Bluetooth 6.0 is the latest iteration of a wireless short-range data exchanging protocol standard, spanning way back to 1998. The latest version was 6.1, from May 7th, 2025. As of August 17th 2025, all of the latest Macs have Bluetooth 5.3. Devices with an M5 chip are likely to be the first crop of Apple devices with Bluetooth 6, as even the March 2025 iPhone 16e ships with version 5.3.

• See: Bluetooth® Core 6.0 feature overview – www.bluetooth.com
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(Above: Graphics and art designed by Mark in Photoshop CS4 on a Power Mac G5.)
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While this data streaming medium offers many modern conveniences for audio streaming, many can agree it’s a compromise over wired audio. Although Bluetooth 6.0 offers technical upgrades over the previous versions, it’s not enough to make a substantial impact to the average user – except that things will be slightly more reliable. It’s not to discount the actual low-level engineering done to Bluetooth, as this does lay the groundwork for the future.
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A brief history of Bluetooth

• 1.0 – Early 1999, formally announced May 20th 1998. 1.0 and 1.0B products couldn’t work together, and anonymity was not possible.
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• 1.1 – 2001, fixed many of the issues with v1.0B, added possibility of non-encrypted channels, added strength signal indicator, ratified as IEEE 802.15.1–2002.
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• 1.2 – 2003, upgrade from 732.2 kb/s to 1 Mb/s connection, faster discovery. (AFH) adaptive frequency hopping spread spectrum (improves resistance to frequency interference). Ratified as IEEE 802.15.1–2005, Flow and retransmission codes for L2CAP, improved voice quality of audio links.
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• 2.0 +EDR – 2004-5, “Enhanced Data Rate”. The Data Rate of EDR is 3 Mb/s, although real-world performance is more like 2.1 Mb/s, allowing for inter-packet time and acknowledgments. EDR is an optional spec, and it also contains other minor improvements.
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• 2.1 + EDR – July 26th, 2007, Secure Simple Pairing (SSP), improves strength of security, and pairing experience for bluetooth devices. Includes Extended Inquiry Response (EIR), and “sniff subtracting” which reduces power consumption in low power mode.
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• 3.0 + HS – April 21st, 2009, Theoretically goes up to 24 Mb/s, but not over the bluetooth link itself. Bluetooth link is used for negotiation and establishment, high data rate is carried over a colocated 802.11 link. Only devices with +HS have the 802.11 high speed link. This version introduces a number of new features such as L2CAP enhanced modes, Alternative MAC/PHY, Unicast Connectionless Data, and Enhanced Power Control.
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• 4.0 – June 30th 2010, includes “classic”, “Bluetooth High Speed” and “Bluetooth Low Energy” (BLE) protocols.
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• Source for above: (Bluetooth – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, August 17th 2025 – URL)
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More recent Bluetooth history

• 4.1 – December 4th 2013, a “software update”, has many new features over the previous 4.0 specification. Mobile wireless service coexistence signaling, Train nudging and generalized interlaced scanning, Low Duty Cycle Directed Advertising, Dual Mode and Topology, LE Link Layer Topology, 802.11n PAL, and more features were added in this version.
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• 4.2 – December 2nd, 2014, improved Bluetooth Low Energy Secure connection with/data packet length extension. (BLES) improves the cryptographic protocol. Link layer privacy w/extended scanner filter policies for improved data security. Internet Protocol Support File (IPSP) v6 ready for BT smart devices for home automation support.
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• 5.0 – December 6th, 2016, mainly focused on iOT (internet of things) improvements. Slot Availability Mask (SAM), 2 Mbit/s PHY for LE, High Duty Cycle Non-Connectable Advertising, LE Long Range, are among the areas of improvements.
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• 5.1 – January 21st, 2019, Angle of arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD), Advertising Channel Index, GaTT caching, Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer are among the improvements.
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• 5.2 – December 31st, 2019, Enhanced Attribute Protocol (EATT), LE Power Control, LE Isochronous Channels, and BT LE audio are among the improvements.
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• 5.3 – July 13th, 2021, Connection Subrating, Periodic Advertisement Interval, Channel Classification Enhancement, and Encryption key size control enhancements are the improvements.
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• 5.4 – February 7th, 2023, this version adds new features: Periodic Advertising with Responses (PAwR), Encrypted Advertising Data, LE GATT Security Levels Characteristic, and Advertising Coding Selection.
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• Source for above: (Bluetooth – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, August 17th 2025 – URL)
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Bluetooth 6.0

Released by the Bluetooth SIG on August 27th 2024, this is the latest major iteration of bluetooth. This version features some major low-level engineering changes to the functionality. In Bluetooth 6, you get the addition of Bluetooth Channel Sounding, Decision-Based Advertising Filtering, Monitoring Advertisers, ISOAL Enhancement, LL Extended Feature Set, and Frame Space Updates.

What the update aims to fix: Connection stability and latency.

• Channel sounding allows fine ranging capabilities which allow two bluetooth devices to estimate their distance between one another. This doesn’t do anything with sound.

In any version of Low-Energy Bluetooth Audio streaming, the device sending the audio doesn’t even aim for the full 1.2 Mb/s offered by A2DP. Instead, they do the best they can at a much lower bit rate, as sustaining the full 1.2 Mb/s bitrate between walls and other obstacles consistently would be unreliable. Source: (What Bluetooth 6.0 means for us – Super* Review – URL)
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Bluetooth 6.1

This is the most recent iteration of Bluetooth as of August 2025, with the 6.1 specification coming out on May 7th, 2025. It is a minor update with improved device privacy, and power efficiency.
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Lossless Audio and LE Bluetooth Audio

The average lossless music file has a bitrate of about 0.5 to about 2.5 Mb/s, whereas bluetooth supports up to 3 Mb/s outside the colocated 802.11 link. Although that’s the maximum theoretical amount you can push from one end to another, overhead is needed for application data, ECC, security, etc; so the audio is compressed when sent over bluetooth.

In the real world, Bluetooth Audio is limited to the A2DP 1.2 Mb/s bit rate, in the best case scenario. Between competing with other wireless tech, and sometimes going through walls, realistic bandwidth is far lower. We hear music uninterrupted because Low-Energy bluetooth tech is very good a transmitting audio that is perceivably good to the human ear. Alot of sound information is chopped out of music when streamed over Low-Energy Bluetooth to make it all happen, even on Bluetooth 6.0. There is hope, however, coming from within Bluetooth SIG.
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(Source: audioxpress.com – URL to image)
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Future Bluetooth and “HDT”

Known currently internally at Bluetooth SIG as “High Data Throughput” (HDT), it aims to introduce infrastructure and support to be able to increase the bitrate up to 7.5 Mb/s. This development is still at least a year away, according to Super Review*. Source: Alfredo Perez, Bluetooth SIG, (Super* Review, YouTube – URL)

Iterations planned with HDT:

• Room to address spatial audio & wireless surround sound applications w/ multichannel support.
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• Better wireless coexistence with Wi-Fi.
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• Ultra-low latency human interface devices (HIDs) – Bluetooth HIDs with added support for 1kHz rates for ultra low-latency mouse input (in the 1ms range)
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• Source: Bluetooth Roadmap: The Promise of Wireless Audio Realized? – AudioXpress – URL