- Bluetooth Channel Sounding is a new feature of Bluetooth 6.0 that offers more secure and precise distance measurements between devices.
- Although the Bluetooth SIG just released the Bluetooth 6.0 specification this week, Google already added support for the feature in Android 15.
- This means upcoming devices with Bluetooth 6.0 support that run Android 15 will be able to use Channel Sounding.
When it comes to finding the location of objects without the help of satellites, ultra-wideband (UWB) is the best option for consumer hardware. But since very few devices are equipped with UWB radios, you’ll often have to make do with other, more ubiquitous short-range wireless technologies like Bluetooth. While locating objects over Bluetooth is possible, it’s also not very precise — but that’s what Bluetooth 6.0 and its new Channel Sounding feature are looking to solve. Even though the Bluetooth SIG just released the Bluetooth 6.0 specification this week, the latest version of Android already supports the new Channel Sounding feature.
Google released Android 15 earlier this week, and it ships with what seems like full support for this new mode. Channel Sounding, if you aren’t aware, enables Bluetooth devices to determine the presence, distance, and direction of other compatible Bluetooth devices. The feature enables measuring the distance between devices with an accuracy of 10-30cm, which is significantly more precise than the old method to estimate the distance between two Bluetooth devices — received signal strength indicator (RSSI). It’s also more practical than using angle of arrival (AoA) and angle of departure (AoD) to measure distance, as Channel Sounding doesn’t require multiple antennas to operate.