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the Bluetooth Special Interest Group It announced version 6.0 of its near-universal wireless technology in September 2024, adding some key new features aimed at improving Bluetooth reliability, security, seamlessness and efficiency. It may give you greater range between your headphones and phone, as well as longer battery life.
We’re finally seeing Bluetooth 6.0-equipped devices arrive, including Apple and Google phones, as well as headphones and earbuds. Here’s what you need to know about Bluetooth 6.0 and how it will impact wireless connectivity for years to come.
Major improvements to Bluetooth 6.0
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Latency is the time between when an audio signal is transmitted and when it is actually heard. The higher the latency, the more annoying it becomes – think about how much time audio lags behind video in movies or games. Most Bluetooth devices (5.0 and later) have a latency of 50 to 100 ms, depending on gear and configuration, which is noticeable to most people.
Bluetooth 6.0’s new Synchronous Adaptive Layer, or ISOAL, allows devices to split audio data into smaller chunks for faster processing. In theory, this has the potential to reduce latency, and it is possible to see latency of less than 10ms under ideal conditions, such as close distance, and no obstructions or interference.
We expect that under real-world conditions, the majority of setups will operate with a latency of around 20ms, which represents a significant improvement over Bluetooth 5.x.
Location tracking and security
One of the most interesting features in the new spec is called Channel Sounding, which provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of tracking the device’s location. It relies on the exchange of data packets back and forth between connected devices and a combination of timestamps and frequency analysis, rather than the older, less accurate method of measuring only relative signal strength.
The channel audio system is a boon to Apple’s Find My system and its equivalents from Google and Samsung, providing location accuracy down to about 10 centimetres, along with improved resistance to obstacles and interference. It also enables enhanced security for Bluetooth lock systems using a combination of encryption, randomization, and location cross-referencing to ensure a random person doesn’t unlock your car or front door.
Energy efficiency and quick pairing
The same features that reduce latency also help with power efficiency: Everything behaves intelligently to use more power to keep audio and video in sync for things like games, and less power for less intensive apps like audiobooks. This flexibility is especially essential for wireless earbuds, which require the most efficient power management due to their small size.
The process of searching for nearby Bluetooth devices is also upgraded, with filtering and monitoring of advertisers based on the decision. The advertisement in this case does not refer to selling products to you. Essentially, it’s a set of headphones broadcasting, “I’m a headset, I’m nearby and ready to connect.”
Instead of constantly screaming, “Is there anyone?!” To see if there’s anything nearby to connect to, Bluetooth 6.0 devices will track when previously paired devices move in and out of range. This should save valuable battery life, make pairing faster and provide smoother switching between points.
What Bluetooth 6.0 doesn’t do
Improved Bluetooth sound quality (possibly)
Have you been waiting for reliable, wireless, lossless audio transfer from your phone to your headphones? Still not there yet.
Astute readers who have noticed that transferring audio without losing CD quality requires a throughput speed of 1.4 Mbps may wonder why the theoretical speed of 3 Mbps in Bluetooth 6.0 is not enough. This is because a large portion of Bluetooth bandwidth is consumed by overhead—a bunch of extra data required for secure Bluetooth connections that has nothing to do with audio. While there Some codecs Promising high-quality wireless audio, CD-quality sound with no loss remains elusive.
Bluetooth 6.0 offers the long-discussed optional LC3plus codec, which can transmit up to 24-bit, 96kHz audio. However, unlike the “regular” LC3, this is an optional codec that has a separate licensing fee. This means that there will be limited adoption compared to more popular codecs. Remember, your device and headphones must be compatible with the LC3plus for it to work. It remains to be seen how successful it will be and whether it can transmit 24/96 reliably in the real world.
The future incremental revision of Bluetooth 6.0 promises to add a high data throughput feature that will open up usable bandwidth for lossless streaming, possibly using other frequency bands besides the crowded 2.4 GHz band, to achieve speeds of up to 7.5 Mbps. This should provide enough headroom to enable high-resolution audio streaming, though it’s unclear whether manufacturers will adopt the correct codecs for lossless Bluetooth audio via headphones. Given the past and current adoption rates of the various Bluetooth codecs, it’s unlikely to be Apple, and instead the technology will first find its way to less popular Android phones.
Where to find Bluetooth 6.0 now
If you want to get a head start on Bluetooth 6.0 compatibility, there are a few devices that are already shipping (although not all of them are available in the US).