We believe in technical honesty. To set realistic user expectations, here is an explanation of Bluetooth Low Energy radio discovery capabilities and protocol boundaries.
✓ What Device Tracker Can Detect
Actively Advertising BLE Devices: Any Bluetooth 4.0+ peripheral broadcasting advertising packets in discovery, beaconing, or pairing mode (smartwatches, trackers, BLE beacons, fitness sensors, smart tags, smart bulbs).
Manufacturer Payloads: Standard Bluetooth SIG assigned company identifiers and public protocol payloads (Apple Continuity, Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair).
Relative Signal Proximity: Dynamic signal strength measurements (dBm) with real-time median and Exponential Moving Average (EMA) mathematical filtering.
✕ What Device Tracker Cannot Detect
Classic Bluetooth-Only Devices: Legacy Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate (BR/EDR) peripherals that do not emit BLE advertisements cannot be picked up by BLE passive scanning.
Silent / Paired Devices: When certain devices (such as certain connected headphones or smartwatches) finish pairing, they stop broadcasting advertisement packets to preserve battery. They are invisible to RF scanners until they enter discovery mode again.
Distance in Exact Meters: Radio waves bounce off walls, water, metal, and furniture. A device 1 meter away behind a metal door may display a weaker signal than a device 5 meters away in direct line-of-sight. Therefore, Device Tracker presents honest relative proximity bands rather than false meter readings.
True Physical Bearing: Standard smartphones have a single BLE antenna and cannot determine Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) without antenna array hardware. Device Tracker's radar layout uses deterministic spacing for clear visual distinction.