Bluetooth 6 arrives: Meet its powerful next-gen features

Bluetooth 5.0 was officially announced almost nine years ago. The wireless technology has undergone several updates up to the current version (5.4), but we had to wait a long time for the next big thing. Now the time has finally come: Bluetooth 6.0 is just around the corner. Read on to find out what’s in it for you and what capabilities the developers have given the new wireless standard.

Ingenious new feature: Channel sounding

We are particularly looking forward to one exciting new feature of Bluetooth 6.0: “Channel Sounding.” This technology lets Bluetooth devices locate each other with impressive precision. In the future, the direction and a fairly exact distance of one Bluetooth device to another can be determined.

The distance measurement achieves an accuracy of up to 10cm. This means that lost Bluetooth headphones, for example, can be found quickly, even if they are small in-ear models that you would often have to search for a long time (or in vain) by eye.

Bluetooth SIG

Channel Sounding also brings improvements in terms of security. For access authorizations such as contactless unlocking of locks (e.g. on cars), the technology promises more protection — for example, against man-in-the-middle attacks.

More reliability, less latency

With the help of the Isochronous Adaptation Layer (ISOAL), Bluetooth 6.0 can split longer data packets (such as audio) into smaller data packets for transmission and then reassemble them. The waiting time between sending such data packets is now also variable and can be flexibly defined by the communicating devices themselves.

Burst transfers (several contiguous data fragments) can be processed more quickly if a fast transfer is required. At the same time, the waiting time between fragmented data packets can also be extended if this makes sense for narrow bandwidth or small amounts of data. This should make transmission more reliable for sensitive or interference-prone applications.

The optimized ISOAL also enables noticeable improvements in the latency of wireless transmissions. This is not particularly important for applications such as simply listening to music. However, when gaming with Bluetooth headphones or watching films, even small latencies between sound and image can be perceived as very annoying. With Bluetooth 6.0, such problems could soon be a thing of the past.

Bluetooth Extended Advertising

With the new “Bluetooth Extended Advertising,” related data packets are transmitted on both a primary and a secondary radio channel. The so-called “decision-based advertising” allows a scanning device to use the content of a data packet on the primary channel to decide whether it should also search for associated data packets on the secondary channel. This can improve the efficiency of scanning and reduce the time spent on such operations, as scans on the secondary channel can be carried out on a more demand-orientated basis.

More efficiency and improved security

In addition to striking innovations such as channel sounding or ISOAL optimizations, Bluetooth 6.0 also brings a few more mundane but no less important upgrades: These include a further improvement in energy efficiency, which can also implement demanding functions in a more battery-friendly way and extend the device runtime.

In standby mode, the energy requirement is reduced again compared to Bluetooth 5.0. At the same time, the reliability and security of transmissions is improved.

The transmission quality in densely populated regions or in areas where many devices communicate simultaneously should also be less susceptible to interference with Bluetooth 6.0.

Switch more easily between devices

In addition to technical improvements, the developers have also thought about the user experience and improved usability. Bluetooth 6.0 should make it easier to switch between connected devices. If you use the same Bluetooth headphones for devices such as your smartphone, hi-fi system, or laptop, you will no longer have to go through the hassle of switching manually.

Further reading: 3 ways to quickly connect Bluetooth devices in Windows 11

When is Bluetooth 6.0 coming?

The specifications have been finalized and manufacturers can start equipping smartphones with Bluetooth 6.0. However, only a few devices that already support Bluetooth 6.0 are currently available. But a whole series of new smartphones with the improved wireless standard are expected to be launched in 2025. These include the flagship series from top manufacturers such as OnePlus, Apple, and Google.

Xiaomi

Which smartphones will get Bluetooth 6.0?

In the long term, all mobile phones will certainly be compatible with the new standard. However, only a few models are currently known to already support Bluetooth 6.0. Samsung and OnePlus also still rely on Bluetooth 5.4 for their current flagships (Galaxy S25, OnePlus 13), even though the Snapdragon 8 Elite installed in these models is generally compatible with Bluetooth 6.0.

These smartphones already use Bluetooth 6.0: