Bluetooth 6.1 rolls out with quiet but useful upgrades to privacy and efficiency

Bluetooth

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has officially released the Core Specification 6.1, introducing a pair of under-the-hood improvements focused on bolstering user privacy and extending battery life — albeit without any flashy new features.

Top of the list is a security-focused tweak aimed at addressing Bluetooth’s lingering privacy problem. While Bluetooth is rarely exploited for full-blown security breaches, its constant broadcasting can be a goldmine for anyone looking to track a device over time. With version 6.1, the SIG is rolling out Randomized RPA (Resolvable Private Address) Updates, a new mechanism that adds variability to how and when device addresses change. The result: it becomes significantly harder for third parties to fingerprint and track your gadgets based on their wireless activity.

As a side benefit, this new address-randomization process may also help squeeze a bit more power efficiency out of Bluetooth connections. While SIG hasn’t published hard numbers, the expectation is that the streamlined timing for address changes could slightly reduce energy consumption — though how noticeable that is will likely vary depending on the hardware.

Bluetooth 6.1 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does reinforce the protocol’s core strengths with thoughtful refinements in the background. That’s a big plus for the countless wireless earbuds, fitness trackers, and smartwatches that depend on it to quietly do their job.