Samsung Files Patent for a System That Routes Bluetooth Audio to Specific Wireless Devices

By Patentlyze Team · Updated Jul 10, 2026

Samsung is patenting a way for one device to tell multiple wireless audio gadgets exactly which audio stream each one should play, potentially opening the door to more controlled multi-speaker or multi-earbud setups.

What Samsung's Bluetooth audio routing system actually does

Imagine you have two wireless earbuds and a Bluetooth speaker all connected to your phone at the same time. Right now, getting each one to play a different audio stream, say the left channel to one earbud and a different mix to the speaker, is not straightforward. Samsung's patent describes a system to fix that.

The idea is that a central device (like your phone) can broadcast multiple audio streams at once, grouped together. It then sends each connected device a small piece of control information telling it which specific stream to tune into. Think of it like a TV remote that can assign different channels to different TVs in the same house simultaneously.

This could let Samsung products handle more sophisticated audio scenarios, like sending different language tracks to different listeners, or splitting audio across a room full of Galaxy Buds and Bluetooth speakers, all without each device having to figure things out on its own.

How the BIS index controls which device gets which stream

The patent describes an electronic device (most likely a phone or tablet) that manages audio distribution across multiple Bluetooth audio devices using a Bluetooth LE Audio feature called Broadcast Isochronous Groups (BIGs).

A BIG is essentially a bundle of audio streams broadcast over Bluetooth simultaneously. Each individual stream inside that bundle is called a Broadcast Isochronous Stream (BIS). The patent's core idea is giving the central device the power to assign a specific BIS to a specific external device by sending it a control packet containing:

• An index identifying the external device (which gadget to target)
• An index identifying the BIS that device should receive (which stream to play)

The external devices connect first, receive the routing instructions, and then tune their receivers accordingly. The system works across one or more external devices simultaneously, so the same control mechanism scales from a single earbud to a whole room of speakers.

This goes beyond the standard Bluetooth LE Audio spec, which lets devices discover and choose streams themselves. Samsung's approach puts the central device in charge of assignment, which allows for coordinated, application-layer decisions about who hears what.

What this means for multi-device Bluetooth audio setups

Bluetooth LE Audio already supports multi-stream broadcasting, but the standard largely leaves it up to each receiving device to pick its own stream. Samsung's patent shifts that decision to the source device, which means an app or the phone's operating system could choreograph audio distribution across a whole set of peripherals in a deliberate, programmable way.

For you as a listener, this could show up as features like sending different language dubs of a movie to different people in the same room, or routing separate audio mixes to Galaxy Buds during a fitness class. It's also relevant to Samsung's broader ecosystem ambitions, where phones, tablets, earbuds, and speakers all talk to each other more tightly than devices from different brands.

Editorial commentary on a publicly published patent application. Not legal advice.