Skip to main content

Google announces a Bluetooth beacon platform to compete with Apple’s iBeacons

Google today announced a new beacon technology called Eddystone along with APIs that together it hopes will make it easier for Android and iOS-powered devices and beacons in close proximity to communicate with one another. Unlike iBeacon, Apple’s take on the Bluetooth-based protocol, Eddystone is open source and designed to be easily extendable, compatible with any device which supports the use of beacons. A new API announced alongside Eddystone, compatible with iOS and Android devices and available to Android developers today (iOS support forthcoming), uses inaudible sound emitted from device speakers and heard from other devices using their microphones to determine when other smartphones and tablets are nearby so data can be transmitted between them.

To learn more, read the full post over at 9to5Google.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. This was “unexpected”.

  2. Luis Alejandro Masanti - 9 years ago

    I like the strong privacy that they did!

    (It’s an irony!)

  3. kevicosuave - 9 years ago

    “uses inaudible sound emitted from device speakers and heard from other devices using their microphones to determine when other smartphones and tablets are nearby so data can be transmitted between them”

    That sounds like a really bad idea.

  4. PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

    How innovative of them. Might as well have called it “eyebeacon”

  5. Jonathan Smyth - 9 years ago

    Just think, it will only be 6 months until the Android fanboys claim Apple copied the idea from Google.

  6. marook - 9 years ago

    So, they want 24/7 access to your microphone.. gee.. not gonna happen!

  7. Eddystone has been a widely covered news piece, but there’s still quite a bit of confusion surrounding it. One of these is the confusion among businesses who have are currently deploying iBeacon and are not sure about how this announcement will impact their business. The true is, it doesn’t really change a lot. iBeacon (though unofficially) has been supported on Android since the very beginning. Thus, businesses looking to run beacon campaigns on Android devices needn’t necessarily use Eddystone. We have tried to answer some common questions like these in our Eddystone FAQ blog: http://blog.beaconstac.com/2015/08/eddystone-faqs-everything-you-need-to-know/

Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications