
Xbox doesn't use Bluetooth (to talk to controllers) - tosh
https://www.windowscentral.com/so-why-doesnt-xbox-one-use-bluetooth-anyway
======
DiabloD3
This URL is partially wrong, although maybe not intentionally. Clearly not
focused on the technical audience.

The Xbox One uses basically a form of USB over WiFi Direct, the same trick
(although an incompatible implementation of) that Logitech leverages in their
not-Bluetooth 2.4ghz gaming keyboards and mice that require the dongle to
work.

Newer XBox One controllers also support Bluetooth to connect to PCs and Phones
and set-top boxes on top of the native Xbox One protocol. The Xbox One itself
has no need to use Bluetooth for controllers, as it is an inferior protocol,
and simply does not need to support it: all XBox One compatible controllers
implement the native protocol.

On top of that, I can use Xbox One controllers of any revision via USB cable,
powered entirely off the cable (no heavy batteries required), on everything,
including the Xbox One itself. Uses a standard MicroUSB cable, no special
parts required.

On top of _that_ , PCs also have the Xbox One adapter[1] to use the native
XBox One protocol on your PC, and this extends to both controllers and native
XBox One headsets. Microsoft designed the audio part of the native protocol to
work around Opus, as they lifted Opus usage from modern Skype for their Xbox
One game SDK (thus, really damned good in-game voice chat, as good as Discord
and Teamspeak and whatnot is today).

Furthermore, native XBox One headsets use the native protocol, streaming
uncompressed PCM (stereo 48khz playback, mono 24khz recording) instead of
dicking around with backwards Bluetooth codecs that only garble sound and
increase latency. The PC adapter also adds the ability to use these headsets.

I can basically walk across my house and not drop signal on native XBox One
devices. Bluetooth, otoh, can drop because I have a wireless earpiece in left
ear, and my phone is in my right pants pocket.

[1]: [https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/adapters/wireless-
ada...](https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/adapters/wireless-adapter-
windows)

~~~
dt131
Additional benefit of headsets using the native protocol is there are headsets
you can have connected to your Xbox One (via the native protocol) and a phone
of PC (via bluetooth) at the same time, playing audio from both. This is
really nice for doing discord voice chat while playing cross-platform games.
The SteelSeries Arctis 9X is a great example of this.

