Bluetooth 6.1 announced with increased confidentiality, better battery life support for life

Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) recently announced the latest Bluetooth 6.1 standard, and it is designed to protect user privacy using devices that provide support for wireless connectivity protocols. New devices with Bluetooth 6.1 support can come up to 2026, and provide better power efficiency capable of the latest standard. Bluetooth sig recently moved into a two-year-old release schedule, which means that we can expect the next version of Bluetooth to be released in the second half of 2025.

Bluetooth 6.1 adds random RPA time for better privacy

Latest Bluetooth 6.1 Core Specification Announcement It states that there are two notable changes in the wireless communication protocol. The first change will improve the confidentiality of the devices connected using Bluetooth 6.1, while the second wireless communication will improve battery life on the devices relying on the protocol.

Bluetooth 6 last year came up with support to change the Mac address of a device, using a resolvable private address (RPA) to protect the user privacy. This is done at a gap of a certain 15 minutes, which can allow users to track malicious addresses by identifying random addresses as it is generated.

To solve this issue, Bluetooth 6.1 adds support for RPA. As a result, the RPA is updated between 8 minutes to 15 minutes, and the value is chosen randomly. This makes it very difficult for a malicious user to track other Bluetooth devices, as it becomes difficult to predict when the device’s address will be random.

You can read more about how Bluetooth 6.1 protects user privacy in wide. document Published by Bluetooth Sig. Another benefit in the document also shows which will be available on equipment with Bluetooth 6.1 support.

These random RPA requests will be controlled by a wireless chip (controller) on devices supporting Bluetooth connectivity rather than relying on the processor. As a result, small devices such as wireless stereo (TWS) headset, fitness trackers, smartwatch and portable speakers can offer better battery life.

Customers may have to wait for several months before the new devices arrive with the support of Bluetooth 6.1. Meanwhile, Bluetooth SIG recently announced that it had switched to a new bi-annual release schedule, which means that the next version of Bluetooth should reach the end of 2025.