Bluetooth Low Energy - BLE app development is a hot topic in the world of mobile development and for a good reason. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with our phones, making it easier than ever to connect devices and share data between them.
BLE technology can be used for everything from wearable devices to home automation systems—and it's already beginning to show up in products from major manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. But what exactly is Bluetooth Low Energy technology? What are the benefits of BLE app development?
What Is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)?
The first thing you need to know about BLE is that it's an evolution of the classic Bluetooth standard. Traditionally, Bluetooth enabled smartphones and other devices to communicate wirelessly over short distances using radio waves. But this required both devices to be "paired" through a process called "discovering" each other before they could communicate.
BLE introduces new methods of discovery that allow devices without paired connections to communicate directly with each other over short distances (less than 100 meters). In this post, we'll examine the top BLE benefits offered to app developers.
1. Relatively Low Cost
BLE technology is a great solution for your smart home in terms of price and affordability. It offers an affordable alternative to other wireless technologies, like Wi-Fi and ZigBee. This is especially true when compared with the complete set of features that BLE provides, which includes,
BLE is relatively cheap compared to other wireless technologies.
Compared to Wi-Fi, BLE is relatively cheaper.
2. Less Power Consumption
BLE uses less power than other wireless technologies. The BLE standard was designed to optimize the use of power, and it works as well or better than traditional Bluetooth.
The technology can be used in a wide range of applications, from wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers to home appliances, which reduces the amount of energy required for each device.
In addition to consuming less energy than other technologies, BLE has a longer range and works over greater distances than older versions of Bluetooth technology.
3. Secure Connection
The BLE protocol is one of the most secure technologies available on today's market. It uses a highly encrypted connection to communicate information between devices and is virtually impossible to hack. The level of encryption in place makes it difficult for outside parties to intercept information, even if they have access to the same network as your device or device pairings.
4. Backward Compatibility
BLE is backward compatible with previous versions of Bluetooth. The technology has been implemented in the 4.2 and 5.0 versions, which means that it can be used on older devices without any issue.
The good news is that BLE is also compatible with other wireless technologies such as NFC, Wi-Fi, and Zigbee (a low-energy wireless networking protocol). So if you have an NFC tag sticker on your laptop, you can use it to pair your laptop with other devices just by tapping them together!
You don't need to do anything else. This method works great for pairing two BLE enabled devices together or even pairing one device with a regular Wi-Fi router that doesn't support BLE at all yet."
5. High Data Rates and Low Latency
BLE radios are designed to support high data rates and low latency, and there's a good reason for this. The BLE technology was originally designed to enable remote sensors, like heart rate monitors or health trackers, that could send data from the user directly to their smartphone. These devices might require only small amounts of information (how many steps you walked), but they need it in real-time so that the user can see it immediately.
While not all BLE devices will operate at such high rates as those used by health trackers, they're still capable of sending data quickly enough to be useful for most applications where speed matters—and some use lower-power devices optimized for extremely fast throughputs.
6. Easy to Implement
BLE is easy to implement and can be implemented in a variety of ways. BLE is a new technology that can offer many benefits to app developers. It's important to note that other wireless protocols may offer even more capabilities than BLE (such as ZigBee and Thread), but they require more development time, money, and expertise than Bluetooth Low Energy does.
7. Improved Security for Connected Devices
BLE is a secure technology. In comparison to other wireless technologies, BLE is more secure because it does not use any type of open or unencrypted connection. If you have used WiFi for any length of time on your computer or phone, you know that there are many ways to compromise the security of your Wi-Fi network.
There are also many ways for someone else to access your network without permission once it has been compromised—even if they never mess with your router settings or even get into your house!
For example: BLE operates at much lower power levels than WiFi and Bluetooth Classic. This means that BLE devices have smaller batteries and can operate for months without needing recharging (depending upon how often they send data).
The reason this matters so much is that it improves battery life significantly over other wireless technologies like WiFi, which can drain an iPhone’s battery within hours of use if left unchecked by its user (and even worse when paired with cellular services like 3G/4G LTE).
Conclusion
Bluetooth Low Energy is a good technology for the IoT and other embedded devices. BLE has many benefits that make it an ideal choice for many applications, but there are some drawbacks too. The biggest challenge with BLE is the cost of getting started with this technology.
It costs more money than most other wireless solutions because there are several things you need before you can even begin working on your app or device: licensing fees, hardware development kits (HDKs), etcetera. However, once you have all of those things set up and ready to go then it’s smooth sailing from there so don’t let anything stop you from trying out this technology!
Milap Chavda is a Digital Marketing Expert at one of the fast-growing, global, web, mobile app and software development company, OneClick IT Consultancy. He does blogging as a hobby and loves to write on startups, business, mobile technologies and app development.
