Android 15 now supports the Wi-Fi Ranging feature for precise indoor tracking and navigation of less than one meter (about forty inches), but that doesn’t mean you can use it today.

Also known as the IEEE 802.11az protocol, Wi-Fi Ranging has the potential to replace indoor GPS tracking, which uses satellites orbiting the Earth to pinpoint our location. But the problem with GPS tracking is that it doesn’t work reliably in places that obstruct the signal, like malls.

With Wi-Fi Ranging, an Android device can leverage nearby Wi-Fi hot spots in crowded indoor places like shopping malls, convention centers, and the like to determine its location far more precisely than without it. Use cases include stores in shopping malls guiding customers to specific products, smarter smart homes where the system can determine the room you’re in to turn on appropriate smart lights, and more.

Most Android phones don’t have hardware support for Wi-Fi Ranging just yet, but that’s set to change within a few years. For example, Qualcomm announced its new FastConnect 7900 chip with support for Wi-Fi Ranging at Mobile World Congress 2024 in February, but Android phones utilizing this chip have yet to appear on the market. In addition, Wi-Fi hot spots will need to receive a firmware update with support for Wi-Fi Ranging.

Before there was a standard protocol for Wi-Fi location tracking, mobile devices could get approximate locations down to 10-15m accuracy by measuring signal strength. The 802.11mc update to the Wi-Fi protocol added the Wi-Fi Round Trip Time (RTT) feature for location tracking with 1-2m accuracy. Google has supported RTT since Android 9 in 2018.

The 802.11az standard, unveiled in March 2023, introduced the Wi-Fi Ranging feature that can be used in conjunction with fine timing measurement (FTM) to improve the accuracy of indoor location tracking to forty centimeters (0.4 meter or about 16 inches).

Google says Android 15 and later with firmware support for 802.11az are ready for Wi-Fi Ranging. Existing apps that use Android’s Wi-Fi location tracking features should automatically reap the benefits of enhanced indoor tracking via Wi-Fi Ranging—again, provided nearby hot spots have been updated to support the feature. If not, the operating system fails back to the less accurate but more compatible RTT tracking.

Apple devices use the UltraWide Band (UWB) radio technology instead of Wi-Fi Ranging. WB allows for centimeter-level accuracy, playing a central role in Apple’s AirTag personal item tracker. Apple also uses UWB for the Precision Finding feature in the Find My app, proximity vibrations when holding an iPhone near a HomePod, and even to make AirDrop more reliable.

Bluetooth 6 is another technology that brings precise distance tracking, called Channel Sounding, but we don’t know yet when the first new devices with Bluetooth 6 will drop. Compared with UWB and Bluetooth 6’s Channel Sounding, the Wi-Fi Ranging feature is slightly less accurate. On the upside, it has a longer range than either UWB or Bluetooth 6.

Source: Android Authority, Google