About eight months ago was launched the latest major update to this widely used Linux audio server. Today, its developers have released Pulse Audio 15.0, and it has come up with many changes to improve sound in audio software that uses it on UNIX and Linux operating systems. And it is that, although it seems that the future passes through PipeWire, Jack and the server that has been updated today are still (and will continue) being used a lot.
As we can read in the release note In PulseAudio 15.0, the new version includes many new features that the end user can take advantage of, but also new APIs such as one for sending client messages to PulseAudio objects. You have the list with the most outstanding news below.
What's new in PulseAudio 15.0
- Support for LDAC and AptX bluetooth codecs, as well as "SBC XQ" (SBC with higher quality parameters).
- Support for Bluetooth HFP profiles.
- Bluetooth A2DP AVRCP absolute volume support.
- The ALSA path configuration files can now be placed in the user's home directory.
- module-virtual-surround-sink rewritten.
- More options for module-jackdbus-detect.
- Improved hardware support in:
- Steel Series Arctis 9.
- HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G2.
- Behringer U-Phoria UMC22.
- OnePlus Type-C bullets.
- Sennheiser GSX 1000/1200 PRO.
- New udev variable: PULSE_MODARGS.
- max_latency_msec argument added to module-null-source.
- module-filter-apply can take filter parameters from device properties.
- module-match can now be loaded multiple times.
- FreeBSD support improvements.
- Windows support has been added to Meson.
- Additional commands for pactl.
- Card profiles can be set as sticky.
- Notes for application developers.
- New API for sending messages from clients to PulseAudio objects.
- New mechanism for applications to disable shared memory on their connection to PulseAudio.
- Notes for package creators.
- The Autotools build system has been removed
- The startup script can now read additional settings from the /etc/pulse/default.pa.d/ directory
- Option to build client library and utilities only.
- Avoid loading X11 modules in Wayland (for now only in GNOME).
- OSS support is now configurable in Meson.
- Valgrind support is now configurable in Meson.
The release of PulseAudio 15.0 it's official, but the best we can do is wait for our Linux distribution to update the packages to the new version.