Eddystone: Google’s Open Source iBeacon Alternative
Today Google jumped in to beacons in a very big way. Enter Eddystone.
That makes Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Google major stakeholders in an ecosystem that is about to explode. It also provides some serious assurance to those questioning if beacons were here to stay. Effectively, the biggest technology companies in the world have placed huge bets on BLE and beacons as the best technology to drive much needed proximity-aware content on mobile.
Named after a lighthouse in the UK, Eddystone is Google’s answer to Apple’s iBeacon standard. Open source, the Eddystone protocol builds on earlier work done with the Google physical web project and UriBeacon and will allow Eddystone ready beacons the ability to speak to the majority of Android devices out there today.
If Apple’s iBeacon only spoke English, Eddystone speaks English, Chinese and Spanish. The new standard not only includes the ‘iBeacon style’ UUID packet, it has additional ‘packets’ or ‘frame types’ of data that can be transmitted by Eddystone equipped beacons.
This means that the same beacon can be used for various beacon use cases and purposes, including some that don’t require the user to have the corresponding app.
The Eddystone standard includes the ability to transmit the following frame types:
- UID — a unique identifying number that the iBeacon protocol uses to allow apps to associate content with a particular beacon and user location.
- URL — building on Google’s UriBeacon project, this packet of data can include any url that an end user can be directed to for relevant content. This frame type doesn’t require an app but the user experience is limited to browser-based content.
- TLM — includes telemetry data such as beacon temperature, battery life or accelerometer information.
The key differentiator with Eddystone is that it supports these multiple frame types. This expands on the iBeacon standard which only supported the UUID frame type. Eddystone is cross-platform in that support is built into Google Play Service’s nearby API but can also be used through an iOS library.
Some of the leading beacon hardware manufacturers are already prepared to handle this update and once again, this speaks to the importance of choosing the hardware and software providers that are able to keep pace with the evolution of this space. Estimote is a good example of this and speaks to how they have prepared for Eddystone here.
While there are a number of implications from this recent move, they key takeaway for both marketers and developers is the clarity this move provides. While some were able to have the iBeacon protocol work on Android (Rover included), Eddystone provides a clear framework to deliver equally powerful proximity-based content on Android devices. With the backing of two of the largest mobile players, the power of proximity based content on mobile can not be overlooked.
