Just this week Google announced their new beacon format, called Eddystone. Named after a lighthouse in the UK (a “beacon,” get it?), Eddystone increases the usefulness of beacons by allowing most Bluetooth-enabled devices to receive a broadcasted signal no matter what brand of mobile device it is.
This being an initial announcement, we’re still waiting for all of the details, but this could potentially be very big for Float users. We’re just speculating here, but some of the potential benefits could be:
- The ability for anyone with Bluetooth LE (iPhone, Android, etc) to be notified of a Float listing as they walk by, whether they have the app or not.
- If the app is not downloaded, the beacon could open a web browser to a web version of the listing, while also prompting them to download the app for a better experience.
- It’s competition to Apple, currently the only player, so both will be pushing each other to continually improve their format’s quality.
One way or another, this looks to be a very exciting advancement. We’re already brainstorming the process of getting Eddystone up and running for Float. More to come.
If you would like to read more about Eddystone, here’s one of many articles to check out.