When it comes to tracking devices like your phone or earbuds, Bluetooth Channel Sounding is likely to be the next technology in use, but at the moment, only the Pixel Watch 3 supports this technology. That poses a problem in actually getting it off the ground as an alternative to something like Ultra-Wideband, which is currently the most precise method for tracking lost or stolen Android devices.
Luckily, fixing this problem might not be that hard. Although it’s not a problem that users can fix. As reported by Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority, Bluetooth Channel Sounding is a feature of Bluetooth 6.0. Other than the Pixel Watch 3, however, no Android devices on the market appear to support Bluetooth 6.0 or its Channel Sounding feature.
The fix, it would seem, is updating devices to support Bluetooth 6.0, which should allow them to support Channel Sounding. Thereby having the same capabilities as the Pixel Watch 3 for more precise tracking. According to the report, the Pixel Watch 3 appears to have received support for Bluetooth 6.0 as part of an update. Specifically, the update to Wear OS 5.1 that Google pushed out recently.
The Pixel Watch 3 having Bluetooth Channel Sounding support could lead to more precise device tracking
The reason this seems to be such a big deal is that current Bluetooth tracking standards are less accurate. There’s Ultra-Wideband, which is more accurate than Bluetooth channel sounding. However, it’s more expensive to implement and, as Mishaal Rahman notes, it really only proves useful in certain situations.
This is where the channel sounding feature could come in handy. Because all it would take is an update to Bluetooth 6.0. And basically any device these days, from phones to speakers, has Bluetooth. Granted, not every device that has Bluetooth would need the update to Bluetooth 6.0. But it would make sense for Android phones, true wireless earbuds, wearables such as other smartwatches (like other Pixel Watch models), headphones, and other smaller, portable tech. Basically, any device you could carry with you out of the house that’s suitable for travel. Bluetooth channel sounding is also precise enough to track devices within a centimeter or two. So, it would be a good way to more accurately locate lost devices.
The post The Pixel Watch 3 has a tracking trick no other Android device does appeared first on Android Headlines.
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