Apple wants to make it easier to pair its devices with Bluetooth accessories. The company has filed for a patent (number 20220107771) for “devices, methods, and graphic user interfaces for wireless pairing with peripheral devices and displaying status information concerning the peripheral devices.”
About the patent filing
As Apple notes in the patent filing, hte use of wireless peripheral devices that communicate with an electronic device of a user (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, or other computing device) has increased substantially in recent years. Wireless pairing technologies, such as Bluetooth., are often used to connect (“pair”) peripherals to such devices.
However, Apple says that conventional methods for performing pairing “are cumbersome and inefficient, especially when multiple peripheral devices are involved.” For example, a user may need to pair each peripheral individually with a given electronic device, before using the peripherals with the device. Apple thinks it can do better.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s the abstract of the patent filing with technical details: “An electronic device displays a home screen user interface that includes a plurality of application icons for different applications. While displaying the home screen user interface, the electronic device detects availability of a wireless peripheral for pairing with the electronic device, and in response to detecting the availability of the wireless peripheral for pairing with the electronic device, displays, overlaid on the home screen user interface, a connection user interface that includes information identifying the wireless peripheral.
“While displaying the connection user interface overlaid on the home screen user interface, the electronic device detects a single input directed to the connection user interface, and in response to detecting the single input, initiates pairing of the wireless peripheral with the electronic device.”
