L5 Multiple Audio Outputs

Is it possible to use multiple, simultaneous sound outputs? i.e. built-in phone speaker for notifications; bluetooth headset for phone calls; headphone output for music
Maybe even multiple bluetooth speakers connected and selected per application

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It’s possible with pulseaudio on laptop/desktop so I’d assume yes.

How easy it is to do depends on if there’s a gui adapted to phones which it works for. Works fine for me on my laptop and desktop with pavucontrol but I’m pretty sure that’s not adapted to mobile devices yet. If it’s in “docked” mode however it should be easy.

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If it does work this will be my dream machine. :heart_eyes_cat: :headphones:

I’m fairly certain that gnome sound settings lets you specify output per application, though its been a little while (I use KDE myself, and I know it does).

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With pavucontrol under the “Playback” tab, you can select the audio output device for each application:

Every connected Bluetooth, USB, HDMI and DisplayPort audio device is listed as an option (and you can configure simultaneous playback on all devices as an option), but the built-in speakers and audio jack are always just one option (usually called “Built-in Audio Analog Stereo”), so I don’t think that you can select between those two. If something is plugged into the 3.5mm audio jack, the DAC automatically redirects from the built-in speaker to the audio jack. If you use USB-C headphones instead of analog headphones with the 3.5mm audio jack, then you should be able to select that as a separate option with pavucontrol.

At least that is how it works with every laptop that I have tried. Someone will have to try it on the Librem 5 and tell us whether the DAC can direct to two analog outputs at the same time.

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