Did you know that Apple sold over 60 million pairs of AirPods in 2019?

Airpods are not just a fashion statement. They provide excellent quality audio and a crystal clear connection to your media device. There secret is in the Bluetooth connection.

Bluetooth technology is not new. However, recent developments are making it more and more useful for everyone.

What is Bluetooth? How does it work? How can I use it? Why not take a look at our article below to find out the answers to these important questions.

How Does Bluetooth Work?

Bluetooth works by using radio wave technology. It sends high-frequency waves at frequencies that are found in the scientific and medically used radio bands. Specifically, it uses the band located in the 2.4 to 2.485 GHz band.

If these frequencies sound familiar, it is likely because many Wi-Fi devices use this same frequency band. This can lead to interference issues if you use both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the same location.

How Many Devices Can Connect to My Device?

When you enable Bluetooth on your device, you are essentially opening a small personal area network. This is a small field that multiple devices can connect to and share data amongst themselves.

Most of the time a single device will connect to another single device. However, it is possible to connect multiple devices to a single network

Does Bluetooth Use My Phones Data?

The good news is that Bluetooth does not use your phone’s data package. When you use your phone’s data package, you are using your service provider’s data and infrastructure to exchange information.

Whereas when you activate your Bluetooth, you are creating your own network and any Bluetooth shared files are transferred using that network.

What Devices Use Bluetooth?

Designers originally created Bluetooth as a replacement for pesky office cables. While it has not yet achieved that objective entirely, it is still used in an impressive number of fields.

Bluetooth does not require any cabling and can be battery powered. This means that it is ideal for data-sharing in remote locations. You may use it to share files where you do not have data or Wi-Fi connection.

You may also use it to connect your marine Bluetooth radio to your speakers for your boat party. You may just want to use it to connect your wireless headphones to your ps4.

In the age of the Internet of Things, connecting devices through either Bluetooth or wifi brings endless possibilities.

How Bluetooth Is Evolving

Bluetooth technology started many years ago with Bluetooth 1.0. In January 2020 developers released Bluetooth 5.1. With every iteration in between, Bluetooth has undergone changes and improvements.

Possibly the biggest improvement came with the upgrade to Bluetooth 4.2. This release reduced the power that Bluetooth consumes. It instantly made a number of new technologies and uses possible.

Following the release of 4.2 a range of Bluetooth supported speakers, IoT devices, and even fitness trackers came on the market.

The latest versions of Bluetooth continue to expand its usefulness. With 5.1 engineers added the ability to track the location of Bluetooth devices.

This could make it possible for you to search for lost items via a Bluetooth device if the lost device has a Bluetooth tag.

It also has a range of practical uses, such as triggering the sending of information to a consumer browsing a specific item in a store. It could also be used to provide context or location-specific information to a person browsing a museum.

While Bluetooth technology releases are exciting, you need not worry that your device will one day be out of date. All Bluetooth devices have backward compatibility. This means that they can still communicate with devices that use previous Bluetooth versions.

How Secure Is Bluetooth?

While you may be very impressed by the functionality that Bluetooth can provide, you will likely want to be convinced of its security before you start to share personal files or conversations.

The good news is that like all radio communications technologies, Bluetooth comes with encryption technology and numerous other security options.

Device Level Security

Device-level security restricts the devices that your device can link to. This means that despite the many other Bluetooth devices in close proximity, your personal device will only “trust” those that you personally specify

Service Level Security

Service-level security provides a greater complexity of protection. This can include adding levels of security to the pairing process that allows devices to link.

Spread Spectrum Technology

Users of Wi-Fi technology often have the fear that a person will access their connection and steal their data. Bluetooth has a specific technology to combat this. Developers have constructed a “spread spectrum” technology.

When you enable Spread Spectrum, data that you send across Bluetooth networks is not sent on one frequency, but in small packets among many different frequencies. Spread Spectrum technology will automatically change this frequency at a very fast rate. This makes it more difficult for unscrupulous individuals to access your data.

When you employ these technologies along with common sense, you should generally not have specific concerns regarding the security of your Bluetooth connection.

Why Is It Called Bluetooth?

There are many rumors regarding the name Bluetooth. What is the origin of the name?

When developers in Sweden were originally working to create Bluetooth technology, they used Bluetooth as a working name. They saw this as fitting as famous King Harald Bluetooth had historically united the countries of Scandinavia.

The engineers thought that this was a fitting temporary name for the technology that would unite the PC and cellular industries.

However later, due to an administrational error, there was no time to select and agree on a permanent name. Hence Harald Bluetooth lives on in the radio-wave technology that bears his name.

What Is Bluetooth and Other Important Questions

Bluetooth technology has an incredible array of applications. Now that you have found the answer to the question “what is Bluetooth?” you can get the best out of your Bluetooth enabled devices.

If you are interested in tech and lifestyle developments, keep reading our blog.