One less-discussed iOS 27 feature is support for Channel Sounding, an innovative Bluetooth feature first announced in Bluetooth 6.0, which was released in the fall of 2024. Channel Sounding enables a Bluetooth-enabled device to perform precise localization, enhancing its spatial awareness of distance and direction.

Thanks to Bluetooth's ubiquity and Apple's support for Channel Sounding, some of the world's most popular smartphones will support enhanced location compatibility with third-party Bluetooth headphones, smart locks, trackers, wallets, digital keys, and other location-based peripheral devices.

Like always, it wouldn't be an emerging Bluetooth technology if there weren't a few caveats. More on that in a bit.

Channel Sounding's most valuable benefit to consumers is its ability to democratize the Find My network. In a perfect world, all the devices you'd like to keep tabs on can be easily found in the Find My app, with exact distance and direction measurements, regardless of manufacturer. Channel Sounding aims to make this dream a reality.