Beacon FAQs - What Should You Know
Here are some answers to some of the more common questions we get here at Giraffely. If you have more or other quetions please contact us.
What is a Beacon?
Beacons are low-cost, low-powered transmitters equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE (also called Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Smart) that can be used to deliver proximity-based, context-aware messages.
What is an iBeacon?
The terms iBeacon and beacon are often used interchangeably. The main difference is that iBeacon is not a physical product, it’s a technology. It’s a trademark of Apple for their future BLE products and systems.
What is BLE?
Bluetooth Low Energy (also called Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Smart) is the specification for the type of signals that beacons transmit. Bluetooth LE has the advantage that it is low energy and is ‘native’ to most modern phones and tablets.
How are beacons different from GPS? Are beacons better than GPS for geo-location?
In terms of range, beacons function in the interim of NFC (too narrow) and GPS (too broad) ranges, and that is what makes it more effective than the other two.
How are beacons different from NFC?
iBeacon is the first proximity technology (with Apple already on board) that is supported by all major mobile platforms and is thus more popular than NFC.
NFC range is up to 20 cm but the optimal range is < 4 cm . With BLE technology, beacons have a significantly larger range, of approximately 70 m.
What is the battery-life of a beacon?
Most beacons have a battery life of two years as the energy consumption is really low. The battery is generally non-rechargeable and needs to be replaced. Here at Giraffely, our standard beacons have a battery life of up to five years. ANd by using standard "AA" batteries, they are easily replaceable should they run down.
Do beacons work only with iPhones or with Android phones too? For beacons to work, should the app be always running, even if only in the background?
Beacons work with both iPhones and Android phones, but they work differently.With the launch of iOS 7.1 in March this year (iOS 7.1 launch) Apple announced a game-changing improvement to iBeacon. This is that, once an app is installed it will “look” for beacons even if an app is shut down or a user has rebooted his/her phone.
Thus, iOS 7 devices can now constantly scan for BLE and wake up relevant apps, even if they are closed, when they come within range of a beacon.
Android devices, however, do not have a beacon system of1 this type at the operating-system level. Currently, the only way to wake up in response to a beacon in Android is to run a service in the background that continuously listens. Hence, Android apps need to scan for BLE, and so there is more of a battery drain for Android users when beacons scan for apps.
Android, however, is working on proper BLE (iBeacon) support in Android L, the next version of Android currently in developer preview.
What is the range of a beacon’s signal?
The typical range of Bluetooth low-energy radio modules is up to 70 m (230 ft.). It depends on the location too, because radio signals can be absorbed or diffracted. The range of our beacons is also fuly adjustable. So from just a small perimeter, to nearly 300', we can customize the range of you rbeaco to more accurately reach your desired customers.
How precise is beacon-detection indoors?
Though it depends on the intended use and immediate surroundings too, generally one could detect the presence of beacons as far away as 50-70 meters or as little as 10 inches, so it is very accurate. And as we said earlier, with our adjustability, we can fine tune them to yoru needs.