Apple is not the first company to officially ditch the headphone jack on their phones, although they were pretty much the first company that was rumored to do so. However it seems that this isn’t a trend that we’re seeing being picked up by many OEMs as there are still plenty of handsets out there with their headphone jacks intact.
However it seems that in 2017, Google could be hopping onboard because according to a report from 9to5Google, it seems that Google could be thinking of ditching the headphone jack with the 2017 Pixel handset. This is apparently based on documentation shared with them by a source, and while they can’t share the documentation without revealing their source, it seems that the language used seemed to suggest that this could be the case.
What this means is that if it is true, Google will use the USB-C port on the phone to connect headphones with, or recommend that users purchase Bluetooth headphones. At the moment there aren’t too many USB-C/Lightning connector headphones available, so Bluetooth is still probably the best bet if you want to charge your phone and listen to music at the same time.
That being said, we have been hearing rumors about this year’s Pixel phone and how it is expected to be a “premium device”. The specs are unclear so we guess for now, ditching the headphone jack will be one of the phone’s rumored “features”.