Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 Advances Intelligent Audio Wearables for the Agentic Age
Highlights:
- Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 is our first platform purpose-built to combine premium audio and voice technologies with the on-device intelligence and connectivity required for agent-powered experiences.
- It enables a new generation of audio wearables that are intelligent and multimodal, including camera-enabled devices.
- New AI-enhanced audio and voice technologies designed to continuously adapt to the listener delivering more immersive, personalized, and responsive experiences.
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the Snapdragon® Sound Elite Gen 2 Platform, expanding what is possible from audio wearables. The platform combines premium Snapdragon Sound technologies, on-device AI, security-focused cloud-connected intelligence, and integrated micro-power Wi-Fi 6E. The result is a more intuitive, personalized experience that anticipates needs and responds seamlessly, while continuing to deliver the exceptional audio experiences consumers expect from Snapdragon Sound.
“Our research1 tells us that up to 70% of users want advanced AI capabilities in their wearable devices,” said Ziad Asghar, Senior Vice President and General Manager of XR, Wearables, and Personal AI, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "As AI becomes a core capability, users will increasingly expect more natural ways to interact with it. Those interactions won't always happen through a screen. They will happen through natural conversations, where users can simply speak to an AI assistant and receive help in real time. With Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2, we're heralding intelligent audio wearables that enable experiences such as real-time translation, contextual assistance, personalized hearing, and multimodal interactions that combine audio, vision, and AI."
Twice the Intelligence. Exceptional Sound.
Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 represents a significant leap forward in on-device AI for audio wearables, delivering up to 2x greater AI capability than its predecessor2 and enabling multiple intelligent experiences to operate simultaneously. Combined with up to 40% lower power consumption3, and up to 30% smaller footprint4, the platform enables OEMs to deliver faster and always-available Personal AI experiences, including on-camera equipped form factors that help gather context on the users’ environment, rather than capturing photos.
Additionally, through direct-to-cloud connectivity enabled by micro-power Wi-Fi 6E, Snapdragon Sound Apps & Agents extends audio wearables beyond hardware by providing access to AI assistants, services, content, and experiences that can continue to evolve over time.
Sound That Understands and Adapts
Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 combines premium Snapdragon Sound technologies with AI-driven features designed to continuously adapt to the listener, their device, and their environment.
- Qualcomm® aptX™ Lossless is designed to deliver rich, immersive audio quality for premium listening experiences.
- Qualcomm® XPAN extends connectivity beyond traditional Bluetooth range, enabling more seamless and designed for uninterrupted audio experiences across devices.
- AI-enhanced audio technologies, including new 5th Generation Qualcomm® ANC, Qualcomm® cVc™ technology, and support for advanced multi-microphone architectures, are designed to improve noise cancellation, speech capture, and voice clarity for clearer conversations and more reliable interactions with AI assistants across a wide range of environments.
- Snapdragon® Audio Sense Solution introduces innovative microphones with algorithms to deliver intelligent audio, helping devices hear voices and the world around them more clearly to enable richer voice capture, clearer communication, and more responsive AI experiences.
Enabling the Next Generation of Intelligent Audio Wearables
Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 supports a wide range of form factors, including earbuds, headphones, open-ear and hybrid audio designs, camera-enabled earbuds, audio glasses, and future multimodal wearables. To further accelerate innovation, Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 reference designs will help OEMs rapidly prototype, validate, and commercialize next-generation Personal AI devices.
At Snapdragon Summit 2026, Cleer offered an early look at a new class of intelligent audio wearables that combine audio, vision and AI based on a Snapdragon Sound Platform. The concept demonstrated how Snapdragon Sound platforms can extend beyond traditional audio wearables and into the world around the user, opening the door to a new generation of intelligent experiences.
For more information, visit the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 webpage and product brief. Additional information, livestream replays and event content are also available on the Snapdragon Summit Event Hub.
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm is a global computing leader at the center of the AI era, enabling intelligence to scale from the most personal devices to large‑scale infrastructure. Building on more than four decades of innovation, we develop platforms and solutions that bring together advanced AI, high‑performance, low-power computing and industry‑leading connectivity—powering products and services used around the world. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.
Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering and research and development functions and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patents are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm, Snapdragon, Qualcomm Dragonwing and Qualcomm Dragonfly are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.
