Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology used to create PANs (Personal Area Networks) among your devices, and with other nearby devices.
Bluetooth allows you to leave your phone in your pocket, while talking on your phone with a Bluetooth headset or earbuds, with no wires. Bluetooth has been standard on all mobile phones for some time.
Most automobiles also have Bluetooth, which can interface with a phone in a pocket, to allow automatic hands-free phone capability.
Bluetooth is also commonly used to initiate file transfers with nearby devices, and to track and find devices or items that could get lost.
Bluetooth functionality is divided into separate types of connections known as "profiles". The various uses of Bluetooth described so far all use different profiles. Not all Bluetooth devices support all profiles.
For example, most phones support the Headset (HSP) and Handsfree (HFP) profiles, for connecting phones to headsets and car audio systems, respectively. Most phones also support stereo sound via the A2DP and AVRC profiles.
But not all phones support newer profiles such as TMAP (a replacement for HSP and HFP) and PBP (for one-to-many / broadcast audio).
Those newer profiles are part of LE Audio, which is part of Bluetooth LE. LE stands for Low-Energy, which was a fundamental redesign of Bluetooth technology. While enough devices are backward-compatible that Bluetooth "just works" for the most common scenarios, there are devices that don't support Bluetooth LE, and devices that only support Bluetooth LE.
Most Bluetooth phones are "class 2", which means the Bluetooth feature has a range of up to 30 feet. Class 1 phones (which are less common) can have a range of up to 300 feet.
Bluetooth operates at 2.4 GHz, an unlicensed band that is used by several other technologies, including Wi-Fi.
Bluetooth is named for the 10th century Viking king Harald Bluetooth, who united Norway and Denmark.
Last updated Apr 23, 2026 by Rich Brome
Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
