New feature to quickly pair Bluetooth devices

Nov 23, 2017 00:06 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is working to make pairing Bluetooth devices with Windows 10 PCs a lot smoother using a new feature called Quick Pair.

Still in its early days, Quick Pair is supposed to eliminate the unnecessary extra steps when setting up Bluetooth devices to work with Windows 10 computers, and everything will work by simply bringing the two devices close to each other.

Right now, whenever you attempt to pair one Bluetooth device with a Windows 10 machine, you need to get through the typical configuration process that involves providing a pairing code as an extra means of security.

But as it turns out that, that will no longer be the case once the Windows 10 Redstone 4 update launches in the spring of the next year, as Microsoft is working on a feature that will remove these steps. Thurrott writes that no buttons need to be pressed and devices just have to be held “near a Windows machine and it will light up immediately after simply tapping a toast notification.”

Surface accessories likely to be supported

This is certainly good news for Microsoft users, especially because companies like Google and Apple are already implementing similar features on their devices.

In the case of Microsoft, Quick Pair should come in particularly handy with Bluetooth headsets and controllers, though it’s not yet clear how Microsoft wants to support devices that would work with this feature. Surface accessories, however, are likely to be among the pioneers of this functionality, and Bluetooth pairing will certainly be substantially improved.

At this point, Quick Pair is still in its early days, so the existing Windows 10 builds do not provide a fully working version of this feature. Work on Quick Pair, however, is expected to be completed before the release of the Windows 10 Redstone 4 update due to happen sometime in the spring.