Last week Google surprised the mobile world with the introduction of Eddystone: a new, open Bluetooth-based beacon format. The promise of a multi-platform beacon protocol supporting Google services on iOS was one reason the news made waves. And they’re delivering on that promise immediately. Today, Google released an update to Chrome for iOS with support for both the Physical Web and Eddystone. Mobile developers of all types - brands, advertisers and retailers - can now use beacons to broadcast websites directly to Chrome and they’ll be displayed in the iOS Notification Center. Although Chrome’s market share on iOS is much lower than Safari, Google has other ‘home screen’ apps including Maps and YouTube which could natively work with Eddystone and the Physical Web. So this is an exciting first step by Google.

Estimote announced support for Eddystone from day one, so you can already enable Chrome support. Just install our latest firmware on any Estimote Beacon and you can start broadcasting URLs which will be read by Chrome immediately.

Eddystone, Physical Web and Chrome

Enabling all this is the Eddystone-URL packet type, which makes it possible to encode URLs directly into a beacon’s broadcast frame. It’s a simple and elegant solution for directing users to a website or presenting them with a splash page, even one to download your app. And if you have an app on user’s phones, you can get more creative and use deep links, directing users to particular screens in your app after they click through on Chrome.

One of the primary concerns brought up when talking about the Physical Web is privacy and user experience. Consumers hate spam and secret data collection. Google has taken care of these issues with Eddystone. First of all, titles and descriptions of websites will be fetched from metadata, allowing them to be displayed before a user clicks. Also, information about users won’t be saved until they click a link, so the beacon owner will not know anyone was nearby until they visit the website. See more on Google’s Physical Web Cookbook page.

Let’s broadcast!

Below we step through exactly how to make your Estimote beacons broadcast URLs.

First, download our Android app from Google Play (we’re putting finishing touches on the next update to the iOS app that includes Eddystone support). Second, connect to a beacon and update to the latest firmware (currently v 3.1.1). In the settings screen, you should see a Broadcasting Scheme tab: that’s where you select Eddystone-URL. Now, the last step: simply provide the desired URL in the settings and you’re good to go! Your beacons broadcast a web address now.

From the moment your beacons start broadcasting the Eddystone-URL packet, Chrome will display the addresses in the Today view in the iOS Notification Center as long as you’re in range. No additional steps or configuration methods are required.

Don’t worry if you don’t have an Android device on hand. You can also set up Eddystone programmatically, using the Estimote SDK. This and a more detailed explanation of Eddystone’s ins and outs are available on our Developer Portal!

Tip of the iceberg

This is clearly just the first step Google is making toward contextualized experiences. Soon we’ll undoubtedly see the Physical Web integrated into Chrome for Android, which runs natively on billions of Android smartphones around the world. And maybe in the future we’ll receive websites in the form of lighter weight notifications or card suggestions.

It’s clear that the future of Eddystone and the Physical Web goes far beyond just the browser. There are a multitude of ways in which beacons could tie into Google Maps, Google Play, or even Google Calendar (automated room booking and attendance tracking, anyone?). One thing we’re excited about is possible Eddystone support for Google Now. Just imagine cards based on your location serving you ambient content in the background with zero friction. We’re a fan of Google’s bigger vision around beacons here, and as a company supporting both large enterprises as well as smaller developers, we’re thrilled to give you the tools to test and deploy with the Physical Web from day one with the Eddystone and Chrome integration.

If you need any support or assistance don’t hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter or via email!

Wojtek Borowicz, Community Evangelist at Estimote