Bluetooth

Hello! My name is Bluetooth, and I’m like an invisible, magical string that connects your toys and gadgets. Have you ever listened to music on headphones without any wires plugged into a phone? That’s me! I let the songs jump from your grown-up’s phone right into your ears, even from across the room. Or maybe you’ve seen a computer mouse that moves the little arrow on the screen without a long tail. I help it scamper around freely. Before I came along, everything had long, messy cords that would get tangled up like a bowl of spaghetti. It was a real jumble. I was created to fix that problem and set all your favorite electronics free.

My story began a little while ago, in the year 1994, in a beautiful country full of forests and lakes called Sweden. I was born inside a big company called Ericsson, where a very smart man named Dr. Jaap Haartsen and his team were working on a big idea. They thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if mobile phones could talk to other things, like computers, without needing any wires at all?’ They worked very hard to create me, figuring out just how to make that invisible connection work. For a few years, I was just a clever idea without a proper name. Then, in 1997, a man named Jim Kardach gave me a very special one. He was reading a history book about a Viking king who lived long, long ago. The king’s name was Harald Bluetooth! King Harald was famous because he was very good at helping different groups of people talk to each other and become friends. He united them. Jim thought I did the same thing, but for gadgets! I help different kinds of electronics, like phones and speakers from different companies, talk to each other and work together. He said, ‘You should be called Bluetooth!’. And just like that, I had my cool, royal name. I loved it because my job is to bring everything together.

After I got my name, I was so excited to start my job! Around the year 1999, I started showing up in the world. One of the very first things I helped with was a wireless headset. People could suddenly talk on the phone without holding it right up to their ear. It felt like real magic. You might be wondering how I do it. Well, I send secret, invisible whispers between your devices. These whispers are actually tiny radio waves, just like the ones that bring music to a car radio. They are my special way of saying, ‘Hello, speaker, the phone wants to send you a song!’ or ‘Hey, keyboard, please tell the computer what letter to type!’. Today, I am everywhere. I help you listen to stories on long car rides, I connect your game controllers so you can play with friends, and I even help smartwatches count your steps. My whole job is to make your world a little easier and a lot more fun. I promise to keep working hard, connecting new things, and getting rid of those pesky, tangled wires for good.