Bluetooth, the prevalent technology that lets you share files between devices and stream music from your speakers as well as find your way around new places using beacons, is getting an upgrade. Starting later this year and early next year, new devices will arrive rocking version 5 of the wireless standard.
Bluetooth 5 is what the standard’s custodian, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), has announced the new version of Bluetooth will go by.
Bluetooth 5 will have 4 Times the range and DOUBLE the speed of its predecessor, Bluetooth 4
It will build on the capabilities of version 4 which brought with it low energy support to make it easier for devices like wearables to connect to main devices like smartphones without the latter’s battery life suffering as a result.
Bluetooth 5 has been built with the future in mind. The future will be connected thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT devices will need a way to interface with others and technologies and industry standards like Bluetooth and LTE (Huawei demoed a solution they’ve been working on at GITEX Tech Week last year) will be key in this regard. As a result, Bluetooth 5 will have an extended range so that it is possible for IoT devices to be connected to others e.g. home and outdoors.
It will also have more broadcast messaging capacity allowing for transfer and exchange of more data and better speeds in general. Bluetooth 5, according to the Bluetooth SIG, “… will quadruple range and double speed of low energy connections while increasing the capacity of connectionless data broadcasts by 800 percent.”
The increase in broadcast messaging capacity means that Bluetooth 5 will be ready to power the over 370 million Bluetooth-enabled beacons that are projected to ship in the next 4 years.
