We don’t have iPhones with Bluetooth 6 but—in actual fact, solely a pair second-tier Android telephones even declare to assist it to date. However that’s not stopping the Bluetooth group, which is preserving with its twice-a-year cadence and asserting the Bluetooth 6.1 spec.
You’ll recall the Bluetooth 6 spec added a powerful new Channel Sounding functionality that may give it centimeter-accurate location and distance monitoring much like Extremely Wideband, along with some new options that may enhance latency and throughput.
The Bluetooth 6.1 replace is targeted on a brand new characteristic known as Randomized RPA (Resolvable Personal Deal with). This characteristic permits for the timing of RPA handle modifications, which improves privateness. Your Bluetooth machine and people it connects to can change handle at instances that may’t be predicted, which makes it more durable for snooping units to trace your exercise or location. To enhance energy effectivity, this handle change operation might be offloaded to the Bluetooth controller as an alternative of the machine’s CPU, which can save battery life.
We anticipate the primary premium telephones to assist Bluetooth 6 someday this fall, and that might very properly embody the iPhone 17. It’s fairly potential these will assist these new Bluetooth 6.1 options as properly, particularly given Apple’s enthusiasm for privateness and energy effectivity.
