Google Explains The Reason Behind Ditching The Headphone Jack On The Pixel 2

Back in 2016, Apple turned quite a few heads when it launched the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus without a headphone jack, something which was standard in smartphones till that point. Apple, however, did not replace it with a UB Type C port and instead continued with the lightning USB port. This move was considered to be Apple’s first major step towards a port-less iPhone of the future. Google, on the other hand launched the Pixel and Pixel XL with a headphone jack in 2016 and took a subtle dig at Apple during the event. On October 4th, Google announced the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL and didn’t get into the reason behind removing the headphone jack at that point.

Now, in a post on company’s Pixel forum, Orrin explained why the headphone jack was replaced with the USB Type C port.

The Pixel 2 still comes with a headphone jack but we have moved to USB-C, a standard that is becoming commonplace in the best phones and laptops of today. Moving to the USB-C audio port with Pixel 2 allows us to provide a better audio and digital experience, as we move towards a bezel-less future.

Notably, Orrin also listed out a list earphones that are ‘Made By Google’ or ‘Made For Google’ headphones that have been verified to be compatible with the Pixel 2. Google will include a USB Type C to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle in the retail box.

With another smartphone maker getting rid of the beloved headphone jack, it seems more than likely the headphone jack is heading towards redundancy. Is it time to replace your trusty wired headphones with bluetooth or USB Type C headphones?