Just like lighthouses have helped sailors navigate the world for thousands of years, electronic beacons

can be used to provide precise location and contextual cues within apps to help you navigate the world.
For instance, a beacon can label a bus stop so your phone knows to have your ticket ready, or a museum
app can provide background on the exhibit youre standing in front of. Today, were beginning to roll out a
new set of features to help developers build apps using this technology. This includes a new open format
for Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons to communicate with peoples devices, a way for you to add this
meaningful data to your apps and to Google services, as well as a way to manage your fleet of beacons
efficiently.

Eddystone: an open BLE beacon format

Working closely with partners in the BLE beacon industry, weve learned a lot about the needs and the
limitations of existing beacon technology. So we set out to build a new class of beacons that addresses
real-life use-cases, cross-platform support, and security.
At the core of what it means to be a BLE beacon is the frame formati.e., a languagethat a beacon
sends out into the world. Today, were expanding the range of use cases for beacon technology by
publishing a new and open format for BLE beacons that anyone can use: Eddystone. Eddystone is robust
and extensible: It supports multiple frame types for different use cases, and it supports versioning to make
introducing new functionality easier. Its cross-platform, capable of supporting Android, iOS or any
platform that supports BLE beacons. And its available on GitHub under the open-source Apache v2.0
license, for everyone to use and help improve.

By design, a beacon is meant to be discoverable by any nearby Bluetooth Smart device, via its identifier
which is a public signal. At the same time, privacy and security are really important, so we built in a
feature called Ephemeral Identifiers (EIDs) which change frequently, and allow only authorized clients to
decode them. EIDs will enable you to securely do things like find your luggage once you get off the plane
or find your lost keys. Well publish the technical specs of this design soon.

Eddystone for developers: Better context for your apps

Eddystone offers two key developer benefits: better semantic context and precise location. To support
these, were launching two new APIs. The Nearby API for Android and iOS makes it easier for apps to find
and communicate with nearby devices and beacons, such as a specific bus stop or a particular art exhibit
in a museum, providing better context. And the Proximity Beacon API lets developers associate semantic
location (i.e., a place associated with a lat/long) and related data with beacons, stored in the cloud. This
API will also be used in existing location APIs, such as the next version of the Places API.

Eddystone for beacon manufacturers: Single hardware for multiple

platforms
Eddystones extensible frame formats allow hardware manufacturers to support multiple mobile platforms
and application scenarios with a single piece of hardware. An existing BLE beacon can be made
Eddystone compliant with a simple firmware update. At the core, we built Eddystone as an open and
extensible protocol thats also interoperable, so well also introduce an Eddystone certification process in
the near future by closely working with hardware manufacturing partners. We already have a number of
partners that have built Eddystone-compliant beacons.

Eddystone for businesses: Secure and manage your beacon fleet with
ease
As businesses move from validating their beacon-assisted apps to deploying beacons at scale in places
like stadiums and transit stations, hardware installation and maintenance can be challenging: which
beacons are working, broken, missing or displaced? So starting today, beacons that
implement Eddystones telemetry frame(Eddystone-TLM) in combination with the Proximity Beacon APIs
diagnostic endpoint can help deployers monitor their beacons battery health and displacementcommon
logistical challenges with low-cost beacon hardware.

Eddystone for Google products: New, improved user experiences

Were also starting to improve Googles own products and services with beacons. Google
Maps launched beacon-based transit notifications in Portland earlier this year, to help people get faster
access to real-time transit schedules for specific stations. And soon, Google Now will also be able to use
this contextual information to help prioritize the most relevant cards, like showing you menu items when
youre inside a restaurant.
We want to make beacons useful even when a mobile app is not available; to that end, the Physical Web
projectwill be using Eddystone beacons that broadcast URLs to help people interact with their
surroundings.
Beacons are an important way to deliver better experiences for users of your apps, whether you choose
to use Eddystone with your own products and services or as part of a broader Google solution like the
Places API or Nearby API. The ecosystem of app developers and beacon manufacturers is important in
pushing these technologies forward and the best ideas wont come from just one company, so we
encourage you to get some Eddystone-supported beacons today from our partners and begin building!