Contact Us

If you still have questions or prefer to get help directly from an agent, please submit a request.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Please fill out the contact form below and we will reply as soon as possible.

  • Digital Matter Site
  • Contact Us

Active vs Passive Bluetooth® Scanning

Written by Matthew Clark-Massera

Updated at January 27th, 2023

Contact Us

If you still have questions or prefer to get help directly from an agent, please submit a request.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Contact Support
  • Home
  • Bluetooth® Tags, Sensors and Scanners
  • Bluetooth® Documentation and How To

Table of Contents

Which Should I Use?

Bluetooth® scans can either be passive or active. When passively scanning, a device will only listen to Bluetooth® devices, quietly collecting data about its surroundings. Active scanners respond to every device they hear from, asking if they have more data to send. The devices then respond with any "scan response" data they have been configured to send.

Which Should I Use?

Generally, passive scans give you all the information you need and use less power than active scans, so are the best option. Active scans are only necessary if the Bluetooth® device you are scanning for has been configured to send "scan response" data, you require said data, and the necessary integrations to collect that data have been implemented on the scanner.

passive scanning active scanning

Was this article helpful?

Yes
No
Give feedback about this article

Related Articles

  • Advanced Scanning Parameters
  • Bluetooth® Long Range
  • BLE Tag Filtering

Subscribe to Partner News

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive Digital Matter news, product and tehnical updates, and more.

Subscribe

Copyright © Digital Matter . All Rights Reserved.

Privacy Contact Support

Knowledge Base Software powered by Helpjuice

Expand