Bluetooth 6.0 adds centimeter-level accuracy for device tracking — upgraded version also improves device pairing

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has just released version 6.0 of the Bluetooth standard. The last major version, Bluetooth 5, launched in 2016, although the Bluetooth SIG updated this to version 5.4 in 2023. Bluetooth 6 primarily focuses on increased efficiency and reliability, allowing more IoT devices to use it for communication.

Bluetooth 6 implements two new features that help it reduce power consumption — Decision-Based Advertising Filtering and Monitoring Advertisers. These features help Bluetooth devices reduce power consumption and increase efficiency by ensuring they only scan for data packets when they receive data on their primary channel relevant to their application. Furthermore, Bluetooth 6 now tells devices when another device they want to connect to moves out of range so they can cancel their attempt and save energy.

We also get latency improvements through Isochronous Adaptation Layer (ISOAL) Enhancement. This allows the Bluetooth device to cut larger data frames into smaller chunks while ensuring its timing information remains accurate. This would help reduce latency and potentially make Bluetooth audio devices a viable solution for wireless audio, especially in gaming.

However, the most prominent new feature that Bluetooth 6 brings to the table is Bluetooth Channel Sounding. This technology offers two advantages to Bluetooth devices: enhanced security and better accuracy in location finding. Bluetooth Channel Sounding improves security by allowing the devices to communicate wirelessly to find each other’s locations accurately, making it harder to spoof the Bluetooth signal and manipulate its strength.

But the bigger advantage Bluetooth Channel Sounding offers is its improved accuracy, which the Bluetooth SIG says will bring “centimeter-level accuracy over considerable distances.” Bluetooth technology is already used for location services, like the Android Find My Device network and Apple’s Find My. However, the latter still uses Ultrawide Band (UWB) chips for accurate directions.

With the introduction of Bluetooth Channel Sounding in Bluetooth 6, Bluetooth devices could now give away their exact position to authorized devices without needing a UWB chip. And with the ubiquity of Bluetooth devices, especially in IoT devices, we’d soon have a more robust network that would help us locate almost anything, anywhere. This could expand the Find My network across iPhone, Android, and other devices with other operating systems like Windows and Linux.