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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• iPhones will support Bluetooth Channel Sounding in iOS 27.
• Channel Sounding promises secure, fine-ranging Find My device capabilities.
• Although exciting, adoption will be slow — per usual.

This year’s WWDC is over, and now it’s time for developers to fine-tune their apps and for early adopters to test them ahead of this fall’s public launch of iOS 27. AI dominated the conversation, serving as the foundation for upgrades to Siri, Search, Photos, and more, while some upgrades didn’t make it to the keynote.

Also: Everything announced at Apple WWDC 2026 – including Siri, iOS 27 dev beta, and more

One less-discussed iOS 27 feature is support for Channel Sounding, an innovative Bluetooth feature first announced in Bluetooth 6.0, which was released in the fall of 2024. Channel Sounding enables a Bluetooth-enabled device to perform precise localization, enhancing its spatial awareness of distance and direction.

Thanks to Bluetooth’s ubiquity and Apple’s support for Channel Sounding, some of the world’s most popular smartphones will support enhanced location compatibility with third-party Bluetooth headphones, smart locks, trackers, wallets, digital keys, and other location-based peripheral devices. 

Like always, it wouldn’t be an emerging Bluetooth technology if there weren’t a few caveats. More on that in a bit.

What does Channel Sounding mean for iPhone?

Channel Sounding’s most valuable benefit to consumers is its ability to democratize the Find My network. In a perfect world, all the devices you’d like to keep tabs on can be easily found in the Find My app, with exact distance and direction measurements, regardless of manufacturer. Channel Sounding aims to make this dream a reality.

With Channel Sounding, iPhone users can expect improved device-tracking functionality with third-party headphones, earbuds, Bluetooth trackers, and more.

Also: I spoke with Bluetooth reps about the future of connected audio, and it’s cooler than I expected

As smartphones become digital keys for cars, smart locks, and safes, Channel Sounding promises secure, “centimeter-level accuracy” in location technology, ensuring that only your device can act as a key when within a specific range.

A smarter Find My network

Currently, Apple’s Find My Device feature works best with other Apple devices, specifically those with an ultra-wideband (UWB) chip. If you open Find My to look for your AirPods Pro 3, the Find feature that helps you track them down is enabled by the UWB chips in your iPhone and your AirPods. In its current state, Bluetooth is what can help with general directions, and UWB offers accurate direction and distance.

Conversely, if you misplace your Powerbeats Pro 2, Bluetooth steps in. You can only see where your Powerbeats were last connected to your iPhone via Bluetooth, since the Powerbeats lack a UWB chip.

Also: Will your iPhone support Siri AI? The answer is complicated

However, UWB chips are expensive to manufacture, and not all manufacturers see the need to incorporate them. These chips are more common in smartwatches and smartphones than in single-purpose peripheral devices, such as headphones, earbuds, or Bluetooth trackers.

As a result, if you have an iPhone and want enhanced device tracking, you’re locked into Apple’s ecosystem of UWB-equipped devices, including certain AirPods and AirTags. Yet Apple’s embrace of Channel Sounding will expand your Find My network, allowing Bluetooth technology to fill device location gaps in third-party devices that lack UWB chips.

What’s the catch?

At WWDC, Apple’s announcement of Channel Sounding support included guidance on how developers can begin optimizing their apps for their Bluetooth peripherals for iPhone, along with the requirements for doing so. Apple mandates that for a third-party Bluetooth device to be compatible with Channel Sounding on iPhone, it must support Bluetooth 6.3.

Channel Sounding is available only on iPhones with Apple’s N1 networking chip, which is found exclusively in the iPhone 17 lineup; future iPhones will likely have it or a more advanced chip that supports Channel Sounding.

Also: Every iPhone model that supports the iOS 27 update (and which older ones don’t)

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, of which Apple is a member, adopted and released Bluetooth 6.3 on May 6, just a month before the latest WWDC. For context, many peripheral devices, such as headphones and earbuds, manufactured as recently as 2025, support Bluetooth 5.4.

So, we shouldn’t expect Bluetooth headphones, speakers, or earbuds to debut with Bluetooth 6.3 anytime soon. However, smartphones, smartwatches, trackers, and smart locks tend to adopt the latest Bluetooth technologies more quickly, especially from manufacturers of several device categories, such as Apple and Google. 

However, even for devices with quicker Bluetooth adoption, it will likely be at least a year before we see any widespread Channel Sounding on iPhone.