What Is Bluetooth, and How to Use It

Bluetooth is one of those words that turns up everywhere and gets explained nowhere. It’s on the box of your new headphones, in your car, maybe in your hearing aids. There’s even a little symbol for it, a sort of jagged blue rune. So what is it?

In plain terms, Bluetooth is a way for two gadgets to talk to each other over a short distance without any wires. That’s the whole trick. Your phone sends sound to your headphones through the air instead of down a cable. Once you’ve done it once, it’s the same every time. If you are helping an older parent get online, see our wider guide to helping a parent go online.

What people use it for

Bluetooth quietly powers a lot of handy things. Once you spot it, you’ll notice it all over the place.

• Wireless headphones and earbuds, for listening without a cord trailing to your phone.
• Hearing aids, many of which now stream phone calls and the television straight into your ears.
• The car, so calls come through the speakers and you can keep both hands on the wheel.
• Speakers, to play music or the radio out loud from your phone in the kitchen or garden.

The hearing aid one is worth knowing about. If yours are a recent pair, there’s a good chance they can connect to your phone by Bluetooth, which can make phone calls far clearer. Your audiologist can tell you whether yours do.

How to connect a device: pairing

Connecting two things for the first time is called “pairing”. It sounds technical, but it’s really just a one-time introduction so the two devices recognise each other from then on. Here is the general approach, using headphones as the example.

1. Put the new device in pairing mode

This is usually a button you hold down until a light starts flashing. The instruction leaflet will tell you which button. The flashing light means it’s ready to be found.

2. Open Bluetooth settings on your phone

On an iPhone or iPad, tap Settings, then Bluetooth. On an Android phone, tap Settings, then look for Bluetooth or Connected devices. Make sure the switch is turned on, showing green or blue.

3. Tap the name of your device

Your headphones will appear in a list, usually by their brand and model name. Tap it. After a moment it moves to “Connected”, and that’s it. You may be asked to confirm a code or tap “Pair”, which is normal.

The good news is you only do this once. The next time you switch your headphones on near your phone, they connect by themselves. No fiddling required.

When it won’t connect

Bluetooth is mostly reliable, but now and then a device sulks. A few simple checks fix almost every problem:

• Make sure the device is charged. Flat batteries are the most common culprit.
• Bring the two closer together. Bluetooth only reaches across a room, not the whole house.
• Switch the device off and on again, then try once more.

If it still won’t behave, turning Bluetooth off and back on in your phone’s settings often gives it the nudge it needs. It’s the same “switch it off and on” trick that fixes so much else.

Is Bluetooth safe, and does it cost anything?

It’s free. There’s no charge to use Bluetooth and nothing to sign up for. It also doesn’t use your internet or mobile data, since the two devices talk directly to each other. So you can listen to music through Bluetooth headphones all day without it touching your data plan.

On safety, it’s very low risk for everyday use. Because it only reaches a few metres, someone would have to be almost in the room with you to interfere. There’s no real need to turn it off for security. If anything, leaving it on means your headphones and hearing aids just work when you need them.