Sometimes it may seem like Bluetooth 5 is still a relatively new technology, but it was first introduced in 2016. Now, after several point releases, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has released a new major version of the specification: Bluetooth 6.
Bluetooth 6 introduces six major new features, most of which are very technical, but here’s a quick summary:
Bluetooth Channel Ringtone: allows you to determine the direction and range between two Bluetooth devices. In other words, Bluetooth can act similarly to Ultra Wideband in determining the location of Bluetooth devices.
Decision-Based Ad Filtering: This should speed up scanning and finding some Bluetooth devices, as your device can find a device on the primary channel and use that information to determine what to look for on a secondary channel.
Advertiser Tracking: This can improve the efficiency of Bluetooth host devices by preventing them from sending multiple “Here I am!” packets to connected devices.
ISOAL Improvement:improves latency and reliability specifically for devices that use the isochronous adaptation layer.
LL Extended Feature Set:Devices are currently able to exchange information indicating which link layer features they support. Now that Bluetooth LE has grown, it has become necessary to expand the list to support even more features.
Frame space update: Allows connection events to have variable frame spacing instead of a fixed 150 microsecond spacing. Shorter frame spacing can improve throughput for things like LE Audio devices, fitness trackers, downloading firmware updates, etc.
Channel Sounding is the big news
Most of the new features are updates to basic Bluetooth functions that should simplify the headaches of engineers working on the low-level connection details of advanced Bluetooth devices, but they won’t make a big difference to you or me, other than “they can sometimes make things a little faster or more reliable in specific situations.”
The first item in this list that East a real user-facing enhancement: Bluetooth Channel Sounding essentially adds a layer on top of Bluetooth LE broadcasting that allows devices to determine their effective range.
Bluetooth LE already lets devices determine the departure angle and arrival angle of signals, which lets you know which direction another device is facing. With Channel Sounding, you can also tell how far away it is. In other words, it lets you do what Apple does with Ultra Wideband using its U1 and U2 chips, but in a standardized way that’s integrated into Bluetooth without requiring any additional hardware.
This will obviously benefit services like Find My: in a few years, most object trackers and Bluetooth devices will have the kind of “precision location” that Apple devices with U1/U2 chips have.
But it’s also a huge potential benefit for things like smartphones, which can double as car or house keys. Your car or front door can be more secure by only unlocking the right Bluetooth device that’s also within a few feet of range, so Bluetooth broadcasters passing by with captured keys can’t unlock them remotely.
When will you see Bluetooth 6 on your iPhone?
Bluetooth 5 was released by the Bluetooth SIG in December 2016, and the iPhone 8 and iPhone X were released with Bluetooth 5 support in September 2017.
With Apple relying on Bluetooth technologies from outside companies (some of which are already shipping preliminary Bluetooth 6 chips), it’s not out of the question that the iPhone 17 will feature this technology. If it doesn’t arrive next year, we’ll certainly have it in the iPhone 18 in 2026.
While support for host devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac is great (especially since we’re expected to keep these devices for years), Bluetooth 6 won’t be useful until device manufacturers start selling Bluetooth 6 devices as well. That can sometimes take a while.
