- The Bluetooth 6.1 update has just been announced
- It needs to improve device privacy and battery life
- It may come to iPhones and Android units as soon as this year
Your next phone could come up with a new Bluetooth feature that could make it harder to track you and increase your battery life at the same time, in a double victory for any of the best phones that contain it. And while we don’t know its exact release date, there’s a chance we could even see it this year.
The feature of the new Bluetooth 6.1 protocol is called randomized RPA updates and it has just been announced as part of the Bluetooth upgrade. In this case, the RPA stands for the loose private address and it is this part that will influence your privacy.
That’s because devices under Bluetooth 6.0 change their identifier addresses in a fixed timer and this predictable process makes them easier to track. With Bluetooth 6.1’s randomized RPA update feature, these address changes will be randomly at an interval of between eight and 15 minutes (although this can be adapted anywhere from every second to every hour). It eliminates the update pattern, making your device much harder to track and exploit.
This change also affects the life of the battery as the process can be handled by your phone’s Bluetooth chip rather than its CPU. Lower load on your device’s processor must be translated into better efficiency, which in turn means slower battery drain.
When will we see these changes?
Bluetooth 6.1 has only just been revealed as part of the protocol’s new two -year release plan, but there is a chance that we might see it on new devices as soon as this year.
For example, Apple has a decent record for using new technologies in its products, so there’s a possibility that we could see Bluetooth 6.0 – or maybe even Bluetooth 6.1 – in its iPhone 17 range.
Still, 2026 feels a more likely date for Bluetooth 6.1 to debut in phones, both of the Apple and Android. Usually with new Bluetooth Tech it is better not to expect it too soon.
When it arrives, however, it should bring benefits to both your privacy and your phone’s battery life – and it’s a double bonus for us to look forward to.
