Android Fast Pair gets redesign and support for more than 100 devices

Fast Pair, the Android feature for quickly connecting Bluetooth devices with a single tap, has been officially launched with a redesign of the UI and support for more than a hundred different Bluetooth devices. Fast Pair works through Google Play services.

Fast Pair is a new way for Bluetooth accessories to connect to Android devices and works for more than a hundred different devices such as headphones, watches and earbuds from JBL and Sony, among others. Google has that announced on Twitter.

Fast Pair was announced in 2017 and has already been quietly launched in December, 9to5Google noted. The new user interface should make it easier to quickly connect to Bluetooth accessories via a pop-up with a single tap of the ‘connect’ button. Fast Pair thus replaces the usual connection to Bluetooth devices via the Bluetooth settings. The popup is similar to the popup on iPhones for connecting to Air Pods.

The feature is basically available for all Android devices that run the latest version of Google Play services and support Bluetooth Low Energy. Fast Pair is linked to a Google account to easily connect to other devices. The new interface replaces the standard notification pop-up that Android used for Fast Pair until recently. Android says it supports more than a hundred different devices, but has not yet put online a list of supported devices.

Fast Pair uses Bluetooth Low Energy to discover nearby devices without users having to actively search for Bluetooth devices and without taking a lot of extra battery life. Accessories can only use Fast Pair if they are supported and registered with Google. For example, the company tries to protect against spoofing the public/private key combination that is used to connect.