Next Year’s iPhone 17 Could Get Bluetooth 6.0 | Here’s What That Means
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Most of us take Bluetooth for granted as merely a way to pair our favorite wireless headphones and speakers with our iPhones, but there’s much more to the protocol. Today, the group that manages the Bluetooth specification has just announced the next major upgrade to the specification, with a fundamental improvement that has more to do with finding your headphones than listening to them.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has just published the details of Bluetooth 6.0. While the list of improvements is a bit technical, one stands out for iPhone users: Bluetooth Channel Sounding.
It’s a secret sauce in Bluetooth 6.0 that could change the game for Apple’s Find My network, allowing faster and more precise location tracking without the need for Ultra Wideband (UWB) chips in devices like AirTags and iPhones. Here’s how the Bluetooth SIG describes it:
The user experience of Find My solutions can be greatly improved, making it easier and faster to locate lost items. In digital key solutions, Bluetooth Channel Sounding will add a robust layer of security, ensuring that only authorized users within a specified range can unlock doors or access secure areas. And, by infusing billions of everyday devices with true distance awareness, Bluetooth Channel Sounding unlocks a world of possibilities for developers, freeing them to imagine and create innovative experiences that will continue to enhance our connection with our devices, one another, and the world around us.
Although Apple has cleverly implemented some precision finding technologies into its AirPods and the Apple TV Remote without adding U1 chips, those are nowhere near as precise as tracking down a lost AirTag, where the Find My app can guide you to a spot within an inch or two of its location. That’s thanks to Apple’s proactive lead in embracing UWB chips, which it added to the iPhone 11 in 2019 and the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020.
Dubbed the U1 chip, these additions not only paved the way for AirTags to debut in early 2021 but also unlocked features like more precise AirDropping and digital car keys. Last year’s iPhone 15 lineup added an upgraded version of the chip (colloquially dubbed the “U2” chip, although Apple never used that name publicly) that unlocked the ability to precisely track down your iPhone 15-toting friends in a crowd.
With iOS 18, Apple is also expanding Home Key to use proximity locking with UWB-capable locks, just like supported cars. Sadly, there aren’t any UWB Home Key locks on the market yet, but like other Ultra Wideband initiatives, we’re confident we’ll see a few appear in the weeks and months following iOS 18’s release.
Enter Bluetooth 6.0
However, UWB’s reign may soon end as Bluetooth 6.0 prepares to take up the mantle of providing proper distance awareness over the much more ubiquitous protocol.
As the Bluetooth SIG explains in its learning pages, Bluetooth 6.0 will provide “centimeter-level accuracy over considerable distances” while also handling the necessary protections to let it be used for secure applications like door locks and finding personal items. While Apple is being its usual quiet self, Samsung executives are already champing at the bit to implement Bluetooth 6.0 technologies in their next-generation devices.
With Bluetooth Channel Sounding, we’re able to elevate the performance of ‘Find My’ applications by delivering centimeter-level accuracy, helping our customers find important items with greater ease. Additionally, Bluetooth Channel Sounding enhances the security of digital key solutions, providing an extra layer of protection for keyless entry usersJoonsuk Kim, executive vice president of the System LSI Connectivity Team at Samsung Electronics
Apple will inevitably adopt Bluetooth 6.0, and we’ll probably see the new spec show up sooner rather than later. While Apple drags its heels on some technologies, wireless protocols don’t typically fall into that category. The iPhone 11 was one of the first smartphones to support Wi-Fi 6, and Apple added Bluetooth 4.0 to the iPhone 4s in 2011, Bluetooth 5.0 to the iPhone 8 in 2017, and Bluetooth 5.3 to the iPhone 14 in 2022, with each of those coming less than a year after the specs were finalized. This means there’s a good chance we’ll see Bluetooth 6.0 appear in next year’s iPhone 17.
While Bluetooth Channel Sounding is the marquee feature of Bluetooth 6.0, it will also pack in the other usual improvements we’ve come to expect from each major new Bluetooth release, including faster pairing and better connectivity. While overall audio quality may not see a big improvement — that’s up to higher-level codecs like AAC, aptX, and LDAC anyway, BT 6.0 promises lower latency audio that should make it even more suitable for applications like gaming where every millisecond counts.
