The future of immersive audio at #MWC26

Picture joining a call where you can hear where someone is standing, how far away they are, and how their surrounding environment sounds – not just as an effect, but as part of the call itself. Or stepping into an extended reality (XR) experience where sound shifts naturally as you turn your head, with nearby voices distinct from distant background sounds. This is what immersive audio makes possible in real time.

Immersive audio has moved quickly from consumer media to real-time communication and mobile standards over recent years. What started as spatial sound for recorded media is now being applied to live voice and XR services, where sound must respond instantly to movement, orientation and environment.

At Mobile World Congress 2026, Nokia will showcase the next steps in this journey, including the first public Immersive Voice and Audio Service (IVAS) interoperability demo with Fraunhofer IIS, and an interactive 6G XR Audio Experience exploring immersive sound in XR environments.

Advancing multi-vendor IVAS interoperability

With IVAS now standardized in 3GPP Release 18, immersive spatial calling has officially moved from prototype to native telecom capability. Last year, our MWC demo with Vodafone and RingCentral proved the experience in real-world conditions – making calls feel more natural, situationally aware and scalable across enterprise, industrial and consumer scenarios. With the industry now moving into interoperability and deployment readiness, immersive spatial communications are quickly becoming a key building block for XR and future service evolution.

IVAS extends the widely deployed Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) codec into immersive services, encoding audio while preserving spatial metadata such as position, orientation and head-tracking. It is designed to work within IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based mobile networks, supporting real-time transport of both audio signals and associated metadata. This means immersive voice can be delivered using existing mobile network architectures, rather than as an application-layer add-on.

IVAS supports a wide range of spatial formats, including mono, stereo, object-based and scene-based audio, as well as MASA (metadata-assisted spatial audio). It includes bitrate scaling and RTP support with full backward interoperability with EVS, allowing immersive calls to adapt to network conditions while remaining compatible with today’s devices and services.

At this year’s MWC, Nokia will reach a new milestone, with the first public interoperability demonstration of immersive calling using the 3GPP IVAS codec, showcased with Fraunhofer IIS. 

Calls will be made through Nokia’s IMS test network, proving interoperability between two major contributors to 3GPP IVAS standardization From Barcelona, immersive calls will take place on Tuesday from the GSMA booth to Finland (Nokia) and Germany (Fraunhofer IIS), and on Wednesday at Fraunhofer’s booth.

This is the first time IVAS-based immersive calling is demonstrated publicly across multiple vendors, showing that the technology is moving beyond specification into practical, multi-vendor deployment readiness.

The future of service differentiation

Immersive audio is also becoming a key enabler for XR, where sound needs to respond dynamically to movement, environment and interaction.

In XR, audio is as important as visuals for creating presence. Hearing footsteps approach from behind, a voice speaking close by, or environmental sounds positioned further away helps anchor users within a virtual scene and makes interactions feel real rather than simulated.

Nokia will present a private booth demonstration at MWC 2026, titled the 6G XR Audio Experience, which will feature an interactive XR/VR showcase of next-generation immersive sound. This demo showcases technologies now available in the MPEG-I immersive audio standard where Nokia has been a leading contributor.

Visitors will enter a virtual sound playground where audio responds to movement, simulating real-world acoustics with directionality, distance cues and environmental reflections. The demo is built on key technology components, including MPEG-I immersive audio and the 3GPP IVAS codec.

Spatial communication and XR entertainment enable new opportunities for telecom providers and developers, ranging widely from immersive entertainment to personalized content and differentiated service offerings as 6G begins its rollout.

Experience immersive audio at Mobile World Congress 2026

The best way to understand the potential of immersive voice and XR audio is to experience it firsthand. At Mobile World Congress 2026, Nokia invites attendees, partners and industry leaders to explore two key showcases: the 6G XR Audio Experience in Hall 3 Stand 3B20, (please contact reception to schedule a demonstration) and the first public IVAS interoperability demo with Fraunhofer IIS in Hall 4, 4F30 on the GSMA stand on Tuesday March 3. An additional demo will be shown at Fraunhofer IIS’ stand on Wednesday March 4 in Congress Square, CS64, from 16:00 - 19:00.

Together, these demonstrations show how immersive audio is evolving from standardization into real-world experiences - and why it is set to play a central role in the evolution of XR, 6G and next-generation communication services.