To the Steam Team,

I am writing regarding a significant audio latency issue I experienced on my Steam Deck when using Bluetooth headphones.

Problem: When connecting my Bluetooth headphones, I noticed a very noticeable 1-2 second audio lag while playing games in Gaming Mode or watching videos in Desktop Mode. This made the audio unusable.

Solution Found: I found a community fix that resolved the issue:

Switched to Desktop Mode.
Went to System Settings > Audio.
Selected my Bluetooth headphones.
Changed the "Profile" to SBC-XQ.

After changing the audio codec profile to SBC-XQ, the latency issue was fixed, making the audio functional for both gaming and media.

Request: This issue seems to be a common problem (as you can see in the below reddit link with over 400 likes). Please consider making the SBC-XQ codec the default for Bluetooth headphones, or making this fix more visible and easily accessible to users in the standard Gaming Mode interface. Currently the fix is buried in your SteamHelp (https://psteamhelp.yuanyoumao.com/en/faqs/view/69E3-14AF-9764-4C28) under the Bluetooth header.

Thank you.

Fix link with over 400 likes: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/13clr39/heres_how_i_improved_the_latency_with_my/