, it only makes sense when you are traveling with someone very close. Dual Audio also ensures that the other person whose phone is low on battery doesn’t have to miss out on the entertainment.
Even if I switch from Samsung to another phone, I would still carry a Galaxy handset when I’m traveling.