The former is built on the latter, and they are the same except that for WiFi Direct, it’s about to communicate between two devices for high-speed data transfer. Due to the increased performance in every aspect, Bluetooth is also getting popular among IoT devices. It makes the modern devices to be used while roaming around. While version 3 offered faster communication, 4.0 rolled out the Bluetooth Low Energy to reduce battery drain on smartphones, and now with Bluetooth 5.0 in the picture, you get another boost in speed, range, and bandwidth.Ĭompared to version 4, Bluetooth 5.0 offers double the speed, almost 4 times the range, and a lot less power. Useful to connect to devices with a low amount of data transfer Useful to transfer a large amount of data such as files.īluetooth has evolved with time. Limited to 10-50 meters Over 100 meters 5. A limited number of parallel connection Supports a large number of devices 4. Less Secure Better security over Bluetooth 3. Low power consumption Consumes high power 2. However, this will come at a very high energy cost compared to Bluetooth. Since this is Wifi, file transfer happens at a lot higher speed, almost 20 times faster than what is possible over Bluetooth.
It is also called WiFi Peer-to-Peer networking. Did you know you can use to connect two smartphones over WiFi without internet? They connect to each other as if one has connected to a Wifi network, and then can discover each other for file transfer. That’s where WiFi Direct comes into the picture. While there are other ways, everything needs to go through the internet. Even though it has evolved, one of the biggest problems with Bluetooth is that it is still slow when it comes to the transfer of files. Instead, We can compare Wifi Direct and Bluetooth. Wifi and Bluetooth are two completely different technology and use cases. What is the difference between WiFi Direct and Bluetooth? Once the devices recognize each other, they will automatically connect when they find each other around. Once an attempt to connect is made and confirmed, the devices can now connect over a set channel. One has to be in search mode to connect two devices, while the other needs to be in pairing mode. So you can sync your Smartwatch while you still listen to music. The protocols have leveled up, and it is possible to stay connected with multiple Bluetooth devices.
Internally, Bluetooth can use any of the 79 channels to pair with multiple devices, ensuring there is no interference. Many still prefer it for device-to-device transfer if they are worried too much about an unsecured Wifi connection. One of the biggest advantages of using it is that they don’t consume much power. Nowadays, it is typically used to connect earphones, connect to PC, Wireless mouse, and all sort of things but not necessarily transfer files as it takes way too long, and now we have a faster way to send files.īluetooth uses a 2.45 GHz range of frequency to connect to other Bluetooth devices. Those who have used it for a long also know that it was also used to share the internet at the early stages of the Internet. It’s a wireless protocol or peer-to-peer wireless technology that allows two devices to communicate over a short range for data transfer. This post will share about Bluetooth, how it works, and the difference between WiFi and Bluetooth.Īt this age and time, Bluetooth doesn’t need an introduction. Later the word Blåtand was translated to Bluetooth. Fun Fact, the term Bluetooth is named after an ancient Viking king, Harald Blåtand, who unified Denmark and Norway.