Qualcomm is best known for their high-end mobile processors, typically in Android smartphones, but that's not all they do. In fact, they play a pretty big role in Bluetooth connectivity for your phone, too. They've announced a new aptX Voice Audio implementation for smartphones that should drastically improve call quality for headphones and headsets.
This improvement allows for 32kHz voice call quality, which should bring phone calls up to par with regular Bluetooth audio streaming that you get while listening to music or watching movies. In an age where more and more people are making calls via wireless headsets instead of using phone speakers, this is getting to be more and more important. When using a compatible device you should hear more clarity and better speech intelligibility, and crowded areas or multiple speakers shouldn't muddle things up quite like current call implementations do.
This new codec is already built-in to the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765 CPUs, and newer Bluetooth devices that can take advantage of it should be available in 2020.
For everything else happening at CES 2020, check out Talk Android's coverage.
