# Will Bluetooth ever move beyond "pairing"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2018, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659 "2018-12-06T05:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/21 "2018-12-06T22:38:08Z")
Pairing could easily be made better. I’d rather they work out the basic reliability problems with Bluetooth first, though. At least pairing you only have to do occasionally. Actually using the stuff is a total crapshoot. I envy the people who are like “oh, bluetooth just always works for me”. It is notoriously unreliable. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/22 "2018-12-07T00:56:53Z")
As I recall, Bluetooth has always had an anonymous/unpaired mode?? It’s not implemented / not turned on in modern phones because people decide that they didn’t like having other peoples phones connect to theirs. And now there are so many Bluetooth devices around, it’s hard to see how it could work. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/23 "2018-12-07T19:06:50Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > As I recall, Bluetooth has always had an anonymous/unpaired mode?? It’s not implemented / not turned on in modern phones because people decide that they didn’t like having other peoples phones connect to theirs. And now there are so many Bluetooth devices around, it’s hard to see how it could work. I don’t think that anyone is suggesting that phones just randomly connect to things without any authentication, but that the pairing _method_ be made better. Typing in a random string of numbers on one or both devices is an awkward system. The xkcd comic linked above suggests some better solutions. Syncing two devices by [bumping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)) them was figured out almost a decade ago. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/24 "2018-12-08T04:23:58Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I don’t think that anyone is suggesting that phones just randomly connect to things without any authentication, > [@russian\_heel](#): > > Can’t we at this point just have devices that automatically pair without codes? Or is that technology out there and I missed it? As I recall, the original Bluetooth people suggested connection without any authentication: it was one of the original BT modes. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that I’m the first to suggest it. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/25 "2018-12-08T05:59:20Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > The iPhone 6 has NFC. Technically yes, but it’s usable only for ApplePay, which is why I didn’t mention it. It wasn’t until the 7 that Apple made the NFC radio available to any other use. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/26 "2018-12-08T13:35:13Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > As I recall, the original Bluetooth people suggested connection without any authentication: it was one of the original BT modes. > > I could be wrong, but I don’t think that I’m the first to suggest it. One of the “benefits” touted in the early days was a mode which, among other things, would allow ads to pop up on your device when you walked past a BT “enhanced” ad sign. The makers really thought that this was something that consumers would want to have. Bluetooth? I’m more of a Hardrada fan, myself. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/27 "2018-12-10T16:59:23Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > As I recall, the original Bluetooth people suggested connection without any authentication: it was one of the original BT modes. > > I could be wrong, but I don’t think that I’m the first to suggest it. Sorry, I didn’t mean “nobody ever”. I meant I didn’t think that people in this thread were suggesting that things not be paired, just that the pairing be made less arduous. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659/28 "2018-12-10T18:35:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Lemur866** : > > They’re only able to do that because you allow your computer to scan for bluetooth devices. Turn off bluetooth on your computer and that will stop happening. So, I did this, and it’s an acceptable solution for me, but what if, say, I had a Bluetooth mouse that I wanted to use? I couldn’t see any option for “ignore all future pairing, but stay connected to things you’ve already paired to”, or the like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bluetooth-ever-move-beyond-pairing/825659.md?page=1)