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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- iPhones will assist Bluetooth Channel Sounding in iOS 27.
- Channel Sounding guarantees safe, fine-ranging Discover My gadget capabilities.
- Though thrilling, adoption can be sluggish — per normal.
This yr’s WWDC is over, and now it is time for builders to fine-tune their apps and for early adopters to check them forward of this fall’s public launch of iOS 27. AI dominated the dialog, serving as the muse for upgrades to Siri, Search, Photosand extra, whereas some upgrades did not make it to the keynote.
Additionally: Everything announced at Apple WWDC 2026 – including Siri, iOS 27 dev beta, and more
One less-discussed iOS 27 function is assist for Channel Soundingan revolutionary Bluetooth function first introduced in Bluetooth 6.0, which was launched within the fall of 2024. Channel Sounding allows a Bluetooth-enabled gadget to carry out exact localization, enhancing its spatial consciousness of distance and path.
Due to Bluetooth’s ubiquity and Apple’s support for Channel Soundingamong the world’s hottest smartphones will assist enhanced location compatibility with third-party Bluetooth headphones, good locks, trackers, wallets, digital keys, and different location-based peripheral gadgets.
Like at all times, it would not be an rising Bluetooth expertise if there weren’t a number of caveats. Extra on that in a bit.
What does Channel Sounding imply for iPhone?
Channel Sounding’s Most worthy profit to customers is its means to democratize the Discover My community. In an ideal world, all of the gadgets you’d wish to maintain tabs on may be simply discovered within the Discover My app, with actual distance and path measurements, no matter producer. Channel Sounding goals to make this dream a actuality.
With Channel SoundingiPhone customers can count on improved device-tracking performance with third-party headphones, earbuds, Bluetooth trackers, and extra.
Additionally: I spoke with Bluetooth reps about the future of connected audio, and it’s cooler than I expected
As smartphones turn out to be digital keys for automobiles, good locks, and safes, Channel Sounding guarantees safe, “centimeter-level accuracy” in location expertise, guaranteeing that solely your gadget can act as a key when inside a particular vary.
A better Discover My community
At present, Apple’s Discover My Gadget function works greatest with different Apple gadgets, particularly these with an ultra-wideband (UWB) chip. In case you open Discover My to search for your AirPods Professional 3, the Discover function that helps you observe them down is enabled by the UWB chips in your iPhone and your AirPods. In its present state, Bluetooth is what may help with normal instructions, and UWB presents correct path and distance.
Conversely, should you misplace your Powerbeats Professional 2, Bluetooth steps in. You’ll be able to solely see the place your Powerbeats had been final related to your iPhone by way of Bluetooth, for the reason that Powerbeats lack a UWB chip.
Additionally: Will your iPhone support Siri AI? The answer is complicated
Nevertheless, UWB chips are costly to fabricate, and never all producers see the necessity to incorporate them. These chips are extra frequent in smartwatches and smartphones than in single-purpose peripheral gadgets, similar to headphones, earbuds, or Bluetooth trackers.
Consequently, in case you have an iPhone and need enhanced gadget monitoring, you are locked into Apple’s ecosystem of UWB-equipped gadgets, together with sure AirPods and AirTags. But Apple’s embrace of Channel Sounding will broaden your Discover My community, permitting Bluetooth expertise to fill gadget location gaps in third-party gadgets that lack UWB chips.
What is the catch?
At WWDC, Apple’s announcement of Channel Sounding assist included steerage on how builders can start optimizing their apps for his or her Bluetooth peripherals for iPhone, together with the necessities for doing so. Apple mandates that for a third-party Bluetooth gadget to be appropriate with Channel Sounding on iPhone, it should assist Bluetooth 6.3.
Channel Sounding is accessible solely on iPhones with Apple’s N1 networking chip, which is discovered solely within the iPhone 17 lineup; future iPhones will seemingly have it or a extra superior chip that helps Channel Sounding.
Additionally: Every iPhone model that supports the iOS 27 update (and which older ones don’t)
The Bluetooth Particular Curiosity Group, of which Apple is a member, adopted and released Bluetooth 6.3 on Could 6, only a month earlier than the most recent WWDC. For context, many peripheral gadgets, similar to headphones and earbuds, manufactured as lately as 2025, assist Bluetooth 5.4.
So, we should not count on Bluetooth headphones, audio system, or earbuds to debut with Bluetooth 6.3 anytime quickly. Nevertheless, smartphones, smartwatches, trackers, and good locks are inclined to undertake the most recent Bluetooth applied sciences extra rapidly, particularly from producers of a number of gadget classes, similar to Apple and Google.
Nevertheless, even for gadgets with faster Bluetooth adoption, it is going to seemingly be not less than a yr earlier than we see any widespread Channel Sounding on iPhone.
