Bluetooth LC beacons are low power devices that are used to broadcast a tiny amount of data to any device that's listening. This often takes the form of a mobile device running an app, such as Physical Web, that can read the beacon's advertising broadcast and display a URL the user can then visit.

There are two primary BLE beacon standards: Apple's iBeacon, and Google's Eddystone. In this guide, we'll use the Eddystone standard to create a beacon that advertises a website URL (which you can customize to any URL you like).

Advertising

When an Eddystone beacon is running, it transmits a packet of information that includes a Unique Identifier (UID), and another packet of information that includes a website URL.

Note, this data is transmitted with no need for connecting, pairing, or bonding with a mobile device. The beacon is pretty much just always sitting there yelling, "Hey! I'm a beacon! This is my name, and this is a URL I think you should visit!"

Other Uses

This guide focuses solely on using beacons to advertise a URL, however there are a few other common uses for beacons. These include indoor navigation, tracking (such as lost key finders like Tile), and interaction notifications, such as interactive museum tours.