I asked Bluetooth reps about why our devices don't always connect properly - and learned the hard truth

Jada Jones/ZDNET

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ZDNET's key takeaways

Bluetooth dual device connectivity, aka "multipoint," isn't an official feature or spec.

It's an application of Bluetooth technologies, and each manufacturer wields it differently.

Further migration from Bluetooth Classic to LE Audio promises improvements.

Bluetooth multipoint is a key selling point used by headphone and earbud manufacturers to entice consumers. This feature allows one pair of headphones to maintain individual connections with two (sometimes three) devices and switch audio between them without manually unpairing and re-pairing devices.

Also: What is Bluetooth 6.0? How the latest standard fixes audio problems we'd learned to live with

However, this feature can be unreliable, disconnecting from the device you want to stay connected to or injecting audio from the device you don't want to hear. There's a reason for this inconsistent behavior: multipoint, as presented to consumers, isn't an official feature or specification of Bluetooth. The term is mostly marketing-speak.

I spoke with Henry Wong, director of market development at Bluetooth SIG, to understand how multipoint works, how it doesn't, and whether further shifts from Bluetooth Classic to LE Audio can address its shortcomings.

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