The Nintendo Switch ships with Bluetooth 4.1 support, which is used for wireless communication between the console and its controllers. What it’s not used for is audio, but that could soon change.
As Nintendo Life reports, the latest firmware update (v12.0.0) was released on April 5, and dataminers looking at the firmware have identified references to audio support being added to the Bluetooth driver. That’s important, because right now if you want to pair some Bluetooth headphones with your Switch it requires purchasing a third-party dongle.
News of the Bluetooth audio support comes via Switch tinkerer OatmealDome, who admitted in a tweet that “I’m not sure if anything is actually using this new support so far. No guarantees it will ever be used, either.” The references clearly show functionality for acquiring, opening, closing, starting, and stopping audio playback, though, so fingers are crossed that Nintendo is preparing to roll out official support. There’s nothing in the patch notes, so if it is planned, Nintendo isn’t ready to talk about it yet.
Meanwhile, all eyes are focused on when rather than if a new Switch model is being launched. Nvidia is ending production of the Tegra chip Nintendo relies on for existing models, and there’s reports of the next model shifting to use a larger OLED display as well as adding 4K output to a TV.
