I’m an iPhone user so I can’t comment on the Android audio stack in day to day use. Apple’s magic Bluetooth chips in the AirPods seem to work really well for me. I imagine the Google equivalent would work well with Google phones
IOS not only has decent audio APIs (from what I hear), it even has some kind of a third-party software bus wherein apps can send audio to each other, in the manner of VST/AU: https://audiob.us. Around for many years, and apparently with many apps using it.
As a person who just won't get into the walled garden, I have to hold back tears while poking at Android apps that are trying to make decent sounds each on their own. In fact, there's Audioroute for Android, which sounds quite analogous to Audiobus, but supported basically by n-Track and four apps from one other dev: https://audioroute.ntrack.com
AirPods definitely have significant latency on iPhones. (I'd estimate at least 100ms.) Perfectly fine for movies or podcasts, detrimental for calls, and awful for anything gaming related.
They don't seem worse on the Pixel 4a, but they definitely don't seem better.
“AirPods Pro and Powerbeats Pro that are wirelessly connected to an iOS device, such as an iPhone 11 or iPad Pro, should have very little, if any, latency in audio with respect to the visuals on the screen.”
AirPods and AirPods Pro in my phone or laptop (linux) both have no noticeable latency.
My wife and I pair both our AirPods pro at the same time to the Apple TV to watch shows (daughter sleeps in the same room) and never have any latency issues.
That's because the video is delayed as well, to match the audio latency. AirPods switch between Headset Profile HSP) (low latency, mono, best for voice) and Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) (high latency, stereo, good for music) to accommodate both use-cases.
https://store.google.com/us/magazine/pixel_buds_compare
I’m an iPhone user so I can’t comment on the Android audio stack in day to day use. Apple’s magic Bluetooth chips in the AirPods seem to work really well for me. I imagine the Google equivalent would work well with Google phones